Joint source-relay precoding and power allocation for secure amplify-and-forward MIMO relay networks

In this paper, we investigate the security issue of a two-hop amplify-and-forward multiple-input multiple-output wireless relay network in the existence of a multiantenna eavesdropper. The optimal scheme to achieve the secrecy capacity involves a nonconvex optimization and is still an open problem. Aiming to find an efficient way to enhance the secrecy rate with a tractable complexity, we propose a suboptimal joint source and relay linear precoding and power allocation scheme. In the scheme, the source node adopts a generalized singular value decomposition (SVD)-based precoding to transmit the signal in the first phase, and the relay node forwards the received signal based on the SVD precoding in the null-space of the wiretap channel in the second phase. Power allocations in both phases are optimized to maximize the secrecy rate by an alternating iterative optimization algorithm. Each iteration involves two subproblems. One has a water-filling solution and the other has a closed-form solution or a water-filling-like solution as well, both of which are computationally very efficient. The iteration converges fast and we prove that it guarantees to find a stationary optimum. Furthermore, we show that when the eavesdropper has equal or more antennas than the source does, the secrecy rate is a quasi-concave function of the source power so that allocating all the source power is generally not optimal. Numerical evaluation results are provided to show the effectiveness of the iterative algorithm and the proposed secrecy scheme.