On the Continuity of the Secrecy Capacity of Compound and Arbitrarily Varying Wiretap Channels

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether the secrecy capacity of compound and arbitrarily varying wiretap channels changes continuously with system parameters, revealing robustness in the former and discontinuity in the latter.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the secrecy capacity of compound channels is continuous with respect to the uncertainty set, while that of arbitrarily varying channels is discontinuous.

Findings

Secrecy capacity of compound channels is continuous with small changes.

Secrecy capacity of arbitrarily varying channels can abruptly drop with small changes.

The results highlight robustness and vulnerability in different channel models.

Abstract

The wiretap channel models secure communication between two users in the presence of an eavesdropper who must be kept ignorant of transmitted messages. The performance of such a system is usually characterized by its secrecy capacity which determines the maximum transmission rate of secure communication. In this paper, the issue of whether or not the secrecy capacity is a continuous function of the system parameters is examined. In particular, this is done for channel uncertainty modeled via compound channels and arbitrarily varying channels, in which the legitimate users know only that the true channel realization is from a pre-specified uncertainty set. In the former model, this realization remains constant for the entire duration of transmission, while in the latter the realization varies from channel use to channel use in an unknown and arbitrary manner. These models not only capture the case of channel uncertainty, but are also suitable for modeling scenarios in which a malicious adversary jams or otherwise influence the legitimate transmission. The secrecy capacity of the compound wiretap channel is shown to be robust in the sense that it is a continuous function of the uncertainty set. Thus, small variations in the uncertainty set lead to small variations in secrecy capacity. On the other hand, the deterministic secrecy capacity of the \emph{arbitrarily varying wiretap channel} is shown to be discontinuous in the uncertainty set meaning that small variations can lead to dramatic losses in capacity.