Low-Complexity Dynamic Directional Modulation: Vulnerability and Information Leakage

In this article, the privacy of wireless transmissions is improved through an efficient technique termed dynamic directional modulation (DDM) and is subsequently assessed in terms of the measure of information leakage. Recently, a variation of DDM termed low-power dynamic directional modulation (LPDDM) has attracted significant attention as a prominent secure transmission method owing to its ability to improve the privacy of wireless communications. Roughly speaking, this modulation operates by randomly selecting the transmitting antenna from an antenna array whose radiation pattern is known. Thereafter, the modulator adjusts the constellation phase so as to ensure that only the legitimate receiver recovers the information. To begin with, we highlight some privacy boundaries inherent to the underlying system. In addition, we propose features that the antenna array must meet in order to increase the privacy of a wireless communication system. Finally, we adopt a uniform circular monopole antenna array with equiprobable transmitting antennas in order to assess the impact of DDM on information leakage and the bit error rate (BER).