Intelligent Reflecting Surface: A Programmable Wireless Environment for Physical Layer Security

By Jie Chen, Ying-Chang Liang, Yiyang Pei, Huayan Guo. IEEE Access, 2019

389 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In this paper, we introduce an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) to provide a programmable wireless environment for physical layer security. By adjusting the reflecting coefficients, the IRS can change the attenuation and scattering of the incident electromagnetic wave so that it can propagate in the desired way toward the intended receiver. Specifically, we consider a downlink multiple-input single-output (MISO) broadcast system, where the base station (BS) transmits independent data streams to multiple legitimate receivers and keeps them secret from multiple eavesdroppers. By jointly optimizing the beamformers at the BS and reflecting coefficients at the IRS, we formulate a minimum-secrecy-rate maximization problem under various practical constraints on the reflecting coefficients. The constraints capture the scenarios of both continuous and discrete reflecting coefficients of the reflecting elements. Due to the non-convexity of the formulated problem, we propose an efficient algorithm based on the alternating optimization and the path-following algorithm to solve it in an iterative manner. Besides, we show that the proposed algorithm can converge to a local (global) optimum. Furthermore, we develop two suboptimal algorithms with some forms of closed-form solutions to reduce computational complexity. Finally, the simulation results validate the advantages of the introduced IRS and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.

Subfields: Aerospace Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2add18f7dc5c29b6ed00e4c94de22f61cf41c636

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Citations in the corpus

Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Intelligent Reflecting Surface for Secure Wireless Communications (2020, background): “[20] presented a minimum-secrecy-rate maximization design to provide secure communication services for multiple legitimate users while keeping them secret from multiple eavesdroppers in an IRS-aided multi-user multiple-input single-output (MISO) system, but the simplification of the optimization pro”
Multicell MIMO Communications Relying on Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces (2019, neutral): “Given the complex mathematical data rate expression, the techniques conceived in [15]–[23], [27]–[30] cannot be directly applied.”
Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces: Principles and Opportunities (2020, background): “[154] studied the minimum-secrecy-rate maximization problem in the RIS-enhanced multi-user multiple-input single-output multiple eavesdropper (MISOME) system by considering both the continuous and discrete reflecting coefficients.”
Intelligent Reflecting Surface Aided MIMO Broadcasting for Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer (2019, background): “The authors of [16]–[18] studied the security issues of a single-user case, while the authors of [19]–[21] considered multiple-user scenarios.”
An Overview of Signal Processing Techniques for RIS/IRS-Aided Wireless Systems (2021, neutral): “cell systems [107], [152], [153], physical layer security systems [89], [93], [94], [103], [104], [154], [155], simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) [105], [114], [119], [156]–[160], mobile edge computing networks [80], [117], [161]–[166], multicast networks [102], [167], cog”
Smart Radio Environments Empowered by Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces: How It Works, State of Research, and The Road Ahead (2020, background): “In [203], the authors study a downlink MISO system, in which the base station transmits independent data streams to multiple legitimate receivers in the presence of multiple”
Intelligent Reflecting Surface Assisted Secrecy Communication: Is Artificial Noise Helpful or Not? (2019, background): “Thanks to its capability of configuring wireless channels smartly, IRS has great potential in enhancing physical layer security and IRS-assisted secrecy communication was recently investigated in [5]–[8].”
Exploiting Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces in NOMA Networks: Joint Beamforming Optimization (2019, methodology): “[33] invoked IRSs for secure transmission in a downlink MISO system coexisting with multiple eavesdroppers.”
Path Loss Modeling and Measurements for Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces in the Millimeter-Wave Frequency Band (2021, background): “introduce new degrees of freedom for shaping the wireless channels and are viewed as an enabler for several applications, which include wireless power transfer [19], environmental sensing and positioning [20], and secure communications [21].”
Wireless Communications Through Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (2019, background): “The physical layer security of RIS-based systems is investigated in [83] and [84].”
Toward Smart Wireless Communications via Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces: A Contemporary Survey (2019, methodology): “The solution method follows a similar approach as those in [160], [168], by leveraging the alternating optimization and SDR approaches.”
Intelligent Reflecting Surface-Assisted Multi-User MISO Communication: Channel Estimation and Beamforming Design (2020, methodology): “Moreover the use of IRS to maximize the minimum secrecy rate for physical layer security has been studied in [19] and to assist in simultaneous wireless information and power transfer has been studied in [20].”
Smart Radio Environments Empowered by Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces: How it Works, State of Research, and Road Ahead (2020, background): “In [202], the authors study a downlink MISO system, in which the base station transmits independent data streams”
Wireless Communications With Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface: Path Loss Modeling and Experimental Measurement (2019, methodology): “The joint beamforming design was also investigated for improving the physical layer security [21], [22].”