Enhancing Channel Shortening Based Physical Layer Security Using Coordinated Multipoint

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel physical layer security method using coordinated multipoint and channel shortening to improve security against eavesdroppers in wireless networks.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach combining coordinated multipoint and channel shortening to enhance physical layer security in heterogeneous wireless networks.

Findings

Significant degradation of eavesdropper's bit-error-rate.

Outperforms existing channel shortening-based PLS methods.

Effective in scenarios with stronger eavesdropper channels.

Abstract

Wireless networks have become imperative in all areas of human life. As such, one of the most critical concerns in next-generation networks is ensuring the security and privacy of user data/communication. Cryptography has been conventionally used to tackle this, but it may not be scalable (in terms of key exchange and management) with the increasingly heterogeneous network deployments. Physical layer security (PLS) provides a promising alternative, but struggles when an attacker boasts a better wireless channel as compared to the legitimate user. This work leverages the coordinated multipoint concept and its distributed transmission points, in conjunction with channel shortening, to address this problem. Results show significant degradation of the bit-error-rate experienced at the eavesdropper as compared to state-of-the-art channel shortening-based PLS methods.