Hybrid-ARQ as a communications security measure

Abstract

We consider arbitrary Hybrid-Automatic-Repeat-Request (H-ARQ) wireless links over quasi-static Rayleigh fading channels. In this paper, we translate the repeat-request advantage of the intended receiver over potential eavesdroppers to link security. In particular, with statistical-only knowledge of the channel and noise, we find for the first time in the literature the optimal power allocation sequence over the H-ARQ rounds that maximizes the outage probability of eavesdroppers for any given target outage probability of the trusted receiver. Simulation studies demonstrate orders of magnitude difference in outage probability between eavesdroppers and intended receiver.