Information-Theoretic Security of RIS-Aided MISO System Under N-Wave with Diffuse Power Fading Model †

This paper aims to examine the physical layer security (PLS) performance of a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided wiretap multiple-input single-output (MISO) system over generalized fading conditions by assuming inherent phase shift errors at the RIS. Specifically, the procedures (i.e., the method) to conduct this research is based on learning-based approaches to model the magnitude of the end-to-end RIS channel, i.e., employing an unsupervised expectation-maximization (EM) approach via a finite mixture of Nakagami-m distributions. This general framework allows us to accurately approximate key practical factors in RIS’s channel modeling, such as generalized fading conditions, spatial correlation, discrete phase shift, beamforming, and the presence of direct and indirect links. For the numerical results, the secrecy outage probability, the average secrecy rate, and the average secrecy loss under different setups of RIS-aided wireless systems are assessed by varying the fading parameters of the N-wave with a diffuse power fading channel model. The results show that the correlation between RIS elements and unfavorable channel conditions (e.g., Rayleigh) affect secrecy performance. Likewise, it was confirmed that the use of a RIS is not essential when there is a solid line-of-sight link between the transmitter and the legitimate receiver.