Wireless networks with directional antennas, like millimeter wave (mmWave) networks, have enhanced security. For a large-scale mmWave ad hoc network in which eavesdroppers are randomly located, however, eavesdroppers can still intercept the confidential messages, since they may reside in the signal beam. This paper explores the potential of physical layer security in mmWave ad hoc networks. Specifically, we characterize the impact of mmWave channel characteristics, random blockages, and antenna gains on the secrecy performance. For the special case of uniform linear array (ULA), a tractable approach is proposed to evaluate the average achievable secrecy rate. We also characterize the impact of artificial noise in such networks. Our results reveal that in the low transmit power regime, the use of low mmWave frequency achieves better secrecy performance, and when increasing transmit power, a transition from low mmWave frequency to high mmWave frequency is demanded for obtaining a higher secrecy rate. More antennas at the transmitting nodes are needed to decrease the antenna gain obtained by the eavesdroppers when using ULA. Eavesdroppers can intercept more information by using a wide beam pattern. Furthermore, the use of artificial noise may be ineffective for enhancing the secrecy rate. Ad hoc, millimeter wave, beamforming, uniform linear array, average achievable secrecy rate. She is currently a Research Associate with Loughborough University, Loughborough, U.K. Her research interests are in the areas of energy harvesting wireless communications, power control, millimeter-wave communications, heterogeneous cellular networks, massive MIMO, and physical-layer security. Lifeng Wang (M'16) received the Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from the Queen Mary University of London in 2015. He is currently a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University College London. His research interests include millimeter-wave communications, massive MIMO, cloud-RAN, dense HetNets, ad hoc and sensor networks, caching and IoT enabled networks, cognitive radio, physical layer security, and wireless energy harvesting. He received the Exemplary Editor Certificate and the Exemplary Reviewer Certificate of the IEEE COMMUNICA-TIONS LETTERS in 2013 and 2016, respectively. Kai-Kit Wong (M'01-SM'08-F'16) received the B.Eng., M.Phil., and the Ph.D. degrees in electrical and electronic engineering from the Hong Kong
Physical layer security in large-scale mmWave ad hoc networks is analyzed in REF where it is assumed that the eavesdroppers are randomly located and can intercept the confidential information if they reside in a single beam.
Secure Communications in Millimeter Wave Ad Hoc Networks
IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
Mathematics Computer Science