Enhancing Physical Layer Security Performance in Downlink Cellular Networks through Cooperative Users

In this paper, we explore how to enhance the physical layer security performance in downlink cellular networks through cooperative jamming technology. Idle user equipments (UE) are used to cooperatively transmit jamming signal to confuse eavesdroppers (Eve). We propose a threshold-based jammer selection scheme to decide which idle UE should participate in the transmission of jamming signal. Threshold conditions are carefully designed to decrease interference to legitimate channel, while maintain the interference to the Eves. Moreover, fewer UE are activated, which is helpful for saving energy consumptions of cooperative UEs. Analytical expressions of the connection and secrecy performances are derived, which are validated through Monte Carlo simulations. Theoretical and simulation results reveal that our proposed scheme can improve connection performance, while approaches the secrecy performance of [12]. Furthermore, only 43% idle UEs of [12] are used for cooperative jamming, which helps to decrease energy consumption of network.