Robust and Secure Communications in Intelligent Reflecting Surface Assisted NOMA networks

Abstract: This letter investigates secure transmission in an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) assisted non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) network. Consider a practical eavesdropping scenario with imperfect channel state information of the eavesdropper, we propose a robust beamforming scheme using artificial noise to guarantee secure NOMA transmission with the IRS. A joint transmit beamforming and IRS phase shift optimization problem is formulated to minimize the transmit power. Since the problem is non-convex and challenging to resolve, we develop an effective alternative optimization (AO) algorithm to obtain stationary point solutions. Simulation results validate the security advantage of the robust beamforming scheme and the effectiveness of the AO algorithm.