Physical layer security analysis of a dual-hop hybrid RF-VLC system

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we investigate the secrecy performance of a dual-hop hybrid radio frequency–visible light communication (RF–VLC) system in which we consider a single source antenna (S) transmitting data signals via RF channel through decode and forward (DF) relay (R) toward an authorized receiving antenna (D) at the destination via VLC channel. In this system, we assume that the eavesdropper (E) attempts to eavesdrop the RF channel (S,R) during transmission of the signal. The relay decodes the incoming RF signal into corresponding optical signal and retransmits toward destination via VLC channel (R,D). The RF and VLC channels of the hybrid system are modelled using generalized-K fading distribution and generalized Lambertian radiant intensity distribution respectively. Also the receiver is assumed to be mobile and its mobility is defined by random waypoint (RWP) model. The channels statistics are used to derive the exact analytical expressions for average secrecy capacity and intercept probability in terms of Meijer’s G-function. The derived closed form analytical expressions are the efficient tool to illustrate the impact of variation in different channel parameters on the secrecy performance, namely, shadowing parameters of RF channel, field of view (FOV), semiangle, and the order of Lambertian emission of the VLC channel. Further, numerical analysis is carried out to support the mathematical analysis of the RF–VLC hybrid system.