Performance Evaluation of DCSK-Based PLC Systems Under Pulse Jamming Attacks

In this paper, we investigate the pulse jamming effect in Power Line Communication (PLC) systems employing differential chaos shift keying (DCSK) over Log-normally distributed channel gain. Concurrently, the behavior of PLC channel noise is characterized by the Bernoulli-Gaussian random process. Further, the state of the jammer is modeled using a Bernoulli random variable. Depending upon the state of the jammer, we derive the probability density function (PDF) of the instantaneous signal-to-jamming-plus-noise ratio (SJNR) and the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Furthermore, the series-based expressions of average bit error rate (ABER) and outage probability (OP) are analytically evaluated. Additionally, the asymptotic behavior of ABER is analyzed in terms of the coding gain and diversity order in the high SNR regime. Based on the ABER and OP analysis of the considered PLC system, some fruitful insights are demonstrated by observing the impact of different system parameters.

I. Introduction

POWER line communication (PLC) has gained much attention as a promising communication network solution for Smart Grid (SG) in recent years due to its numerous benefits over traditional wireline alternatives [1]. However, the broadcast nature of PLC channel creates a severe challenge regarding data secrecy and privacy of an individual user in the presence of malevolent attackers such as eavesdropping and jamming [2]. The pulse jammer dynamically switches between active and idle states to deliberately interfere with legitimate links by reducing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver's end [3].