Bounds on Eavesdropper Performance for a MIMO-NOMA Downlink Scheme

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the physical layer security of a MIMO-NOMA downlink scheme, providing bounds on eavesdropper performance and demonstrating increased robustness with more users and antennas.

Contribution

It introduces bounds on eavesdropper performance in MIMO-NOMA systems and shows that security improves as system size grows.

Findings

Eavesdropper SINR decreases with more users and antennas.

Bounds on eavesdropper performance are established.

System robustness increases with scale.

Abstract

Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) is a multiplexing technique for future wireless, which when combined with Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) unlocks higher capacities for systems where users have varying channel strength. NOMA utilises the channel differences to increase the throughput, while MIMO exploits the additional degrees of freedom (DoF) to enhance this. This work analyses the secrecy capacity, demonstrating the robustness of a combined MIMO-NOMA scheme at physical layer, when in the presence of a passive eavesdropper. We present bounds on the eavesdropper performance and show heuristically that, as the number of users and antennas increases, the eavesdropper's SINR becomes small, regardless of how `lucky' they may be with their channel.