Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Agarwal, Nipun
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.15024
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866918298851999744
author Agarwal, Nipun
author_facet Agarwal, Nipun
contents Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) has become a crucial enabling technology for 5G and beyond, providing previously unheard-of increases in energy and spectrum efficiency. It is still difficult to guarantee secure communication in these systems, particularly when it comes to passive eavesdroppers whose base station is unaware of their channel state information. By taking advantage of the inherent randomness of wireless channels, Physical Layer Security (PLS) offers a promising paradigm; however, its efficacy in massive MIMO is heavily reliant on resource allocation and transmission strategies. In this work, the performance of secure transmission schemes, such as Maximum Ratio Transmission (MRT), Zero-Forcing (ZF), and Artificial Noise (AN)-aided beamforming, is examined when passive eavesdroppers are present. This work will use extensive Monte Carlo simulations to assess important performance metrics such as energy efficiency, secrecy outage probability, and secrecy sum rate under different system parameters (e.g., number of antennas, Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), power allocation). The results aim to provide comparative insight into the strengths and limitations of different PLS strategies and to highlight open research directions to design scalable, energy-efficient, and robust secure transmission techniques in future 6G networks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_15024
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Physical Layer Security in Massive MIMO: Challenges and Open Research Directions Against Passive Eavesdroppers
Agarwal, Nipun
Signal Processing
Computation
Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) has become a crucial enabling technology for 5G and beyond, providing previously unheard-of increases in energy and spectrum efficiency. It is still difficult to guarantee secure communication in these systems, particularly when it comes to passive eavesdroppers whose base station is unaware of their channel state information. By taking advantage of the inherent randomness of wireless channels, Physical Layer Security (PLS) offers a promising paradigm; however, its efficacy in massive MIMO is heavily reliant on resource allocation and transmission strategies. In this work, the performance of secure transmission schemes, such as Maximum Ratio Transmission (MRT), Zero-Forcing (ZF), and Artificial Noise (AN)-aided beamforming, is examined when passive eavesdroppers are present. This work will use extensive Monte Carlo simulations to assess important performance metrics such as energy efficiency, secrecy outage probability, and secrecy sum rate under different system parameters (e.g., number of antennas, Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), power allocation). The results aim to provide comparative insight into the strengths and limitations of different PLS strategies and to highlight open research directions to design scalable, energy-efficient, and robust secure transmission techniques in future 6G networks.
title Physical Layer Security in Massive MIMO: Challenges and Open Research Directions Against Passive Eavesdroppers
topic Signal Processing
Computation
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.15024