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UAV-Relay-Aided Secure Maritime Networks Coexisting with Satellite Networks: Robust Beamforming and Trajectory Optimization

Yao, Yu; Xiao, Wenqi; Miao, Pu; Chen, Gaojie; Yang, Haitao; Chae, Chan-Byoung; Wong, Kai-Kit; (2025) UAV-Relay-Aided Secure Maritime Networks Coexisting with Satellite Networks: Robust Beamforming and Trajectory Optimization. IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications 10.1109/TWC.2025.3596136. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

Hybrid satellite-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-terrestrial networks (SUTNs) can provide maritime users with ubiquitous communication services. However, eavesdropping poses a significant challenge to the secure communications of SUTNs due to their wide-area coverage. In this paper, we propose a novel secure scheme for maritime communications, where a terrestrial-UAV integrated network coexists with marine satellite (MS) systems in the presence of an eavesdropper (Eve). Considering imperfect channel state information (CSI) for both the MS and Eve, we focus on the collaborative design of beamforming for the terrestrial base station (TBS), UAV, and MS, as well as the UAV’s trajectory. A robust optimization problem is formulated to maximize the worst-case secrecy rate, subject to constraints on worst-case communication quality for each user, UAV locations, and TBS backhaul throughput. To tackle this intractable non-convex problem, we leverage the S-procedure, general sign-definiteness, and successive convex approximation (SCA) to propose a security solution that efficiently optimizes all variables using convex optimization techniques. Numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed solution, illustrating the impact of CSI errors and the secure performance enhancements achieved through joint trajectory and beamforming optimization.

Type: Article
Title: UAV-Relay-Aided Secure Maritime Networks Coexisting with Satellite Networks: Robust Beamforming and Trajectory Optimization
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1109/TWC.2025.3596136
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1109/twc.2025.3596136
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Satellite-UAV-terrestrial networks (SUTNs), maritime communications, physical layer security (PLS), robust beamforming optimization, and trajectory design
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Electronic and Electrical Eng
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10212703
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