Arbitrarily Varying Wiretap Channel Research Articles

Strong Secrecy of Arbitrarily Varying Wiretap Channel With Constraints

The strong secrecy transmission problem of the arbitrarily varying wiretap channel (AVWC) with input and state constraints is investigated in this paper. First, a stochastic-encoder code lower bound of the strong secrecy capacity is established by applying the type argument and Csiszár’s almost independent coloring lemma. Then, a superposition stochastic-encoder code lower bound of the secrecy capacity is provided. The superposition stochastic-encoder code lower bound can be larger than the ordinary stochastic-encoder code lower bound. Random code lower and upper bounds of the secrecy capacity of the AVWC with constraints are further provided. Based on these results, we further consider a special case of the model, namely severely less noisy AVWC, and give the stochastic-encoder code and random code capacities. It is proved that the stochastic-encoder code capacity of the AVWC with constraints is either equal to or strictly smaller than the corresponding random code capacity, which is consistent with the property of the ordinary AVC. Finally, some numerical examples are presented to better illustrate our capacity results. Compared to the soft covering lemma that requires the codewords to be generated i.i.d., our method has more relaxed requirements regarding codebooks. It is proved that the good codebooks for secure transmission can be generated by choosing codewords randomly from a given type set, which is critical when considering the AVWC with constraints.

Secure Identification Under Passive Eavesdroppers and Active Jamming Attacks

In next-generation connectivity systems, which rely on robust and low-latency information exchange, there exists communication tasks in which the Ahlswede/Dueck identification scheme is much more efficient than Shannon’s transmission scheme. We concentrate on the arbitrarily varying wiretap channel (AVWC) that models jamming attacks. We provide a coding scheme for secure identification and determine the secrecy capacity of the AVWC. Furthermore, we analyze important properties of this capacity function, e.g., continuity and super-additivity. These properties are important for the design of robust secure communication design and for the optimization of the medium access control.

Arbitrarily Varying Wiretap Channels With Type Constrained States

Determining a single-letter secrecy-capacity formula for the arbitrarily varying wiretap channel (AVWTC) is an open problem largely because of two main challenges. Not only does it capture the difficulty of the compound wiretap channel (another open problem), it also requires that secrecy is ensured with respect to exponentially many possible channel state sequences. By extending the strong soft-covering lemma, recently derived by the authors, to the heterogeneous scenario, this paper accounts for the exponential number of secrecy constraints while only imposing single-letter constraints on the communication rate. Through this approach, we derive a single-letter characterization of the correlated-random (CR)-assisted semantic-security (SS) capacity of an AVWTC with a type constraint on the allowed state sequences. The allowed state sequences are the ones in a typical set around a single constraining type. The stringent SS requirement is established by showing that the mutual information between the message and the eavesdropper’s observations is negligible even when maximized over all message distributions, choices of state sequences, and realizations of the CR-code. Both the achievability and the converse proofs of the type-constrained coding theorem rely on stronger claims than actually required. The direct part establishes a novel single-letter lower bound on the CR-assisted SS-capacity of an AVWTC with state sequences constrained by any convex and closed set of state probability mass functions. This bound achieves the best known single-letter secrecy rates for a corresponding compound wiretap channel over the same constraint set. In contrast to other single-letter results in the AVWTC literature, this paper does not assume the existence of a best channel to the eavesdropper. Instead, SS follows by leveraging the heterogeneous version of the strong soft-covering lemma and a CR-code reduction argument. Optimality is a consequence of a max-inf upper bound on the CR-assisted SS-capacity of an AVWTC with state sequences constrained to any collection of type-classes. When adjusted to the aforementioned compound WTC, the upper bound simplifies to a max–min structure, thus strengthening the previously best known single-letter upper bound by Liang et al. that has a min–max form. The proof of the upper bound uses a novel distribution coupling argument. The capacity formula shows that the legitimate users effectively see an averaged main channel, while security must be ensured versus an eavesdropper with perfect channel state information. An example visualizes our single-letter results, and their relation to the past multi-letter secrecy-capacity characterization of the AVWTC is highlighted.

The Arbitrarily Varying Wiretap Channel—Secret Randomness, Stability, and Super-Activation

We define the common randomness-assisted capacity of an arbitrarily varying wiretap channel (AVWC) when the eavesdropper is kept ignorant about the common randomness. We prove a multi-letter capacity formula for this model. We prove that, if enough common randomness is used, the capacity formula can be given a single-shot form again. We then consider the opposite extremal case, where no common randomness is available, and derive the capacity. It is known that the capacity of the system can be discontinuous under these circumstances. We prove here that it is still stable in the sense that it is continuous around its positivity points. We further prove that discontinuities can only arise if the legal link is symmetrizable and characterize the points where it is positive. These results shed new light on the design principles of communication systems with embedded security features. At last, we investigate the effect of super-activation of the message transmission capacity of AVWCs under the average error criterion. We give a complete characterization of those AVWCs that may be super-activated. The effect is thereby also related to the (conjectured) super-activation of the common randomness assisted capacity of AVWCs with an eavesdropper that gets to know the common randomness. Super-activation is based on the idea of wasting a few bits of non-secret messages in order to enable provably secret transmission of a large bulk of data, a concept that may prove to be of further importance in the design of communication systems. In this paper, we provide further insight into this phenomenon by providing a class of codes that is capacity achieving and does not convey any information to the eavesdropper.

Capacity results and super-activation for wiretap channels with active wiretappers

The classical wiretap channel models secure communication in the presence of a nonlegitimate wiretapper who has to be kept ignorant. Traditionally, the wiretapper is passive in the sense that he only tries to eavesdrop the communication using his received channel output. In this paper, more powerful active wiretappers are studied. In addition to eavesdropping, these wiretappers are able to influence the communication conditions of all users by controlling the corresponding channel states. Since legitimate transmitters and receivers do not know the actual channel realization or the wiretapper's strategy of influencing the channel states, they are confronted with arbitrarily varying channel (AVC) conditions. The corresponding secure communication scenario is, therefore, given by the arbitrarily varying wiretap channel (AVWC). In the context of AVCs, common randomness (CR) has been shown to be an important resource for establishing reliable communication, in particular, if the AVC is symmetrizable. But availability of CR also affects the strategy space of an active wiretapper as he may or may not exploit the common randomness for selecting the channel states. Several secrecy capacity results are derived for the AVWC. In particular, the CR-assisted secrecy capacity of the AVWC with an active wiretapper exploiting CR is established and analyzed in detail. Finally, it is demonstrated for active wiretappers how two orthogonal AVWCs, each useless for transmission of secure messages, can be super-activated to a useful channel allowing for secure communication at nonzero secrecy rates. To the best of our knowledge, this is not possible for passive wiretappers and, further, provides the first example of such super-activation, which has been expected to appear only in the area of quantum communication. Such knowledge is particularly important as it provides valuable insights for the design and the medium access control of future wireless communication systems.