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IEEE Communications Letters

Secure MIMO Communication via Pilot-Based Codebook Artificial Noise: Unknown Eavesdropper Channel

Yebo Gu, Tao Zhao, Tao Shen, Bo Wang

Published Mar 11, 2025• 2 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Pilot-Based Codebook Artificial Noise (PCAN), which plays a crucial role in ensuring secure communication, is an emerging physical layer security technique. PCAN faces a significant challenge due to the unknown eavesdropper channel. To address this issue, this letter re-models the eavesdropper channel using random matrix theory. By applying the$\eta $-transform and Shannon-transform, the asymptotic expression for the eavesdropper channel capacity is derived under the condition of an unknown eavesdropper channel. The simulation result shows that when the number of transmitter antennas equals the number of eavesdropper antennas and the system dimension is large, the model can effectively characterize the eavesdropper channel capacity. Within this framework, the secrecy capacity is optimized using the Difference of Convex functions - Successive Convex Approximation (DC-SCA) algorithm, providing a new approach to improve the performance of PCAN.

DOI
10.1109/lcomm.2025.3550316

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Pilot-Based Codebook Artificial Noise (PCAN), which plays a crucial role in ensuring secure communication, is an emerging physical layer security technique. PCAN faces a significant challenge due to the unknown eavesdropper channel. To address this issue, this letter re-models the eavesdropper channel using random matrix theory. By applying theη\eta η-transform and Shannon-transform, the asymptotic expression for the eavesdropper channel capacity is derived under the condition of an unknown eavesdropper channel. The simulation result shows that when the number of transmitter antennas equals the number of eavesdropper antennas and the system dimension is large, the model can effectively characterize the eavesdropper channel capacity. Within this framework, the secrecy capacity is optimized using the Difference of Convex functions - Successive Convex Approximation (DC-SCA) algorithm, providing a new approach to improve the performance of PCAN.
Non-Orthogonal Artificial Noise (NORAN) has garnered significant attention in modern communication systems as a substitute for traditional Artificial Noise (AN), due to its independence from channel degrees of freedom. However, the design of NORAN leads to a reduction in the channel capacity of legitimate channels, thereby limiting its application in practical systems. Pilot-based Codebook Non-Orthogonal Artificial Noise (PCAN) leverages pilot signals exchanged between the receiver and transmitter as encryption keys. This allows the receiver to retrieve the upcoming PCAN from the codebook via the pilot signals, effectively transitioning from NORAN to AN in form, demonstrating high adaptability. Consequently, this paper investigates the deployment of PCAN in Massive MIMO systems to achieve secure communication. Considering the eavesdropper as an illegitimate user, whose channel state information matrix is unknown to the legitimate receiver and does not follow a simple distribution pattern, this study employs random matrix theory to model the channel of an unknown eavesdropper. It uses the successive convex approximation algorithm to analyze the optimal power allocation strategy and the maximum number of eavesdropper antennas that the system can tolerate under these conditions. The findings indicate that as the number of eavesdropper antennas increases, the eavesdropper channel modeling based on random matrix theory increasingly approximates the actual channel characteristics of the eavesdropper. Notably, when the number of eavesdropper antennasNE=128N_{E} = 128NE​=128, the consistency between the modeled channel and the actual channel reaches 87.2%, and the optimal power allocation factor at this point isθ=0.5\theta = 0.5θ=0.5. However, as the number of eavesdropper antennas continues to increase, the effectiveness of PCAN becomes more pronounced. Nevertheless, when the number of eavesdropper antennas approaches infinity, the efficacy of PCAN significantly decreases, failing to adequately ensure the system’s security.
Contemporary research has highlighted that the design possibilities for Orthogonal Artificial Noise (AN) are circumscribed by the inherent limitations in channel degrees of freedom, yielding a scant assortment of design alternatives. In this letter, Non-Orthogonal Artificial Noise (NORAN) emerges as a viable substitute. Its applications have been recognized in relay communication systems such as those involving Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces (IRS). Despite this, the mathematical exploration of the Secrecy Capacity (SC) function within wireless communication systems incorporating NORAN has been scant. This letter pioneers the examination of the concave-convex nature of the SC function in such systems. The findings reveal that, subject to certain transmit power conditions, the SC function for NORAN is inherently convex, implying a decrement in SC upon NORAN’s deployment, which negates its intended effect. In response to this conundrum, this discourse introduces Pilot-based Codebook Non-Orthogonal Artificial Noise (PCAN), wherein the codebook capitalizes on pilot signals exchanged between the receiver and sender as an encryption key. The receiver, with the aid of the pilot signals, retrieves the forthcoming PCAN from the codebook, thereby neutralizing the PCAN’s influence during the reception of information. This innovation equates the SC functions of PCAN and AN within the same channel framework. Additionally, this study delves into the optimization conundrum of PCAN, considering scenarios of both perfect and imperfect Channel State Information (CSI). Through theoretical analysis, it is established that with an ideal CSI and an signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) surpassing zero, the quintessential power allocation for PCAN equates to half of the total transmission power. Contrariwise, under imperfect CSI parameters, PCAN fails to deliver efficacy.
This letter investigates the use of pilot-based codebook artificial noise (PCAN) in Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) systems to enhance physical layer security. ISAC technology integrates communication and sensing through shared resources, emphasizing the need for secure strategies. PCAN allows the receiver to extract information from the pilot codebook, effectively removing interference and increasing secrecy capacity. The non-convex secrecy capacity optimization problem is addressed by decomposing it into simpler subproblems. A semidefinite relaxation (SDR) and alternating optimization algorithm is proposed to maximize secrecy capacity while maintaining sensing accuracy. Simulation results show significant improvements, particularly at low and moderate Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), with consistent gains at high SNRs. This work underscores the role of optimization techniques in enhancing secure communication and balancing secrecy with sensing performance in ISAC systems.
In recent research, non-orthogonal artificial noise (NORAN) has been proposed as an alternative to orthogonal artificial noise (AN). However, NORAN introduces additional noise into the channel, which reduces the capacity of the legitimate channel (LC). At the same time, selecting a NORAN design with ideal security performance from a large number of design options is also a challenging problem. To address these two issues, a novel NORAN based on a pilot information codebook is proposed in this letter. The codebook associates different suboptimal NORANs with pilot information as the key under different channel state information (CSI). The receiver interrogates the codebook using the pilot information to obtain the NORAN that the transmitter will transmit in the next moment, in order to eliminate the NORAN when receiving information. Therefore, NORAN based on pilot information codebooks can improve the secrecy capacity (SC) of the communication system by directly using suboptimal NORAN design schemes without increasing the noise in the LC. Numerical simulations and analyses show that the introduction of NORAN with a novel design using pilot information codebooks significantly enhances the security and improves the SC of the communication system.
At present, there has been a large amount of research on secrecy rate optimization. However, the reliability analysis of secure transmission is equally important although relatively less attention has been dedicated to. Therefore, this paper proposes a secure transmission method with artificial noise for the physical layer security issues in the transmission process of Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) wireless communication systems. Firstly, we establish an artificial noise assisted MIMO systems model. Then, the channel state information (CSI) matrix is subjected to singular value decomposition to obtain the reasonable precoding and artificial noise matrices. Finally, the impact of artificial noise on the bit error rate performance of potential eavesdropper is analyzed, and based on the analysis, the problem of maximizing the system secrecy rate is established. The concave-convex procedure (CCCP) method is used to obtain the optimal power allocation, which significantly improves the security of MIMO systems. The simulation results show that using the null space of CSI matrix and artificial noise for signal encryption effectively improves the bit error rate of potential eavesdropping nodes. In addition, the secrecy rate obtained by the CCCP algorithm is consistent with the performance obtained by the particle swarm optimization algorithm, which verifies the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Artificial noise (AN) can be used to confuse eavesdroppers in a physical layer security system. One of the main issues concerned in AN schemes is how to improve secrecy capacities. Most existing AN schemes were proposed based on an assumption that the number of transmit antennas t is larger than that of receiver antennas r, such that they can utilize all r eigen-subchannels of a multiple-output multiple-input (MIMO) system to send messages, and use remaining t - r null spaces for transmitting AN signals. These AN signals null out legitimate receivers and degrade eavesdropper channels. However, transmitting messages in all eigen-subchannels is not always a good strategy. In particular, when the number of transmit antennas is constrained or even smaller than those of receivers, the secrecy capacities of legitimate receivers will be impaired significantly if using all eigen-subchannels for message transmission. To improve secrecy capacity, we propose an AN scheme where messages are encoded in s (which is a variable) strongest eigen-subchannels based on ordered eigenvalues of Wishart matrices, while AN signals are generated in remaining t - s spaces. We derive the average secrecy capacity of a single-user MIMO wiretap channel in the presence of an eavesdropper with multiple antennas. We show that the numerical results are in a good agreement with simulation results. The secrecy capacity of the proposed AN scheme can be improved by approximately 20% ~ 40% if compared with existing AN schemes.