Secure RSMA-based Visible Light Networks under Spatial Correlation

This paper investigates the secrecy sum rate (SSR) of rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA)-based visible light communication (VLC) systems considering internal eavesdropping, where legitimate users may intercept private data intended for others. We formulate an optimization problem to maximize the SSR of the system, which is inherently non-convex due to the complex coupling of the objective function and constraints. To this end, two different approaches based on the convex-concave procedure (CCCP) and semidefinite relaxation (SDR) are leveraged to solve the non-convex parameterized problem. A central focus of this work is the investigation of channel similarity (CS), which serves as a metric for quantifying spatial correlation, and its impact on SSR performance. To mitigate the performance degradation caused by high spatial correlation, we propose a channel similarity reduction (CSR) clustering strategy that proactively minimizes CS to restore the system's degrees of freedom (DoF). Numerical results are provided to demonstrate the performance of the two proposed algorithms under various levels of CS. More importantly, the findings reveal that our proposed CSR-clustering strategy significantly outperforms existing baselines, effectively overcoming the secrecy performance ceiling caused by high spatial correlation.

Secrecy Capacity of Hybrid VLC-RF Systems with Light Energy Harvesting

This paper studies the performance of physical layer security (PLS) in a multi-user hybrid heterogeneous visible light communication (VLC) and radio frequency (RF) wireless communication system with simultaneous lightwave information and power transfer (SLIPT). In the considered system, VLC is used for downlink (DL) while RF is employed for uplink (UL) transmission. In addition, to support multiple users, time division multiple access (TDMA) is assumed for both DL and UL channels. In the DL, each user receives information during its allocated time slot of the TDMA frame and harvests energy from the received signal outside the time slot. The harvested energy is then used for transmitting the signal over the UL channel, which is subject to eavesdropping by an unauthorized user. Therefore, PLS is employed to protect the confidentiality of the UL information. Then, an optimization problem is formulated to solve the optimal DL and UL time slots that maximize the PLS performance given a target sum rate of the DL. We show that the problem can be cast as a difference of convex functions (DC) program, which can be solved efficiently using the DC algorithm (DCA).

High Performance Signal Design for ACO-OFDM Systems using Variational Autoencoder

This letter proposes a design of low peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), low symbol error rate (SER), and high data rate signal for asymmetrically clipped optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (ACO-OFDM) systems. The proposed design leverages a variational autoencoder (VAE) incorporating gradual loss learning to jointly optimize the geometry and probability of the constellation's symbols. This not only enhances mutual information (MI) but also effectively reduces the PAPR while maintaining a low SER for reliable transmission. We evaluate the performance of the proposed VAE-based design by comparing the MI, SER, and PAPR against existing techniques. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a considerably lower PAPR while maintaining superior SER and MI performance for a wide range of SNRs.

Energy-Efficient Precoding for Multi-User Visible Light Communication with Confidential Messages

In this paper, an energy-efficient precoding scheme is designed for multi-user visible light communication (VLC) systems in the context of physical layer security, where users' messages are kept mutually confidential. The design problem is shown to be non-convex fractional programming, therefore Dinkelbach algorithm and convex-concave procedure (CCCP) based on the first-order Taylor approximation are utilized to tackle the problem. Numerical results are performed to show the convergence behaviors and the performance of the proposed solution for different parameter settings.