Security‐reliability tradeoff for multi‐terminal multi‐mode coexisting systems in the presence of multiple eavesdroppers

Abstract

In this study, the authors explore a wireless network consisting of multiple smart terminals relying on multi-mode in the presence of an eavesdropper, where the eavesdropper may be deployed to wiretap the wireless communications deliberately. In general, a smart terminal can be switched between the licensed modes (e.g. LTE) and the unlicensed modes (e.g. WiFi) according to user's demands (e.g. costs). The designed tradeoff is that the demands can be met by switching, but the security of wireless transmissions may be deteriorated, as the wireless communications can be overheard by the eavesdropper. The authors propose a transmission mode aware smart terminal scheduling (TM-STS) scheme to improve the security of wireless transmissions of a smart terminal. Moreover, they analyse the security-reliability tradeoff (SRT) of the TM-STS scheme. They also present the SRT of the conventional round-robin aided smart terminal scheduling (Rr-STS) scheme. Numerical results show that the TM-STS scheme outperforms the Rr-STS scheme in terms of its SRT, and reveal that increasing the number of smart terminals not only can upgrade the SRT of the TM-STS scheme, but also can be a major influence on the probability of mode switching between a licensed mode and an unlicensed mode of the TM-STS scheme.