Secure multiuser communications in multiple decode-and-forward relay networks with direct links

In this paper, we study a downlink multiuser network in which one base station sends its message to one of multiple users, assisted by one of multiple intermediate decode-and-forward (DF) relays. Multiple eavesdroppers exist at the receiver side, and they can overhear the message from the base station, which brings out the issue of information security. We consider moderate shadowing environments so that direct links from the base station to the users and eavesdroppers exist. Maximal ratio combing (MRC) technique is employed at the receivers to combine the signals from the relaying and direct links. We select the best user and relay pair by maximizing the received signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the user. We study the effects of the selection on the system secrecy performance by deriving the closed-form expression of secrecy outage probability. We also provide the asymptotic secrecy outage probability with high transmit power and high main-to-eavesdropper ratio (MER). From the asymptotic expression, we can find that the system can achieve the diversity of the total number of users and relays, irrespective of the number of eavesdroppers. Simulation and numerical results are finally demonstrated to verify the proposed studies.