Lattice Codes for the Wiretap Gaussian Channel: Construction and Analysis

We consider the Gaussian wiretap channel, where two legitimate players Alice and Bob communicate over an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel, while Eve is eavesdropping, also through an AWGN channel. We propose a coding strategy based on lattice coset encoding. We analyze Eve's probability of decoding, from which we define the secrecy gain as a design criterion for wiretap lattice codes, expressed in terms of the lattice theta series, which characterizes Eve's confusion as a function of the channel parameters. The secrecy gain is studied for even unimodular lattices, and an asymptotic analysis shows that it grows exponentially in the dimension of the lattice. Examples of wiretap lattice codes are given. Interestingly, minimizing Eve's probability of error involves the same optimization of the theta series as does the flatness factor, another newly defined code design that characterizes lattice codes that achieve strong secrecy.