The Gaussian Wiretap Channel with a Helping Interferer

Due to the broadcast nature of the wireless medium, wireless communication is susceptible to adversarial eavesdropping. This paper describes how eavesdropping can potentially be defeated by exploiting the superposition nature of the wireless medium. A Gaussian wire-tap channel with a helping interferer (WTC-HI) is considered in which a transmitter sends confidential messages to its intended receiver in the presence of a passive eavesdropper and with the help of an interferer. The interferer, which does not know the confidential message assists the confidential message transmission by sending a signal that is independent of the transmitted message. An achievable secrecy rate and a Sato-type upper bound on the secrecy capacity are given for the Gaussian WTC-HI. Through numerical analysis, it is found that the upper bound is close to the achievable secrecy rate when the interference is weak for symmetric interference channels, and under more general conditions for asymmetric Gaussian interference channels.