In this paper, we investigate an energy-harvesting cooperative communication network, which comprises of a source, a destination, and multiple decode-and-forward (DF) relays in the presence of multiple passive eavesdropper (Es). Es attempt to intercept confidential information transmissions from the source to destination via DF relays. In this network, all the DF relays harvest energy from radio-frequency (RF) signals of a source through time-switching receivers. In order to improve the physical layer security of energy-harvesting cooperative communication networks, we propose a best relay selection (BRS) scheme, where the "best" relay is chosen to assist the source-destination transmission. For the purpose of comparison, we consider the classic direct transmission (DT) and equal relay selection (ERS) as benchmark schemes. We derive the exact closed-form expressions of outage probability (OP) and intercept probability (IP) for the ERS and BRS schemes over Rayleigh fading channels. Besides, the security-reliability tradeoff (SRT) is analyzed as a metric to evaluate the tradeoff performance of the proposed BRS scheme. Numerical results show that the SRT of the BRS scheme consistently outperforms that of the ERS scheme, which demonstrates the advantage of our proposed scheme against eavesdroppers. Besides, it is verified that total error rate (TER) defined as the sum of OP and IP can be minimized for both the ERS and BRS schemes through changing the time allocation factor between information transmission and energy harvesting phases. Moreover, there is a best energy conversation efficiency to obtain a maximal SRT value of the ERS and BRS schemes. In addition, as the number of DF relays increases, the SRT of BRS scheme improves notably, while that of ERS scheme remains unchanged. And as the number of Es increases, the SRT of both the ERS and BRS schemes become worse.

This paper investigates secure communication from a wireless-powered transmitter to a desired receiver with multiple eavesdroppers in the wireless powered communication networks (WPCNs). Considering the non-linear energy harvesting (EH) model, we propose a secure two-phase communication protocol with the help of a hybrid base station (HBS). First, in the power transfer (PT) phase, the HBS transfers wireless power to the transmitter. Then, in the subsequent secure information transmission (SIT) phase, the transmitter sends the secret information using the energy harvested in the PT, under the protection of artificial noise (AN) generated by the HBS. Based on this communication protocol, we first maximize the secrecy throughput with perfect channel information state (CSI) under the transmit power constraint at the HBS. The secrecy throughput maximization (STM) problem is non-convex, hence we reformulate it by exploiting the primal decomposition method (PDM) to obtain tractable forms. The PDM based transmit scheme (PDM-TS) is proposed for the STM. In addition, considering the imperfect CSI of wiretap channel, we further design the robust transmit scheme for the worst-case secrecy throughput maximization (wSTM) problem. Since the wSTM shows high non-convexity, we extend the PDM by combing it with the S-procedure and the PDM based robust transmit scheme (PDM-RTS) is proposed for the wSTM. Finally, numerical simulations are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed transmit schemes.

The authors investigate the security performance of the cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system over spatially correlated Rayleigh fading channels in the presence of an active pilot spoofing attack. There are a large number of distributed access points (APs) simultaneously serving a smaller number of users under the cell-free massive MIMO system, which is a promising technology in the future wireless communication. We focus on the downlink secure transmission employing the minimum mean square error (MMSE) estimator and performing the distributed conjugate beamforming technique. Generalized closed-form expressions of per-user achievable rate are derived. Also, we carry out the analytical results of the upper bound on the information rate leaked into the active eavesdropper. Numerical results reveal the ergodic secrecy rate (ESR) is influenced significantly by the active eavesdropper and the condition of channel fading correlation.

This paper studies the secrecy performance of the cell-free massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO) system, where access points (APs) are equipped with a mixed analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) architecture. The distributed antenna structure is prone to multiple eavesdropping network threats. Specifically, legitimate transmissions can be affected by non-colluding and colluding eavesdroppers. Based on the above considerations, we determine the expressions of the sum achievable secrecy rate and secrecy energy efficiency (SEE) with applications of the additive quantization noise model and the conjugate performing precoding method. These provide the composite measures to analyze the effects of the mixed-ADC/DAC architecture on secrecy performance. We also propose a SEE-maximization power control (SEEMPC) scheme, which can be solved by the sequential convex approximation algorithm. In addition to verifying the effectiveness of the proposed SEEMPC algorithm, numerical simulations are carried out to evaluate the impact of some key design parameters, including the number of APs, quantization bit of coarse ADCs/DACs, ratio of ideal ADCs/DACs, and power control strategy.

The massive connectivity requirement and security issues have become major factors restricting the further development of the Internet of Things. Nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) can be combined with physical layer security (PLS) to achieve massive connectivity and secure transmission. This article investigates the PLS performance for a downlink communication system over Nakagami-m fading channels, with full-duplex (FD) cooperative NOMA transmission aided by artificial noise (AN). While direct communication is built between the base station and two NOMA users, the strong user is employed as an FD relay as well as the jammer to enhance the PLS of the legitimate transmission in the presence of a passive eavesdropper (Eve). Closed-form analytical expressions in terms of the outage probability of the legitimate users and the intercept probability of Eve are derived to evaluate the security–reliability trade-off (SRT) of the proposed scheme. Monte Carlo simulations are provided to validate the veracity of the theoretic analyses and illustrate that the proposed scheme is superior in terms of SRT to the benchmark schemes in the low SNR region. Furthermore, the results reveal that the SRT performance of the two NOMA users can be enhanced through a proper AN-bearing ratio and power allocation optimization.