Outage Constrained Secrecy Throughput Maximization for DF Relay Networks

Abstract

In this paper, we provide a comprehensive study of secrecy transmission in decode-and-forward (DF) relay networks subjected to slow fading. With only channel distribution information (CDI) of the wiretap channels, we aim at maximizing secrecy throughput of the two-hop transmission under a secrecy outage constraint through optimizing transmission region, rate parameters of the wiretap codes and power allocation between the source and relay. We propose fixed transmission parameter scheme (FTPS) and variable transmission parameter scheme (VTPS), which are based on the CDI and instantaneous channel state information of the main channels, respectively. In both schemes, source and relay use the same codeword, and the eavesdropper can use maximum ratio combining (MRC) reception. To improve the secrecy throughput, we further propose VTPS-D1 and VTPS-D2 schemes, where the source and relay either use independent codewords with identical code rates, or different codebooks with different code rates so that the eavesdropper can only decode the two-hop signals individually rather than using MRC. We provide explicit results on the design for all proposed schemes. Numerical results and comparisons on the secrecy throughput of these schemes are presented to reveal their respective superiorities and give some insights into the choice of design scheme.