Ruoheng Liu

Discrete Memoryless Interference and Broadcast Channels With Confidential Messages: Secrecy Rate Regions

We study information-theoretic security for discrete memoryless interference and broadcast channels with independent confidential messages sent to two receivers. Confidential messages are transmitted to their respective receivers while ensuring mutual information-theoretic secrecy. That is, each receiver is kept in total ignorance with respect to the message intended for the other receiver. The secrecy level is measured by the equivocation rate at the eavesdropping receiver. In this paper, we present inner and outer bounds on secrecy capacity regions for these two communication systems. The derived outer bounds have an identical mutual information expression that applies to both channel models. The difference is in the input distributions over which the expression is optimized. The inner bound rate regions are achieved by random binning techniques. For the broadcast channel, a double-binning coding scheme allows for both joint encoding and preserving of confidentiality. Furthermore, we show that, for a special case of the interference channel, referred to as the switch channel, derived bounds meet. Finally, we describe several transmission schemes for Gaussian interference channels and derive their achievable rate regions while ensuring mutual information-theoretic secrecy. An encoding scheme in which transmitters dedicate some of their power to create artificial noise is proposed and shown to outperform both time-sharing and simple multiplexed transmission of the confidential messages.

Secrecy Capacity Region of a Multiple-Antenna Gaussian Broadcast Channel With Confidential Messages

Wireless communication is particularly susceptible to eavesdropping due to its broadcast nature. Security and privacy systems have become critical for wireless providers and enterprise networks. This paper considers the problem of secret communication over the Gaussian broadcast channel, where a multiple-antenna transmitter wishes to send independent confidential messages to two users with information-theoretic secrecy. That is, each user would like to obtain its own confidential message in a reliable and safe manner. This communication model is referred to as the multiple-antenna Gaussian broadcast channel with confidential messages (MGBC-CM). Under this communication scenario, a secret dirty-paper coding scheme and the corresponding achievable secrecy rate region are first developed based on Gaussian codebooks. Next, a computable Sato-type outer bound on the secrecy capacity region is provided for the MGBC-CM. Furthermore, the Sato-type outer bound proves to be consistent with the boundary of the secret dirty-paper coding achievable rate region, and hence, the secrecy capacity region of the MGBC-CM is established. Finally, two numerical examples demonstrate that both users can achieve positive rates simultaneously under the information-theoretic secrecy requirement.

Interference Assisted Secret Communication

Wireless communication is susceptible to eavesdropping attacks because of its broadcast nature. This paper illustrates how interference can be used to counter eavesdropping and assist secrecy. In particular, a wiretap channel with a helping interferer (WT-HI) is considered. Here, a transmitter sends a confidential message to its intended receiver in the presence of a passive eavesdropper and with the help of an independent interferer. The interferer, which does not know the confidential message, helps in ensuring the secrecy of the message by sending an independent signal. An achievable secrecy rate and several computable outer bounds on the secrecy capacity of the WT-HI are given for both discrete memoryless and Gaussian channels.

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Gaussian Broadcast Channels With Confidential Messages

This paper considers the problem of secret communication over a two-receiver multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) Gaussian broadcast channel. The transmitter has two independent messages, each of which is intended for one of the receivers but needs to be kept asymptotically perfectly secret from the other. It is shown that, surprisingly, under a matrix power constraint, both messages can be simultaneously transmitted at their respective maximal secrecy rates. To prove this result, the MIMO Gaussian wiretap channel is revisited and a new characterization of its secrecy capacity is provided via a new coding scheme that uses artificial noise (an additive prefix channel) and random binning.

An MMSE approach to the secrecy capacity of the MIMO Gaussian wiretap channel

This paper provides a closed-form expression for the secrecy capacity of the multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) Gaussian wiretap channel, under a power-covariance constraint. Furthermore, the paper specifies the input covariance matrix required in order to attain the capacity. The proof uses the fundamental relationship between information theory and estimation theory in the Gaussian channel, relating the derivative of the mutual information to the minimum mean-square error (MMSE). The proof provides the missing intuition regarding the existence and construction of an enhanced degraded channel that does not increase the secrecy capacity. The concept of enhancement has been used in a previous proof of the problem. Furthermore, the proof presents methods that can be used in proving other MIMO problems, using this fundamental relationship.

On the Throughput of Secure Hybrid-ARQ Protocols for Gaussian Block-Fading Channels

The focus of this paper is an information-theoretic study of retransmission protocols for reliable packet communication under a secrecy constraint. The hybrid automatic retransmission request (HARQ) protocol is revisited for a block-fading wiretap channel. Here, two legitimate users communicate over a block-fading channel in the presence of a passive eavesdropper who intercepts the transmissions through an independent block-fading channel. In this model, the transmitter obtains a 1-bit ACK/NACK feedback from the legitimate receiver via an error-free public channel. Both reliability and confidentiality of secure HARQ protocols are studied through the joint consideration of channel coding, secrecy coding, and retransmission protocols. In particular, the error and secrecy performance of repetition time diversity (RTD) and incremental redundancy (INR) protocols are investigated based on Wyner code sequences. These protocols ensure that the confidential message is decoded successfully by the legitimate receiver and is kept completely secret from the eavesdropper for a set of channel realizations. This paper illustrates that there exists a rate-compatible Wyner code family which ensures a secure INR protocol. Further, it defines the connection outage and secrecy outage probabilities to characterize the tradeoff between the reliability of the legitimate communication link and the confidentiality with respect to the eavesdroppers link. For a given connection/secrecy outage probability pair, an achievable throughput of secure HARQ protocols is derived for block-fading channels. Finally, both asymptotic analysis and numerical calculations demonstrate the benefits of HARQ protocols to throughput and secrecy.

Secure Nested Codes for Type II Wiretap Channels

This paper considers the problem of secure coding design for a type II wiretap channel, where the main channel is noiseless and the eavesdropper channel is a general binary-input symmetric-output memoryless channel. The proposed secure error-correcting code has a nested code structure. Two secure nested coding schemes are studied for a type II Gaussian wiretap channel. The nesting is based on cosets of a good code sequence for the first scheme and on cosets of the dual of a good code sequence for the second scheme. In each case, the corresponding achievable rate-equivocation pair is derived based on the threshold behavior of good code sequences. The two secure coding schemes together establish an achievable rate-equivocation region, which almost covers the secrecy capacity-equivocation region in this case study. The proposed secure coding scheme is extended to a type II binary symmetric wiretap channel. A new achievable perfect secrecy rate, which improves upon the previously reported result by Thangaraj et al., is derived for this channel.

The Discrete Memoryless Multiple Access Channel with Confidential Messages

A multiple-access channel is considered in which messages from one encoder are confidential. Confidential messages are to be transmitted with perfect secrecy, as measured by equivocation at the other encoder. The upper bounds and the achievable rates for this communication situation are determined

The Gaussian wiretap channel with a helping interferer

Due to the broadcast nature of the wireless medium, wireless communication is susceptible to adversarial eavesdropping. This paper describes how eavesdropping can potentially be defeated by exploiting the superposition nature of the wireless medium. A Gaussian wire-tap channel with a helping interferer (WTC-HI) is considered in which a transmitter sends confidential messages to its intended receiver in the presence of a passive eavesdropper and with the help of an interferer. The interferer, which does not know the confidential message assists the confidential message transmission by sending a signal that is independent of the transmitted message. An achievable secrecy rate and a Sato-type upper bound on the secrecy capacity are given for the Gaussian WTC-HI. Through numerical analysis, it is found that the upper bound is close to the achievable secrecy rate when the interference is weak for symmetric interference channels, and under more general conditions for asymmetric Gaussian interference channels.

Interference-assisted secret communication

Wireless communication is susceptible to adversarial eavesdropping due to the broadcast nature of the wireless medium. In this paper it is shown how eavesdropping can be alleviated by exploiting the superposition property of the wireless medium. A wiretap channel with a helping interferer (WT-HI), in which a transmitter sends a confidential message to its intended receiver in the presence of a passive eavesdropper, and with the help of an independent interferer, is considered. The interferer, which does not know the confidential message, helps in ensuring the secrecy of the message by sending independent signals. An achievable secrecy rate for the WT-HI is given. The results show that interference can be exploited to assist secrecy in wireless communications. An important example of the Gaussian case, in which the interferer has a better channel to the intended receiver than to the eavesdropper, is considered. In this situation, the interferer can send a (random) codeword at a rate that ensures that it can be decoded and subtracted from the received signal by the intended receiver but cannot be decoded by the eavesdropper. Hence, only the eavesdropper is interfered with and the secrecy level of the confidential message is increased.