Alternating iterative secure structure between beamforming and power allocation for UAV-aided directional modulation networks

Abstract

In unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) networks, directional modulation (DM) is adopted to improve the secrecy rate (SR) performance. In this paper, an alternating iterative structure (AIS) between beamforming and power allocation (PA) is proposed to further improve the SR performance. Specifically Alice, a ground base station, behaves as a control center, and Bob is a UAV of flying along a linear flight trajectory who optimizes its SR performance by dynamically adjusting its beamforming vectors and PA strategy. Per fixed time interval during the Bob’s flight process, the transmit beamforming vectors for useful messages and artificial noise (AN) projection are given by the rule of maximizing signal-to-leakage-and-noise ratio (Max-SLNR) and maximizing AN-and-leakage-to-noise ratio (ANLNR), and the optimal PA strategy is based on maximizing SR (Max-SR). Simulation results show that the proposed AIS converges rapidly, and can achieve substantial SR gains over Max-SLNR plus Max-ANLNR with fixed PA such as PA factor β=0.5, and 0.9. In particular, in the case of small-scale antenna array, the SR performance gain achieved by the proposed AIS is more attractive. Additionally, as the number of antennas tends to be large-scale, the average SR performance of the proposed AIS approaches an SR ceil.