Robust Secure Precoding for Wireless Information and Power Transfer in RSMA-Based LEO Satellite Communications

Abstract

Satellite-terrestrial integrated networks with simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) provide wide-area connectivity and sustainable service support, but they also face serious security challenges due to the broadcast nature of satellite links and the possibility that an energy receiver may act as potential eavesdropper. To address this issue, this paper proposes a secure precoding design for a high-altitude platform (HAP)-assisted rate-splitting multiple access (RSMA) architecture under a quasi-static transmission model. Specifically, a cooperative direct and relay transmission (CDRT) framework is developed, in which the HAP assists the satellite transmission to improve the physical layer security for multi-user SWIPT services. By assuming the energy receiver near the target user as potential eavesdropper, we formulate a sum secrecy rate maximization problem subject to energy harvesting and transmit power constraints. To transform the original nonconvex optimization problem into a tractable convex problem, we employ techniques such as first-order Taylor expansion approximation, rank-one constraint relaxation, successive convex approximation, and semidefinite relaxation. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed CDRT-RSMA scheme significantly outperforms conventional non-orthogonal and time-division multiple access schemes in terms of security performance.