On signal space diversity: An adaptive interleaver for enhancing physical layer security in frequency selective fading channels

Signal space diversity is a powerful technique that increases reliability of detection over fading channels. In this paper, we explore the ability of this technique to provide secure communication. We enhance the security of OFDM systems in frequency selective fading channels by providing more diversity gain to the legitimate user compared to an eavesdropper. This is done by adapting the interleaving pattern to the channel of the legitimate user in rich multipath environments, where spatially separated channels are typically independent to each other. This ensures secrecy in a time division duplex system, where the eavesdropper has no information regarding the channel of the legitimate user. The scheme can also be used in the conventional frequency division duplex system, which is more challenging in terms of security aspects because of the channel state information leakage. A theoretical analysis is presented on the bit-error probability in Rayleigh fading environment. The numerical results support the conclusion that adapting the interleaving pattern to the CSI of the legitimate user provides a gain in the bit-error rate performance over the eavesdropper.