Wireless Secrecy in Large-Scale Networks

TL;DR

This paper studies the properties of the intrinsically secure communications graph (iS-graph) in large-scale wireless networks, analyzing local and global connectivity, and proposing techniques to enhance security against eavesdroppers.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of the iS-graph's properties and introduces methods to improve secure connectivity in the presence of eavesdroppers.

Findings

Degree distributions depend on fading and secrecy rate

Proposed techniques improve secure connectivity

Percolation and full connectivity analyzed

Abstract

The ability to exchange secret information is critical to many commercial, governmental, and military networks. The intrinsically secure communications graph (iS-graph) is a random graph which describes the connections that can be securely established over a large-scale network, by exploiting the physical properties of the wireless medium. This paper provides an overview of the main properties of this new class of random graphs. We first analyze the local properties of the iS-graph, namely the degree distributions and their dependence on fading, target secrecy rate, and eavesdropper collusion. To mitigate the effect of the eavesdroppers, we propose two techniques that improve secure connectivity. Then, we analyze the global properties of the iS-graph, namely percolation on the infinite plane, and full connectivity on a finite region. These results help clarify how the presence of eavesdroppers can compromise secure communication in a large-scale network.