A Method for Low-Latency Secure Multiple Access

This paper studies an application of “secret-message transmission by echoing encrypted probes (STEEP)” to multiple access (MA) between users' equipment (UEs) and an access point (AP). This method, referred to as MA-STEEP, allows all UEs to take advantage of a common sequence of probes broadcasted by AP, which helps to meet the low-latency requirement. The secrecy capacity of MA-STEEP from each UE to AP is shown to be positive with high probability (subject to a power condition) and robust against the number
$M$
of UEs. A total secrecy capacity of MA-STEEP increases with
$M$
, unlike a common-nonce method.