Secure precoding superimposed with artificial noise (AN) is a promising transmission technique to improve security by harnessing the superposition nature of the wireless medium. However, finding a jointly optimal precoding and AN structure is very challenging in downlink multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) wiretap channels with multiple eavesdroppers. The major challenge in maximizing the secrecy rate arises from the non-convexity and non-smoothness of the rate function. Traditionally, an alternating optimization framework that identifies beamforming vectors and AN covariance matrix has been adopted; yet this alternating approach has limitations in maximizing the secrecy rate. In this paper, we put forth a novel secure precoding algorithm that jointly and simultaneously optimizes the beams and AN covariance matrix for maximizing the secrecy rate when a transmitter has either perfect or partial channel knowledge of eavesdroppers. To this end, we first establish an approximate secrecy rate in a smooth function. Then, we derive the first-order optimality condition in the form of the nonlinear eigenvalue problem (NEP). We present a computationally efficient algorithm to identify the principal eigenvector of the NEP as a suboptimal solution for secure precoding. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed methods improve secrecy rate significantly compared to the existing secure precoding methods.

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• Date: June 2022
• Publish: IEEE Transactions on Communications
• Category: Artificial Noise Injection

We propose secure max-min fairness (MMF) precoding for a downlink multi-antenna system with multiple users and eavesdroppers. Since the problem is non-convex and non-smooth and partial channel knowledge is assumed, it is highly challenging to solve. To resolve the difficulties, we first reformulate the problem with conditional average rates, allowing to exploit the partial channel knowledge. Then, we derive the original problem as an approximate smoothing problem using a LogSumExp approach. We identify the first-order optimality condition and cast it to a generalized eigenvalue problem. Solving the problem via a power iteration offers the best local optimal solution. Simulations validate the proposed secure-MMF precoding method.

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• Date: 13 June 2023
• Publish: IEEE Wireless Communications Letters
• Category: Fair beamforming

In Preparation

• Date: January 2023
• Publish: IEEE
• Category: Hybrid Beamforming