A Secrecy and Security Dilemma in OFDM Communications

Emerging wireless systems will need to address multiple, conflicting objectives: ensuring the secrecy of the communication secrecy (i.e., maximizing the un-eavesdropped throughput at the receiver), and ensuring the "security" of the communication (i.e., minimizing damage that might arise because of the possibility that there is leakage in communication). This problem presents a dilemma for system engineers since the optimal solution for one of objective might be not optimal for the other. This dilemma calls for a need for designing a trade-off solution for these objectives. In this paper, we propose the use of a Kalai-Smorodinsky bargaining solution between secrecy and security for OFDM-style communications, which allows one to select the security level of communication. In particular, this solution allows one to maintain the ratios of maximal gains for cooperative fulfilment of both objectives.