Lu Jinhui

Directional modulation-based secure wireless transmission: basic principles, key techniques, and applications

Directional modulation (DM), as an advanced physical layer security wireless transmission, will further improve the performance of the communication system by combining beamforming and artificial noise (AN). Unlike traditional beamforming systems, a DM system can transmit confidential messages along the predefined desired direction to enhance the safety in the desired direction and simultaneously disrupt the signal constellation pattern at undesired receivers. In this paper, the concept of DM, its principle, and application characteristics are described. Furthermore, implementation schemes and performance matrices of DM are systematically expounded. Finally, the research works on DM technology are summarized, and the future research potential trends are analyzed, along with several technical challenges. To solve the problem of angle-dependent transmit beam-pattern encountered in traditional DM, we propose a new secure wireless transmission concept named precision wireless transmission that combines DM and frequency diversity. This transmission technology can send confidential messages to a small neighborhood of the given arbitrary angle and range dimension without leakage to other regions.