Secure Degrees of Freedom of K-User Gaussian Interference Channels: A Unified View

We determine the exact sum secure degrees of freedom (d.o.f.) of the K -user Gaussian interference channel. We consider three different secrecy constraints: 1) K -user interference channel with one external eavesdropper (IC-EE); 2) K -user interference channel with confidential messages (IC-CM); and 3) K -user interference channel with confidential messages and one external eavesdropper (IC-CM-EE). We show that for all of these three cases, the exact sum secure d.o.f. is K(K − 1)/(2K − 1). We show converses for IC-EE and IC-CM, which imply a converse for IC-CM-EE. We show achievability for IC-CM-EE, which implies achievability for IC-EE and IC-CM. Our converse is based on developing a direct relationship between the differential entropies of the channel inputs and the rates of the users, and quantifying the effect of eavesdropping on the rates in terms of the differential entropies of the eavesdroppers’ observations. Our achievability is based on structured signaling, structured cooperative jamming, channel prefixing, and asymptotic real interference alignment. While the traditional interference alignment provides some amount of secrecy by mixing unintended signals in a smaller subspace at every receiver, in order to attain the optimum sum secure d.o.f., we incorporate structured cooperative jamming into the achievable scheme, and intricately design the structure of all of the transmitted signals jointly.