The Impact of Partial Packet Recovery on the Inherent Secrecy of Random Linear Coding

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how partial packet recovery (PPR) affects the secrecy of random linear coding (RLC) in communication systems, showing that PPR can significantly increase the eavesdropper's success in decoding under poor channel conditions.

Contribution

It introduces the impact of PPR on RLC-based secrecy, revealing that PPR enhances eavesdropper decoding capabilities especially in adverse channel scenarios.

Findings

PPR marginally increases intercept probability under good channels.

PPR significantly boosts eavesdropper success in poor channel conditions.

PPR-assisted RLC decoding can compromise the inherent secrecy of RLC.

Abstract

This paper considers a source, which employs random linear coding (RLC) to encode a message, a legitimate destination, which can recover the message if it gathers a sufficient number of coded packets, and an eavesdropper. The probability of the eavesdropper accumulating enough coded packets to recover the message, known as the intercept probability, has been studied in the literature. In our work, the eavesdropper does not abandon its efforts to obtain the source message if RLC decoding has been unsuccessful; instead, it employs partial packet recovery (PPR) offline in an effort to repair erroneously received coded packets before it attempts RLC decoding again. Results show that PPR-assisted RLC decoding marginally increases the intercept probability, compared to RLC decoding, when the channel conditions are good. However, as the channel conditions deteriorate, PPR-assisted RLC decoding significantly improves the chances of the eavesdropper recovering the source message, even if the eavesdropper experiences similar or worse channel conditions than the destination.