Logo
ScienceStack
Table of Contents
Fetching ...
Sign In

Physical Layer Deception in OFDM Systems

Wenwen Chen, Bin Han, Yao Zhu, Anke Schmeink, Hans D. Schotten

TL;DR

This work addresses security-reliability balance in wireless physical layer security by introducing physical layer deception (PLD) for OFDM systems. It proposes a two-stage encoder that enables deceptive ciphering of plaintext $p$ into ciphertext $m=f(p,k)$ using a key $k$, with a litter-based fallback when deception is inactive, and defines the leakage-free probability $\\varepsilon_{LF}$ and the effective deception rate $R_d$ to evaluate short-packet performance. A relaxation-based mm-bcd-fp optimization jointly tunes the ciphertext and key coding rates under throughput constraints, with provable concavity properties in subproblems and an efficient convergence-guaranteed algorithm. Numerical results show high deception rates achievable under realistic channel conditions with leakage similar to conventional PLS, confirming the practical viability of OFDM-based PLD for ultra-reliable transmissions. Overall, the framework offers a scalable, implementable enhancement to physical-layer security that leverages deception to balance confidentiality and detectability in wireless networks.

Abstract

As a promising technology, physical layer security (PLS) enhances security by leveraging the physical characteristics of communication channels. However, it commonly takes the legitimate user more effort to secure its data, compared to that required by the eavesdropper to intercept the communication. To address this imbalance, we propose a physical layer deception (PLD) framework, which applies random deceptive ciphering combined with orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) to deceive eavesdroppers with falsified information, preventing them from wiretapping. While ensuring the same level of confidentiality as traditional PLS methods, the PLD approach additionally introduces a deception mechanism, which remains effective even when the eavesdropper has the same knowledge about the transmitter as the legitimate receiver. Through detailed theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, we prove the superiority of our method over the conventional PLS approach.

Physical Layer Deception in OFDM Systems

TL;DR

This work addresses security-reliability balance in wireless physical layer security by introducing physical layer deception (PLD) for OFDM systems. It proposes a two-stage encoder that enables deceptive ciphering of plaintext into ciphertext using a key , with a litter-based fallback when deception is inactive, and defines the leakage-free probability and the effective deception rate to evaluate short-packet performance. A relaxation-based mm-bcd-fp optimization jointly tunes the ciphertext and key coding rates under throughput constraints, with provable concavity properties in subproblems and an efficient convergence-guaranteed algorithm. Numerical results show high deception rates achievable under realistic channel conditions with leakage similar to conventional PLS, confirming the practical viability of OFDM-based PLD for ultra-reliable transmissions. Overall, the framework offers a scalable, implementable enhancement to physical-layer security that leverages deception to balance confidentiality and detectability in wireless networks.

Abstract

As a promising technology, physical layer security (PLS) enhances security by leveraging the physical characteristics of communication channels. However, it commonly takes the legitimate user more effort to secure its data, compared to that required by the eavesdropper to intercept the communication. To address this imbalance, we propose a physical layer deception (PLD) framework, which applies random deceptive ciphering combined with orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) to deceive eavesdroppers with falsified information, preventing them from wiretapping. While ensuring the same level of confidentiality as traditional PLS methods, the PLD approach additionally introduces a deception mechanism, which remains effective even when the eavesdropper has the same knowledge about the transmitter as the legitimate receiver. Through detailed theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, we prove the superiority of our method over the conventional PLS approach.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 14 sections, 3 theorems, 15 equations, 7 figures, 2 tables, 1 algorithm.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Problem Setup
  3. System Model
  4. Error Model
  5. Performance Metrices
  6. Strategy Optimization
  7. Proposed Approach
  8. Analyses
  9. Optimization Algorithm
  10. Numerical Evaluation
  11. Conclusion
  12. Proof of Lemma \ref{['lemma:approximation']}
  13. Proof of Theorem \ref{['theorem:f_t_concave']}
  14. Proof of Theorem \ref{['theorem:g_t_concave']}

Key Result

Lemma 1

For a given $\left(\hat{n}^{\mathrm{(q)}}_{\mathrm{M}}, \hat{n}^{\mathrm{(q)}}_{\mathrm{K}}\right)$, $R_{\mathrm{d}}$ is lower-bounded by an approximation $\hat{R}_{\mathrm{d}} \left(n_{\mathrm{M}}, n_{\mathrm{K}} \vert \hat{n}^{\mathrm{(q)}}_{\mathrm{M}}, \hat{n}^{\mathrm{(q)}}_{\mathrm{K}}\right)$ where $\hat{\varepsilon}_{\mathrm{Bob,M}}(\hat{n}_{\mathrm{M}}^{\mathrm{(q)}},\hat{n}_{\mathrm{K}}^

Figures (7)

  • Figure 1: The transmitting scheme of Alice, with deceptive ciphering \ref{['subfig:alice_model_deception_active']} activated and \ref{['subfig:alice_model_deception_inactive']} deactivated, respectively.
  • Figure 2: Deception rate with $T^{\mathrm{th}}_{\mathrm{LF}}=0.1$ bps.
  • Figure 3: The $R_d$ surface and the search path with $d_{\mathrm{M}}=16$ bits (left) and $d_{\mathrm{M}}=24$ bits (right).
  • Figure 4: The impact of $z_{\mathrm{_{\mathrm{Eve}}}}$.
  • Figure 5: The impact of $P$.
  • ...and 2 more figures

Theorems & Definitions (9)

  • Lemma 1
  • proof
  • Theorem 1
  • proof
  • Theorem 2
  • proof
  • proof
  • proof
  • proof