On the Physical Layer Security of Hybrid PLC/VLC Network

The hybrid power line communication (PLC) / visible light communication (VLC) network is a better candidate for supporting low-cost deployment, wide coverage and energy saving for the future indoor communication. In this paper, we study the physical layer security (PLS) for the hybrid PLC/VLC system in the presence of multiple eavesdroppers. More Specifically, the first-hop PLC link serves the VLC system as a backhaul network, and the second-hop VLC link provides the lighting and communication functions. In addition, we set a protected zone to restrict the external eavesdroppers which intend to wiretap confidential information from the relay. On account of the randomness of terminal users' position, the analytical expressions of the secrecy outage probability and secrecy throughput for the proposed framework are derived. Simulations are presented to evaluate the effectiveness of the analytical results with distinct parameters. Then enlarging the radius of protected zone will have a positive impact on the security performance of hybrid PLC/VLC system.