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On the Information Leakage Performance of Secure Finite Blocklength Transmissions over Rayleigh Fading Channels

Milad Tatar Mamaghani, Xiangyun Zhou, Nan Yang, A. Lee Swindlehurst, H. Vincent Poor

TL;DR

This work addresses secure short-packet communications over Rayleigh fading by introducing an average information leakage (AIL) metric for finite blocklength (FBL) transmissions and deriving exact and approximate AIL expressions under only statistical Eve CSI. It establishes a fundamental link between AIL in the FBL regime and secrecy outage probability (SOP) in the infinite-blocklength regime, enabling design guidance without full Eve CSI. A blocklength optimization framework (MOOP and a low-complexity alternative) is developed to balance AIL and effective secrecy throughput, with closed-form guidance for selecting $N$ under secrecy constraints. Numerical results reveal that modest reductions in AIL can yield large reliability gains and that an AIL floor persists at high SNR, emphasizing careful resource management. The findings offer practical design principles for secure, low-latency communications in beyond-5G networks with fading channels.

Abstract

This paper presents a secrecy performance study of a wiretap communication system with finite blocklength (FBL) transmissions over Rayleigh fading channels, based on the definition of an average information leakage (AIL) metric. We evaluate the exact and closed-form approximate AIL performance, assuming that only statistical channel state information (CSI) of the eavesdropping link is available. Then, we reveal an inherent statistical relationship between the AIL metric in the FBL regime and the commonly-used secrecy outage probability in conventional infinite blocklength communications. Aiming to improve the secure communication performance of the considered system, we formulate a blocklength optimization problem and solve it via a low-complexity approach. Next, we present numerical results to verify our analytical findings and provide various important insights into the impacts of system parameters on the AIL. Specifically, our results indicate that i) compromising a small amount of AIL can lead to significant reliability improvements, and ii) the AIL experiences a secrecy floor in the high signal-to-noise ratio regime.

On the Information Leakage Performance of Secure Finite Blocklength Transmissions over Rayleigh Fading Channels

TL;DR

This work addresses secure short-packet communications over Rayleigh fading by introducing an average information leakage (AIL) metric for finite blocklength (FBL) transmissions and deriving exact and approximate AIL expressions under only statistical Eve CSI. It establishes a fundamental link between AIL in the FBL regime and secrecy outage probability (SOP) in the infinite-blocklength regime, enabling design guidance without full Eve CSI. A blocklength optimization framework (MOOP and a low-complexity alternative) is developed to balance AIL and effective secrecy throughput, with closed-form guidance for selecting under secrecy constraints. Numerical results reveal that modest reductions in AIL can yield large reliability gains and that an AIL floor persists at high SNR, emphasizing careful resource management. The findings offer practical design principles for secure, low-latency communications in beyond-5G networks with fading channels.

Abstract

This paper presents a secrecy performance study of a wiretap communication system with finite blocklength (FBL) transmissions over Rayleigh fading channels, based on the definition of an average information leakage (AIL) metric. We evaluate the exact and closed-form approximate AIL performance, assuming that only statistical channel state information (CSI) of the eavesdropping link is available. Then, we reveal an inherent statistical relationship between the AIL metric in the FBL regime and the commonly-used secrecy outage probability in conventional infinite blocklength communications. Aiming to improve the secure communication performance of the considered system, we formulate a blocklength optimization problem and solve it via a low-complexity approach. Next, we present numerical results to verify our analytical findings and provide various important insights into the impacts of system parameters on the AIL. Specifically, our results indicate that i) compromising a small amount of AIL can lead to significant reliability improvements, and ii) the AIL experiences a secrecy floor in the high signal-to-noise ratio regime.
Paper Structure (9 sections, 2 theorems, 23 equations, 5 figures)

This paper contains 9 sections, 2 theorems, 23 equations, 5 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. System Model and Assumptions
  3. Secrecy Performance
  4. Average Information Leakage
  5. Secrecy Outage vs. Average Information Leakage
  6. Blocklength Design for Secure Transmission
  7. Alternative Low-complexity Approach
  8. Numerical Results and Discussion
  9. Conclusion

Key Result

Proposition 1

The AIL for the considered wiretap system with Rayleigh fading channels can be approximated as where $x_0$ is defined for $x_0\geq 0$ as

Figures (5)

  • Figure 1: AIL vs. transmit SNR for different $R_s$.
  • Figure 2: AIL vs. decoding error probability for different $N$.
  • Figure 3: Pareto boundary for the MOOP given by (P).
  • Figure 4: Designed EST and blocklength vs. transmit SNR using (P1).
  • Figure 5: Designed EST and blocklength vs. the number of information bits via (P1).

Theorems & Definitions (4)

  • Proposition 1
  • proof
  • Remark 1
  • Corollary 1