Optimal Power Allocation for GSVD-Based Beamforming in the MIMO Wiretap Channel

Abstract: This paper considers a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) Gaussian wiretap channel model, where there exists a transmitter, a legitimate receiver and an eavesdropper, each equipped with multiple antennas. Perfect secrecy is achieved when the transmitter and the legitimate receiver can communicate at some positive rate, while ensuring that the eavesdropper gets zero bits of information. In this paper, the perfect secrecy capacity of the multiple antenna MIMO wiretap channel is found for aribtrary numbers of antennas under the assumption that the transmitter performs beamforming based on the generalized singular value decomposition (GSVD). More precisely, the optimal allocation of power for the GSVD-based precoder that achieves the secrecy capacity is derived. This solution is shown to have several advantages over prior work that considered secrecy capacity for the general MIMO Gaussian wiretap channel under a high SNR assumption. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the proposed theoretical findings.