On the secrecy performance of transmit-receive diversity and spatial multiplexing systems.

Kiattisak Maichalernnukul

doi:10.7717/peerj-cs.186

Abstract

Emerging from the information-theoretic characterization of secrecy, physical-layer security exploits the physical properties of the wireless channel for security purpose. In recent years, a great deal of attention has been paid to investigating the physical-layer security issues in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communications. This paper analyzes the secrecy performance of transmit-receive diversity system and spatial multiplexing systems with zero-forcing equalization and minimum mean-square-error equalization. Specifically, exact and asymptotic closed-form expressions are derived for the secrecy outage probability of such MIMO systems in a Rayleigh fading environment, and the corresponding secrecy diversity orders and secrecy array gains are determined. Numerical results are presented to corroborate the analytical results and to examine the impact of various system parameters, including the numbers of antennas at the transmitter, the legitimate receiver, and the eavesdropper. These contributions bring about valuable insights into the physical-layer security in MIMO wireless systems.

Highlights

Wireless communication systems are intrinsically prone to eavesdropping because of the open nature of the wireless medium
Remember that γr and γe are the average signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the legitimate receiver and the passive eavesdropper, respectively
The SNR γe is set to 10 dB, and the target secrecy rate R is set to 1 bit/s/Hz

Summary

Introduction

Wireless communication systems are intrinsically prone to eavesdropping because of the open nature of the wireless medium In this context, physical-layer security arising from the information-theoretic analysis of secrecy has attracted a lot of interest so far. Groundbreaking works on physical-layer security (Wyner, 1975; Csiszár & Körner, 1978; Leung-Yan-Cheong & Hellman, 1978; Bloch et al, 2008) focused on a basic wiretap channel, where the transmitter, the legitimate receiver, and the eavesdropper possess a single antenna, and established the so-called secrecy capacity. One of their common remarks was that to have a positive secrecy capacity, the channel quality of the transmitter–receiver link has to be better than that of the transmitter-eavesdropper link.

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Results

Conclusion