Abstract
Sparse code multiple access (SCMA) is a promising candidate air interface of next-generation mobile networks. In this paper, we focus on a downlink SCMA system where a transmitter sends confidential messages to multiple users in the presence of external eavesdroppers. Consequently, we develop a novel secure transmission approach over physical layer based on a highly structured SCMA codebook design. In our proposed scheme, we rotate the base constellations (BCs) with random angles by extracting channel phases from the channel state information (CSI). By employing randomized constellation rotation (RCR), the security of downlink SCMA can be ensured. In addition, a tight SCMA upper bound is introduced to guide the design of the encrypted codebook. As a result, we propose an approach to avoid the significant error rate performance loss caused by using codebooks that are designed using our method. The proposed upper-bound-aided codebook design scheme can select relatively good codebooks with low complexity. By combining SCMA codebook design and secure communication, our scheme ensures security for massive quantities of users with low encrypted and decrypted complexity at the cost of transmission rate and possible error rate performance loss. Moreover, the proposed scheme can achieve robustness against channel estimation errors. Analyses and Monte Carlo simulations confirm the effectiveness of our scheme.