Physical Layer Security of 6G Vehicular Networks with UAV Systems:First Order Secrecy Metrics,Optimization,and Bounds

The mobility and connective capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)are becoming more and more important in defense,commercial,and research domains.However,their open communication makes UAVs susceptible toundesirablepassive attacks suchas eavesdroppingor jamming.Recently,the inefficiencyof traditional cryptography-based techniques has led to the addition of Physical Layer Security(PLS).This study focuses on the advanced PLS method for passive eavesdropping in UAV-aided vehicular environments,proposing a solution to complement the conventional cryptography approach.Initially,we present a performance analysis of first-order secrecy metrics in 6G-enabled UAV systems,namely hybrid outage probability(HOP)and secrecy outage probability(SOP)over 2×2 Nakagami-m channels.Later,we propose a novel technique for mitigating passive eavesdropping,which considers first-order secrecy metrics as an optimization problem and determines their lower and upper bounds.Finally,we conduct an analysis of bounded HOP and SOP using the interactive Nakagami-m channel,considering the multiple-input-multiple-output configuration of the UAV system.The findings indicate that 2×2 Nakagami-mis a suitable fadingmodel under constant velocity for trustworthy receivers and eavesdroppers.The results indicate that UAV mobility has some influence on an eavesdropper’s intrusion during line-of-sight-enabled communication and can play an important role in improving security against passive eavesdroppers.