Ergodic Secret Alignment for the Fading Multiple Access Wiretap Channel

Abstract

In this paper, we provide a new achievable ergodic secrecy rate region for the multiple access wiretap channel in fading. Our achievable scheme is based on repeating each symbol at two fading instances, as in the original ergodic interference alignment technique of Nazer et. al. We choose the channel states where the symbols are repeated in such a way that the received signals are aligned favorably at the legitimate receiver, while they are aligned unfavorably at the eavesdropper. We show that our new scheme outperforms plain Gaussian signaling and Gaussian signaling with Gaussian channel prefixing, i.e., cooperative jamming, in high signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). In particular, we show that, while Gaussian signaling with or without channel prefixing yields zero secure degrees of freedom, our new achievable scheme provides a total of 1/2 secure degrees of freedom in a two-user multiple access channel in fading.