Coding for channels with intermittent feedback and its security analysis

Abstract

The Schalkwijk-Kailath (SK) scheme for the AWGN channel with noise-free feedback is well-known since its coding complexity grows linearly with the coding blocklength, and it is capacity-achieving and has extremely lower decoding error probability comparing with existing excellent codes such as LDPC and Polar codes. However, extension of SK scheme to more practical scenarios is challenging since it depends heavily on the feedback success. This paper aims to investigate how to design SK-type schemes for channels with intermittent feedback and establish the relationship between the coding blocklength, the desired decoding error probability, the achievable transmission rate and secrecy level of our proposed schemes. Specifically, first, for the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel with intermittent noise-free feedback, a variation of the well-known Schalkwijk-Kailath (SK) scheme for the AWGN channel with noise-free feedback is proposed, and the corresponding achievable rate is characterized for given coding blocklength and decoding error probability. Subsequently, the proposed scheme is extended to channels with noisy intermittent feedback. To quantitatively evaluate the secrecy performance, we adopt the eavesdropper’s normalized equivocation as the secrecy metric and analytically characterize the achievable secrecy level of the proposed schemes. In particular, we show that perfect weak secrecy, i.e., asymptotically vanishing information leakage rate, can be achieved under certain conditions. Numerical results show that for a given decoding error probability threshold, our proposed schemes require lower signal-to-noise ratio and significantly shorter coding blocklength comparing with LDPC code. The study of this paper may provide a way to construct efficient coding scheme for channels in the presence of intermittent feedback.