Abstract-We study application of convolutional codes to the randomized encoding scheme introduced by Wyner as a way of confusing the eavesdropper over a wiretap channel. We describe optimal and practical sub-optimal decoders for the main and the eavesdropper's channels, and estimate the security gap, which is used as the main metric. The sub-optimal decoder works based on the trellis of the code generated by a convolutional code and its dual, where one encodes the data bits and the other encodes the random bits. By developing a code design metric, we describe how these two generators should be selected for optimal performance over a Gaussian wiretap channel. We also propose application of serially concatenated convolutional codes to this setup so as to reduce the resulting security gaps. Furthermore, we provide an analytical characterization of the system performance by extending existing lower and upper bounds for coded systems to the current randomized convolutional coding scenario. We illustrate our findings via extensive simulations and numerical examples, which show that the newly proposed coding scheme can outperform the other existing methods in the literature in terms of security gap.

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Novel transmission schemes, enabled by recent advances in the fields of metamaterial (MTM), leaky-wave antenna (LWA) and directional modulation, are proposed for enhancing the physical layer (PHY) security. MTM-LWAs, which offer compact, integrated, and cost-effective alternatives to the classic phased-array architectures, are particularly of interest for emerging wireless communication systems including Internet-of-Things (IoT). The proposed secure schemes are devised to accomplish the functionalities of directional modulation (DM) transmitters for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) and non-contiguous (NC) OFDM transmissions, while enjoying the implementation benefits of MTM-LWAs. Specifically, transmitter architectures based on the idea of time-modulated MTM-LWA have been put forth as a promising solution for PHY security for the first time. The PHY security for the proposed schemes are investigated from the point of view of both passive and active attacks where an adversary aims to decode secret information and feed spurious data to the legitimate receiver, respectively. Numerical simulations reveal that even when the adversary employs sophisticated state-of-the-art deep learning based attacks, the proposed transmission schemes are resistant to these attacks and reliably guarantee system security.

Providing secure communications over the physical layer with the objective of achieving secrecy without requiring a secret key has been receiving growing attention within the past decade. The vast majority of the existing studies in the area of physical layer security focus exclusively on the scenarios where the channel inputs are Gaussian distributed. However, in practice, the signals employed for transmission are drawn from discrete signal constellations such as phase shift keying and quadrature amplitude modulation. Hence, understanding the impact of the finite-alphabet input constraints and designing secure transmission schemes under this assumption is a mandatory step toward a practical implementation of physical layer security. With this motivation, this paper reviews recent developments on physical layer security with finite-alphabet inputs. We explore transmit signal design algorithms for single-antenna as well as multi-antenna wiretap channels under different assumptions on the channel state information at the transmitter. Moreover, we present a review of the recent results on secure transmission with discrete signaling for various scenarios including multi-carrier transmission systems, broadcast channels with confidential messages, cognitive multiple access and relay networks. Throughout the article, we stress the important behavioral differences of discrete versus Gaussian inputs in the context of the physical layer security. We also present an overview of practical code construction over Gaussian and fading wiretap channels, and discuss some open problems and directions for future research.

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