Secure M-PSK communication via directional modulation

• Published in: Proceedings of the ... IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (1998) pp. 3481 - 3485
• Main Authors: Kalantari, Ashkan, Soltanalian, Mojtaba, Maleki, Sina, Chatzinotas, Symeon, Ottersten, Bjorn
• Format: Conference Proceeding Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.03.2016
• Subjects: Array processing; Array signal processing; Arrays; beamforming; Beams (radiation); Channels; directional modulation; Electronics; Errors; M-PSK modulation; Modulation; physical layer security; Receivers; Receiving antennas; Security; Symbols; Transmitting antennas
• ISSN: 2379-190X
• DOI: 10.1109/ICASSP.2016.7472324

In this work, a directional modulation-based technique is devised to enhance the security of a multi-antenna wireless communication system employing M-PSK modulation to convey information. The directional modulation method operates by steering the array beam in such a way that the phase of the received signal at the receiver matches that of the intended M-PSK symbol. Due to the difference between the channels of the legitimate receiver and the eavesdropper, the signals received by the eavesdropper generally encompass a phase component different than the actual symbols. As a result, the transceiver which employs directional modulation can impose a high symbol error rate on the eavesdropper without requiring to know the eavesdropper's channel. The optimal directional modulation beamformer is designed to minimize the consumed power subject to satisfying a specific resulting phase and minimal signal amplitude at each antenna of the legitimate receiver. The simulation results show that the directional modulation results in a much higher symbol error rate at the eavesdropper compared to the conventional benchmark scheme, i.e., zero-forcing precoding at the transmitter.