Analysis of secure communication in millimeter wave networks: Are blockages beneficial?

The secrecy outage of millimeter wave (mmWave) networks under the impact of blockages is derived. Specifically, using a network model that accounts for uncertainties both in node locations and blockages, we characterize the connection outage probability and the secrecy outage probability of mmWave networks with multiple eavesdroppers under basic factors such as density of eavesdropping nodes, antenna gain and blockage density. As a desirable side effect, certain factors such as blockages and reduced antenna gain can decrease the secrecy outage probability. This however is in contrast to general mmWave systems where it has been shown that reduced blockages and high antenna gains provide higher capacities.