Safeguarding MIMO Communications with Reconfigurable Metasurfaces and Artificial Noise

Wireless communications empowered by Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) are recently gaining remarkable research attention due to the increased system design flexibility offered by RISs for diverse functionalities. In this paper, we consider a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) physical layer security system with multiple data streams including one legitimate and one eavesdropping passive RISs, with the former being transparent to the eavesdropper and the latter’s presence being unknown at the legitimate link. We first focus on the eavesdropping subsystem and present a joint design framework for the eavesdropper’s combining matrix and the reflection coefficients of the eavesdropping RIS. Then, focusing on the secrecy rate maximization, we propose a physical layer security scheme that jointly designs the legitimate precoding matrix and the Artificial Noise (AN) covariance matrix, as well as the legitimate combining matrix and the reflection coefficients of the legitimate RIS. Our simulation results reveal that, in the absence of a legitimate RIS, transceiver spatial filtering and AN are incapable of offering nonzero secrecy rates, even for eavesdropping RISs with small numbers of elements. However, when an L-element legitimate RIS is deployed, confidential communication can be safeguarded against cases with even more than a 5L-element eavesdropping RIS.