Ali Kuhestani

Moslem Forouzesh, Paeiz Azmi, Ali Kuhestani

In this paper, we study the problem of secure transmission with covert requirement in untrusted relaying networks. Our considered system model consists of one source, one destination, one untrusted relay, and one Willie. The untrusted relay tries to extract the information signal, while the goal of Willie is to detect the presence of the information signal transmitted by the source, in the current time slot. To overcome these two attacks, we illustrate that the destination and the source should inject jamming signal to the network in phase I and phase II, respectively. Accordingly, the communication in our proposed system model is accomplished in two phases. In the first phase, when the source transmits its data to the untrusted relay the destination broadcasts its jamming signal. In the second phase, when the relay retransmits the received signal, the source transmits a jamming signal with one of its antennas. For this system model, we propose a power allocation strategy to maximize the instantaneous secrecy rate subject to satisfying the covert requirements in both of the phases. Since the proposed optimization problem is non-convex, we adopt the Successive Convex Approximation (SCA) approach to convert it to a convex optimization problem. Next, we extend our system model to a practical system model where there are multiple untrusted relays and multiple Willies under two scenarios of noncolluding Willies and colluding Willies. Our findings highlight that unlike the direct transmission scheme, the achievable secrecy rate of the proposed secure transmission scheme improve as the number of untrusted relays increases.

Ali Kuhestani, Abbas Mohammadi, Mohammadali Mohammadi

In this paper, a joint relay selection and power allocation (JRP) scheme is proposed to enhance the physical layer security of a cooperative network, where a multiple antennas source communicates with a single-antenna destination in presence of untrusted relays and passive eavesdroppers (Eves). The objective is to protect the data confidentially while concurrently relying on the untrusted relays as potential Eves to improve both the security and reliability of the network. To realize this objective, we consider cooperative jamming performed by the destination while JRP scheme is implemented. With the aim of maximizing the instantaneous secrecy rate, we derive a new closed-form solution for the optimal power allocation and propose a simple relay selection criterion under two scenarios of non-colluding Eves (NCE) and colluding Eves (CE). For the proposed scheme, a new closed-form expression is derived for the ergodic secrecy rate (ESR) and the secrecy outage probability as security metrics, and a new closed-form expression is presented for the average symbol error rate (SER) as a reliability measure over Rayleigh fading channels. We further explicitly characterize the high signal-to-noise ratio slope and power offset of the ESR to highlight the impacts of system parameters on the ESR. In addition, we examine the diversity order of the proposed scheme to reveal the achievable secrecy performance advantage. Finally, the secrecy and reliability diversity-multiplexing tradeoff of the optimized network are provided. Numerical results highlight that the ESR performance of the proposed JRP scheme for NCE and CE cases is increased with respect to the number of untrustworthy relays.

Ali Kuhestani, Abbas Mohammadi, Kai-Kit Wong et al.

By taking a variety of realistic hardware imperfections into consideration, we propose an optimal power allocation (OPA) strategy to maximize the instantaneous secrecy rate of a cooperative wireless network comprised of a source, a destination and an untrusted amplify-and-forward (AF) relay. We assume that either the source or the destination is equipped with a large-scale multiple antennas (LSMA) system, while the rest are equipped with a single antenna. To prevent the untrusted relay from intercepting the source message, the destination sends an intended jamming noise to the relay, which is referred to as destination-based cooperative jamming (DBCJ). Given this system model, novel closed-form expressions are presented in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime for the ergodic secrecy rate (ESR) and the secrecy outage probability (SOP). We further improve the secrecy performance of the system by optimizing the associated hardware design. The results reveal that by beneficially distributing the tolerable hardware imperfections across the transmission and reception radio-frequency (RF) front ends of each node, the system's secrecy rate may be improved. The engineering insight is that equally sharing the total imperfections at the relay between the transmitter and the receiver provides the best secrecy performance. Numerical results illustrate that the proposed OPA together with the most appropriate hardware design significantly increases the secrecy rate.

Ali Kuhestani, Phee Lep Yeoh, Abbas Mohammadi

In this paper, we examine the secrecy performance of two-way relaying between a multiple antenna base station (BS) and a single antenna mobile user (MU) in the presence of a multiple antenna friendly jammer (FJ). We consider the untrusted relaying scenario where an amplify-and-forward relay is both a necessary helper and a potential eavesdropper. To maximize the instantaneous secrecy sum rate, we derive new closed-form solutions for the optimal power allocation (OPA) between the BS and MU under the scenario of relaying with friendly jamming (WFJ). Based on the OPA solution, new closed-form expressions are derived for the ergodic secrecy sum rate (ESSR) with Rayleigh fading channel. Furthermore, we explicitly determine the high signal-to-noise ratio slope and power offset of the ESSR to highlight the benefits of friendly jamming. Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the impact of the FJ's location and number of antennas on the secrecy performance.

Milad Tatar Mamaghani, Abbas Mohammadi, Phee Lep Yeoh et al.

In this paper, we propose a self-dependent two-way secure communication where two sources exchange confidential messages via a wireless powered untrusted amplify-and-forward (AF) relay and friendly jammer (FJ). By adopting the time switching (TS) architecture at the relay, the data transmission is accomplished in three phases: Phase I) Energy harvesting by the untrusted relay and the FJ through non-information transmissions from the sources, Phase II) Information transmission by the sources and jamming transmissions from the FJ to reduce information leakage to the untrusted relay; and Phase III) Forwarding the scaled version of the received signal from the untrusted relay to the sources. For the proposed system, we derive a new closed-form lower bound expression for the ergodic secrecy sum rate (ESSR). Numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the impacts of different system parameters such as energy harvesting time, transmit signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the relay/FJ location on the secrecy performance. The numerical results illustrate that the proposed network with friendly jamming (WFJ) outperforms traditional one-way communication and the two-way without friendly jamming (WoFJ) policy.

Milad Tatar Mamaghani, Ali Kuhestani, Kai-Kit Wong

In this paper, we propose a two-way secure communication scheme where two transceivers exchange confidential messages via a wireless powered untrusted amplify-and-forward (AF) relay in the presence of an external jammer. We take into account both friendly jamming (FJ) and Gaussian noise jamming (GNJ) scenarios. Based on the time switching (TS) architecture at the relay, the data transmission is done in three phases. In the first phase, both the energy-starved nodes, the untrustworthy relay and the jammer, are charged by non-information radio frequency (RF) signals from the sources. In the second phase, the two sources send their information signals and concurrently, the jammer transmits artificial noise to confuse the curious relay. Finally, the third phase is dedicated to forward a scaled version of the received signal from the relay to the sources. For the proposed secure transmission schemes, we derive new closed-form lower-bound expressions for the ergodic secrecy sum rate (ESSR) in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime. We further analyze the asymptotic ESSR to determine the key parameters; the high SNR slope and the high SNR power offset of the jamming based scenarios. To highlight the performance advantage of the proposed FJ, we also examine the scenario of without jamming (WoJ). Finally, numerical examples and discussions are provided to acquire some engineering insights, and to demonstrate the impacts of different system parameters on the secrecy performance of the considered communication scenarios. The numerical results illustrate that the proposed FJ significantly outperforms the traditional one-way communication and the Constellation rotation approach, as well as our proposed benchmarks, the two-way WoJ and GNJ scenarios.