Secure cascade channel synthesis

Abstract

We investigate channel synthesis in a cascade setting where nature provides an iid sequence X <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</sup> at node 1. Node 1 can send a message at rate R <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1</sub> to node 2 and node 2 can send a message at rate R <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> to node 3. Additionally, all 3 nodes share bits of common randomness at rate R <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sub> . We want to generate sequences Y <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</sup> and Z <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</sup> along nodes in the cascade such that (X <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</sup> , Y <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</sup> , Z <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">n</sup> ) appears to be appropriately correlated and iid even to an eavesdropper who is cognizant of the messages being sent. We characterize the optimal tradeoff between the amount of common randomness used and the required rates of communication. We also solve the problem for arbitrarily long cascades and provide an inner bound for cascade channel synthesis without an eavesdropper.