Performance Evaluation of Constellation Diagram Analysis-based Methods for PCA Detection

A critical issue in wireless communication networks relates to their vulnerability to eavesdropping attacks. One active approach that an intruder can use to improve its downlink channel and intercept the private information of other users is initiating a pilot contamination attack (PCA). In this paper, two methods for the detection of PCA based on analyses of the constellation diagram are studied – 2-N-PSK and Shifted 2-N-PSK. Their performance is evaluated through two crucial parameters, namely the PCA detection probability and PCA false alarm probability, both investigated in scenarios with different number of antenna elements at the base station. Since the Shifted 2-N-PSK detection method improves the detection probability of 2-N-PSK by altered constellations, the paper proposes a low-complexity algorithm to compute simultaneously the shift values at the transmitter and receiver.