Joint optimal power allocation, cooperative beamforming, and jammer selection design to secure untrusted relaying network

Abstract

AbstractA half‐duplex relaying network provides 2 opportunities for passive eavesdroppers (Eves) and 1 opportunity for untrusted relays to intercept the information. In this paper, we aim to enhance the physical layer security of a cooperative network where a single‐antenna source intends to communicate with a single‐antenna destination in the presence of a group of untrusted relays and a passive eavesdropper. The objective is to protect the data confidentially while concurrently relying on the untrusted relays as potential Eves to improve both the security and reliability of the network. To realize this objective, we design a joint cooperative beamforming and cooperative jamming strategy. With the aim of maximizing the instantaneous secrecy rate, an optimal power allocation (OPA) scheme is proposed where the transmission powers of both jammer and source are optimized simultaneously under the total power budget constraint. To further improve the secrecy rate, a jammer selection strategy is also proposed where cooperative jamming is performed by the destination or one of the idle relays. For the proposed scheme, a closed‐form expression of beamformer vector is derived by solving a generalized eigenvalue problem. Finally, for the OPA problem, it is possible to be neither convex nor concave. In this regard, all possible cases are investigated to determine the OPA factor accurately. Numerical results illustrate that the proposed joint OPA–cooperative beamforming scheme, together with the most appropriate jammer selection strategy, significantly increases the secrecy rate.