Secrecy capacity and wireless energy harvesting in amplify-and-forward relay networks

The secrecy capacity (SC) from the source to a destination in a dual-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) relay network using cooperative jamming (CJ) is investigated. Conditions for achieving a positive SC are derived. An energy constrained untrusted cooperative relaying protocol is considered in which the relay forwards information from the source to the destination while harvesting energy from the source signal and the destination jamming signal. An optimization problem is proposed to maximize the SC subject to the energy constraints. A method is proposed to find the optimal power split ratio (PSR) which maximizes the SC. An approximate expression for the optimal PSR is also derived. Results show that a mutually beneficial relationship exists between source-destination pair and the relay. This allows the relay to achieve a net energy gain while the secrecy of the confidential message from the source to the destination is protected.