Physical-Layer Security in Mixed UOWC-RF Networks With Energy Harvesting Relay Against Multiple Eavesdroppers

Abstract

In this study, physical layer security (PLS) in a dual-hop underwater optical wireless communication (UOWC)-radio frequency (RF) network under the intruding attempts of multiple eavesdroppers via RF links is considered. An intermediate decode-and-forward (DF) relay node between an underwater source and a destination transforms the optical signal into an electrical form and forwards it to the destination node with the help of harvested energy by the relay from an integrated power beacon within the system. The source-to-relay link, i.e., a UOWC link, is assumed to follow a mixture of exponential generalized Gamma turbulence with pointing error impairments whereas all the remaining links, i.e., RF links, are assumed to undergo κ − µ shadowed fading. Here, two eavesdropping scenarios are considered depending on the types of intruders, i.e., colluding (Scenario-I) and non-colluding (Scenario-II) eavesdropping operations. The analytical expressions of secrecy outage probability (SOP), probability of strictly positive secrecy capacity (SPSC), and effective secrecy throughput (EST) are derived for each scenario. Furthermore, the impacts of UOWC and RF channel parameters as well as detection techniques on secrecy capacity are demonstrated. A comparative study between two scenarios demonstrates that the collusion between the eavesdroppers imposes the most harmful threat on secrecy throughput but a better secrecy level can be attained by adopting diversity at the destination and power beacon nodes along with heterodyne detection rather than intensity modulation and direct detection technique. Finally, all the derived expressions are verified with the numerical results.INDEX TERMS Effective secrecy throughput, underwater optical communication, secure outage probability, energy harvesting, colluding and non-colluding eavesdroppers.