The Optimal Use of Rate-Limited Randomness in Broadcast Channels With Confidential Messages

Abstract

In coding schemes for the wire-tap channel or for broadcast channels with confidential messages, it is well-known that the sender needs to use stochastic encoding to avoid information about the transmitted confidential message from being leaked to an eavesdropper. In this paper, we investigate the tradeoff between the rate of random numbers needed to realize the stochastic encoding and the rates of common, private, and confidential messages. For the direct theorem, we use the superposition coding scheme for the wire-tap channel, recently proposed by Chia and El Gamal, and its strong security is proved. The matching converse theorem is also established. Our result clarifies that a combination of ordinary stochastic encoding and channel prefixing by channel simulation is suboptimal.