Secrecy Sum-Rates for Multi-User MIMO Regularized Channel Inversion Precoding

In this paper, we propose a linear precoder for the downlink of a multi-user MIMO system with multiple users that potentially act as eavesdroppers. The proposed precoder is based on regularized channel inversion (RCI) with a regularization parameter α and power allocation vector chosen in such a way that the achievable secrecy sum-rate is maximized. We consider the worst-case scenario for the multi-user MIMO system, where the transmitter assumes users cooperate to eavesdrop on other users. We derive the achievable secrecy sum-rate and obtain the closed-form expression for the optimal regularization parameter α
_LS
of the precoder using large-system analysis. We show that the RCI precoder with α
_LS
outperforms several other linear precoding schemes, and it achieves a secrecy sum-rate that has same scaling factor as the sum-rate achieved by the optimum RCI precoder without secrecy requirements. We propose a power allocation algorithm to maximize the secrecy sum-rate for fixed α. We then extend our algorithm to maximize the secrecy sum-rate by jointly optimizing α and the power allocation vector. The jointly optimized precoder outperforms RCI with α
_LS
and equal power allocation by up to 20 percent at practical values of the signal-to-noise ratio and for 4 users and 4 transmit antennas.