Gaussian Wiretap Channel With Amplitude and Variance Constraints

Abstract

We consider the Gaussian wiretap channel with amplitude and variance constraints on the channel input. We first show that the entire rate-equivocation region of the Gaussian wiretap channel with an amplitude constraint is obtained by discrete input distributions with finite support. We prove this result by considering the existing single-letter description of the rate-equivocation region, and showing that discrete distributions with finite support exhaust this region. Our result highlights an important difference between the peak power (amplitude) constrained and the average power (variance) constrained cases. Although, in the average power constrained case, both the secrecy capacity and the capacity can be achieved simultaneously, our results show that in the peak power constrained case, in general, there is a tradeoff between the secrecy capacity and the capacity, in the sense that, both may not be achieved simultaneously. We also show that under sufficiently small amplitude constraints the possible tradeoff between the secrecy capacity and the capacity does not exist and they are both achieved by the symmetric binary distribution. Finally, we prove the optimality of discrete input distributions in the presence of an additional variance constraint.