Enhancing Security in Future Communication Networks Through Game Theory

Protection of communication channels from malicious attacks is critical as the world grows more interconnected. When it comes to strategic transmissions, securing these channels demands creative solutions. This thesis focuses on using game theory to improve security when a transmitter and receiver must contend with an attacker who wants to obstruct their communication. To capture the relationship between the attacker and the transmitter, we model this situation as an adversarial setup. In particular, we explore scenarios where the struggle relates to the provision of real-time service, which the transmitter would like to be prompt and timely, whereas the adversary would like to increase the staleness of the information exchanged to worsen the quality of service. Age of Information (AoI) is used to measure the freshness or timeliness of information. When an attacker successfully breaks the communication channel for a period of time, AoI increases. This thesis investigates how the communication system's efficiency can be preserved and such disruptions reduced through the strategic decision to defend certain transmissions. We investigate the optimal strategies for the attacker and the transmitter, attempting to promote the creation of more robust communication protocols by exploring security issues in communication channels and applying game theory to these interactions. This thorough investigation of strategic defences and how well they work against network attacks can be helpful for researchers, decision-makers, and professionals working in the communication systems and information security fields.