Secure Communication for RSMA Systems: Integrating Spatial and WFRFT Signal Domains

Abstract

In this letter, we investigate secure communication for the downlink rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) system by integrating both the spatial domain and weighted fractional Fourier transform (WFRFT) signal domain to enhance its physical layer security (PLS) performance. To counter the external passive eavesdropper, we propose an RSMA-CM-WFRFT scheme to promote the dual use of the common message (CM), thereby improving the secrecy rate of both common and private messages. Specifically, the common message is encoded based on WFRFT, enabling all received power of legitimate users for signal reconstruction, while introducing inter-component interference at the eavesdropper. Furthermore, the inevitable serial interference caused by the WFRFT-encoded CM sequence overlays onto the private message (PM), thus enhancing its security. To counter internal eavesdroppers, we propose an RSMA-PM-WFRFT scheme to achieve parallel encryption by encoding the private message of different users into different WFRFT domains. Additionally, we formulate and solve a non-convex optimization problem aimed at minimizing the required power under both security and reliability constraints. Numerical results demonstrate the superior performance of the two proposed schemes.