Can Marton Coding Alone Ensure Individual Secrecy?

Abstract

For communications in the presence of eavesdroppers, random components are often used in code design to camouflage information from eavesdroppers. In broadcast channels without eavesdroppers, Marton error-correcting coding comprises random components which allow correlation between auxiliary random variables representing independent messages. In this paper, we study if Marton coding alone can ensure individual secrecy in the two-receiver discrete memoryless broadcast channel with a passive eavesdropper. Our results show that in accordance to the principle of Wyner secrecy coding, this is possible and Marton coding alone guarantees individual secrecy. However, this comes with a penalty of requiring stricter channel conditions.