Physical Layer Security for Multiple-Antenna Systems: A Unified Approach

Abstract

Secrecy capacity is a fundamental information-theoretic performance metric to predict the maximum data rate of reliable communication, while the intended message is not revealed to the eavesdropper. Motivated by this consideration in this paper, a unified communication-theoretic framework for the analysis of the probability of nonzero secrecy capacity, the secrecy outage probability, and the secrecy capacity of multiple-antenna systems over fading channels is proposed. Specifically, a powerful frequency-domain approach is first developed in which the integrals involved in the evaluation of the probability of nonzero secrecy capacity and secrecy outage probability are transformed into the frequency domain, by employing Parseval’s theorem. A generic approach for the evaluation of the asymptotic secrecy outage probability at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) region is also introduced, thus providing useful insight as to the parameters affecting the secrecy performance. Finally, a unified numerical approach for computing the average secrecy capacity of multiple-antenna systems under arbitrary fading environments is developed. The proposed framework is general enough to accommodate any well-known multiantenna transmission technique and fading model. Finally, the secrecy performance of several multiple-antenna system setups is assessed, in the presence of generalized fading conditions and arbitrary antenna correlation, while various numerical and computer simulation results are shown and compared to substantiate the proposed mathematical analysis.