Secure Transmit Antenna Selection Protocol for MIMO NOMA Networks over Nakagami-m Channels

Abstract: In this paper, we studied a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) network consisting of one source and two legitimate users (LUs), so-called near and far users according to their distances to the source, and one passive eavesdropper, over Nakagami-\textit{m} fading channel. Specifically, we investigated the scenario that the signals of the far user might or might not be decoded successfully at the eavesdropper and the near user. Thus, we aimed at designing a transmit antenna selection (TAS) secure communication protocol for the network. Then, two TAS solutions, namely Solutions I and II, were proposed. Specifically, solutions I and II focus on maximizing the received signal power between the source and the near user, and between the source and the far user, respectively. Accordingly, the exact and asymptotic closed-form expressions of the secrecy outage probability for the LUs and the overall system were derived. Our analytical results corroborated by Monte Carlo simulation indicate that the secrecy performance could be significantly improved by properly selecting power allocation coefficients and increasing the number of antennas at the source and the LUs. Interestingly, solution II could provide a better overall secrecy performance over solution I.