Secrecy capacity of a Gaussian wiretap channel with ADCs is always positive

Abstract

We consider a complex Gaussian wiretap channel with finite-resolution analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) at both the legitimate receiver and the eavesdropper. For this channel, we show that a positive secrecy rate is always achievable as long as the channel gains at the legitimate receiver and at the eavesdropper are different, regardless of the quantization levels of the ADCs. For the achievability, we first consider the case of the one-bit ADCs at the legitimate receiver and apply a binary input distribution where the two input points have the same phase when the channel gain at the legitimate receiver is less than that at the eavesdropper, and otherwise the opposite phase. Then the result is generalized for the case of arbitrary finite-resolution ADCs at the legitimate receiver by translating the input distribution appropriately. We also provide numerical lower bounds on the achievable secrecy rates, and analyze the tendency of the secrecy rates according to the channel difference, the power constraint, and the quantization levels for some cases. For the special case of the real Gaussian wiretap channel with one-bit ADCs at both the legitimate receiver and the eavesdropper, we show that our choice of phase does not lose any optimality for the Wyner code.