Optimal Secure Channel Access in Distributed Cooperative Networks With Untrusted Relay

This letter investigates optimal channel access strategies to improve secure communications over a distributed cooperative wireless network with multiple user pairs and an untrusted amplify-and-forward (AF) relay. The user pairs communicate directly or via the relay. To enable secure communication, we formulate a channel access problem to maximize the average secrecy system throughput with destination-based jamming. Using optimal sequential planned decision theory, we propose an optimal channel access strategy where the winning user pair uses direct transmission, cooperative AF relaying, or cooperative jamming in an adaptive manner. We rigorously prove the optimality of the solution and provide a distributed channel access algorithm based on the pure threshold structure, which is easy to implement. Numerical results demonstrate effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed strategy compared to alternatives.