JODHPUR : Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur researchers find methods that can be utilized for providing physical layer security in data transmission through Power Line Communication (PLC) systems which play a considerable role in IoT applications including smart buildings, smart vehicles, smart grids for advanced metering infrastructure and home automation. The research examines how secure a Power Line Communication system is when using a type of modulation called Differential Chaos Shift Keying (DCSK). The research was done in collaboration between IIT Jodhpur and École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS), Université du Québec, Montreal, Canada.

The aim of the study was to evaluate how well a PLC system, using a secure modulation technique called DCSK, performs in terms of physical layer security. Specifically, the researchers focused on analysing the system's performance when the legitimate communication channel and an eavesdropper channel are correlated, meaning they are dependent in some way.

Dr. Aashish Mathur, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Research Platform on IoT and Applications, IIT Jodhpur along with his PhD student Mr. Vinay Mohan and Dr. Georges Kaddoum, Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering Department, École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS), Université du Québec published this research paper in IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2022.3232753)

Here are the key points regarding the utilization of the Farlie-Gumbel-Morgenstern Copula approach and the proposed algorithm in the analysis of the PLC system:

·The study used the Farlie-Gumbel-Morgenstern Copula approach to model the correlation between the legitimate channel and the eavesdropper channel in the PLC system.

·This method offers excellent flexibility in mathematical modeling and simplification in computational complexity.

·The analysis took into consideration the unique non-Gaussian nature of the PLC noise.

·The proposed algorithm was designed to obtain the optimal threshold value of the signal-to-noise ratio for a target SOP.

·The algorithm aimed to maximize the system's secrecy throughput under the constraint of a target SOP.

·The algorithm helps to enhance the system's performance and maintain its security in the presence of an eavesdropper.

Talking about the key research findings, Dr. Aashish Mathur, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Research Platform on IoT and Applications, IIT Jodhpur, said, "From the analysis, it is observed that as the correlation dependence parameter increases, the secrecy performance of the proposed system degrades. The asymptotic SOP analysis demonstrates that the secrecy diversity order relies on the shaping parameter of the main channel. To maximize the secrecy throughput under SOP constraints, we formulate an optimization problem."

The research opens up opportunities for further exploration in multiple directions, including physical layer security in multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) PLC systems, secrecy analysis of multi-hop cooperative PLC systems and hybrid communication systems, such as hybrid PLC-LiFi systems, for indoor IoT applications. These areas can benefit from the approaches and algorithms used in this study and provide new insights into securing communication in various scenarios.

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