Secrecy capacity analysis in a cooperative MIMO based wireless sensor network

Abstract

Although conventional cryptographic security mechanisms are essential to the overall problem of security, the openness of wireless medium poses both threats and opportunities for secure transmission. Information theoretic security attracts researchers for its robust nature and multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channel in the presence of multiple eavesdropper offers an unveiled research area. In this paper, information theoretic security is analyzed in the form of ergodic capacity in a wireless sensor network (WSN) scenario. Analytical calculations are performed for diff erent channel state information (CS!) and number of antennas. Simulation results show that MIMO configurations with both CSI for main channel and eavesdropper channel are known at the transmitter shows better performance where secrecy capacity is the measure of performance. IndexTerms-Cooperative technique, secrecy capacity, CSI, MIMO, wireless sensor networks I.