On the secrecy capacity of fading Gaussian wiretap channel

Abstract

We consider the fast-fading Gaussian wiretap channel with single antenna nodes and without channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT), where the fading processes of the two links are arbitrary and independent of each other. We derive an upper bound to the secrecy capacity for this channel and an achievable rate as well. Subsequently, we identify a class of channel statistics for which the outer bound and the achievable rates are identical thereby characterizes the exact secrecy capacity of the channel. The class of channels with such channel statistics are called stochastically degraded in this paper. Many practical wireless settings including the Rayleigh fading environment fall under this stochastically degraded class. We illustrate our results by computing explicit expression for the secrecy capacity for Rayleigh distributed wiretap channels.