Secure Active and Passive Beamforming in IRS-Aided MIMO Systems

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Saba Asaad - , Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Author)
  • Yifei Wu - , Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Author)
  • Ali Bereyhi - , Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Author)
  • Ralf R. Muller - , Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Author)
  • Rafael F. Schaefer - , University of Siegen (Author)
  • H. Vincent Poor - , Princeton University (Author)

Abstract

In intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-aided multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, the IRS can be utilized to suppress the information leakage towards malicious terminals. This can lead to significant secrecy gains. This work exploits these gains via a tractable joint design of downlink beamformers and IRS phase-shifts. In this respect, we consider a generic IRS-aided MIMO wiretap setting and invoke fractional programming and alternating optimization to iteratively find the beamformers and phase-shifts that maximize the achievable weighted secrecy sum-rate. Our design is comprised of two low-complexity algorithms. Performance of the proposed algorithms are numerically evaluated and compared to the benchmark. The results reveal that integrating IRSs into MIMO systems not only boosts the secrecy performance, but also improves the robustness against passive eavesdropping.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1300-1315
Number of pages16
JournalIEEE transactions on information forensics and security
Volume17
Publication statusPublished - 2022
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

Keywords

  • alternating optimization, fractional programming, intelligent reflecting surfaces, majorization-maximization method, Physical layer security