In multiuser wireless communications, due to the broadcast nature of the medium, the users not only experience interference, but also the communications become vulnerable to undesired eavesdropping. Differently from traditional key-based enciphering at the application layer, which is conventionally used to ensure the security of data transmission, physical layer security is attracting wide attention over the last years due to its keyless nature. Physical layer security relies on the characteristics of the communication channel and possibly on the information source, thus providing guarantees by considering security as a design constraint, just like reliability. By leveraging information theoretical arguments, the goal of this talk is to provide an introduction to physical layer security for wireless communication systems. As an example scenario, the case of multi-operator wireless systems is considered in order to show the potential of information-theoretic security.

This talk discusses the work and results presented by Dr. Pin Hsun Lin at 5G Lab School in Dresden.