On the resilience of wireless multiuser networks to passive and active eavesdroppers

Physical layer security can provide alternative means for securing the exchange of confidential messages in wireless applications. In this paper, the resilience of wireless multiuser networks to passive (interception of the broadcast channel) and active (interception of the broadcast channel and false feedback) eavesdroppers is investigated under Rayleigh fading conditions. Stochastic characterizations of the secrecy capacity (SC) are obtained in scenarios involving a base station and several destinations. The expected values and variances of the SC along with the probabilities of secrecy outages are evaluated in the following cases: (i) in the presence of passive eavesdroppers without any side information; (ii) in the presence of passive eavesdroppers with side information about the number of eavesdroppers; and (iii) in the presence of a single active eavesdropper with side information about the behavior of the eavesdropper. This investigation demonstrates that substantial secrecy rates are attainable on average in the presence of passive eavesdroppers as long as minimal side information is available. On the other hand, it is further found that active eavesdroppers can potentially compromise such networks unless statistical inference is employed to restrict their ability to attack. Interestingly, in the high signal to noise ratio regime, multiuser networks become insensitive to the activeness or passiveness of the attack.