On the Ergodic Secrecy Capacity of Intelligent Reflecting Surface Aided Wireless Powered Communication Systems

This letter studies physical layer security (PLS) of an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) aided wireless powered communication (WPC) system in the presence of a passive eavesdropper, and proposes three secure IRS-WPC modes. In mode-I, the IRS is deployed between hybrid access point (HAP) and wireless user (U) for co-located power station (PS) and access point (AP). In mode-II, the IRS is deployed between AP and U for separate PS and AP, while in mode-III, the IRS is deployed between PS and U for separate PS and AP. For each mode, the optimal phase shift is designed to maximize the reception of energy and information at legitimate receiver. The accurate and asymptotic ergodic secrecy capacity (ESC) of each mode is analyzed, and various new closed-form expressions are obtained. The results reveal that mode-I and mode-II significantly outperform benchmark without IRS, while mode-III outperforms benchmark without IRS under lower transmission power or small number of IRS elements.