Enhancing Security in Millimeter Wave SWIPT Networks

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the security challenges of mmWave SWIPT networks, deriving eavesdropping success probabilities considering environmental reflections, and offers design insights for enhancing security against eavesdropping.

Contribution

It provides the first analytical expressions for eavesdropping success probability in mmWave SWIPT networks accounting for environmental reflections and different attack models.

Findings

Reflection paths significantly impact eavesdropping success.

Higher base station density increases eavesdropping risk.

Design strategies can mitigate eavesdropping vulnerabilities.

Abstract

Millimeter wave (mmWave) communication encounters a major issue of extremely high power consumption. To address this problem, the simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) could be a promising technology. The mmWave frequencies are more appropriate for the SWIPT comparing to current low-frequency wireless transmissions, since mmWave base stations (BSs) can pack with large antenna arrays to achieve significant array gains and high-speed short-distance transmissions. Unfortunately, the implementation of SWIPT in the wireless communication may lead to an expanded defencelessness against the eavesdropping due to high transmission power and data spillage. It is conventionally believed that narrow beam offers inherent information-theoretic security against the eavesdropping, because only the eavesdroppers, which rely on the line-of-sight path between the legitimate transmitter and receiver, can receive strong enough signals. However, some mmWave experiments have shown that even by using highly directional mmWaves, the reflection signals caused by objects in the environment can be beneficial to the eavesdroppers. This paper studies the security performance in general mmWave SWIPT networks, and investigates the probability of successful eavesdropping under different attack models. Analytical expressions of eavesdropping success probability (ESP) of both independent and colluding eavesdroppers are derived by incorporating the random reflection paths in the environment. Theoretical analysis and simulation results reveal the effects of some key parameters on the ESP, such as the time switching strategy in SWIPT, densities of mmWave BSs, and carriers frequencies, etc. Based on the numerical and simulation results, some design suggestions of mmWave SWIPT are provided to defend against eavesdropping attacks and achieve secure communication in practice.