Securing Wireless Communications in IoT: A Study of One-Step Majority Logic Decodable Codes for Physical Layer Security

Wireless communication networks for the Internet of Things (IoT) system face significant challenges in terms of reliability and security. Traditional networks rely on cryptographic protocols to address security, which primarily focus on upper layers in the OSI model without considering the physical layer. However, recent research has increasingly focused on physical layer security, as it offers a different approach to achieving secrecy in communication. The goal of physical layer security is to ensure that data transmission between legitimate nodes in a network remains confidential, even in the presence of malicious actors attempting to intercept the communication. One way to achieve secrecy is by utilizing the unique characteristics of the physical layer, such as thermal noise, interference, and fading channels. There are various approaches to physical layer security, and this paper focuses on information-theoretic methods for enhancing wireless system security against eavesdropping attacks. Error-correcting codes (ECC) also play a role in providing security, and various code classes can be employed for this purpose, such as polar codes and low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. In this paper, we investigate the use of One-Step Majority Logic Decodable (OSMLD) codes in physical layer security for IoT applications. OSMLD codes are characterized by their low complexity in the majority decoding process. The main contributions of this work are the application of different types of OSMLD codes in the wiretap channel and the demonstration of the benefits of OSMLD codes in physical layer security for IoT applications.