Physical layer security via maximal ratio combining and relay selection over Rayleigh fading channel

The impact of both maximal ratio combining (MRC) and relay selection on the physical layer security in wireless communication systems is studied by analyzing some important factors, including the probability characteristic of the legitimate receiver (Bob) and malicious eavesdropper (Eve)'s end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the secrecy outage probability, and the average secrecy channel capacity over Rayleigh fading Channel. We assume that Bob receives its data from both the relay and the source by cooperative communication, provided that MRC is employed at the receiver. Compared to the conventional MRC methods, a higher spatial diversity order can be exploited by performing relay selection in the proposed method, as validated via both theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. The theoretical closed-form expressions for some figures of merit, e.g., the secrecy outage probability and the average secrecy capacity, are all consistent with the numerical results.