This work considers the problem of mitigating information leakage between communication and sensing in systems jointly performing both operations. Specifically, a discrete memoryless state-dependent broadcast channel model is studied in which (i) the presence of feedback enables a transmitter to convey information, while simultaneously performing channel state estimation; (ii) one of the receivers is treated as an eavesdropper whose state should be estimated but which should remain oblivious to part of the transmitted information. The model abstracts the challenges behind security for joint communication and sensing if one views the channel state as a key attribute, e.g., location. For independent and identically distributed states, perfect output feedback, and when part of the transmitted message should be kept secret, a partial characterization of the secrecy-distortion region is developed. The characterization is exact when the broadcast channel is either physically-degraded or reversely-physically-degraded. The partial characterization is also extended to the situation in which the entire transmitted message should be kept secret. The benefits of a joint approach compared to separation-based secure communication and state-sensing methods are illustrated with binary joint communication and sensing models.

翻译：本文研究了在同时执行通信与感知功能的系统中，缓解两者间信息泄漏的问题。具体而言，研究了一种离散无记忆状态相关广播信道模型，其中：(i) 反馈的存在使发射机能够传输信息，同时执行信道状态估计；(ii) 其中一个接收机被视为窃听者，其状态需被估计，但该接收机需对部分传输信息保持不知情。若将信道状态视为关键属性（如位置），该模型抽象了联合通信与感知在安全性方面的挑战。针对独立同分布的状态、完美输出反馈以及需对部分传输信息保密的情形，本文提出了保密-失真区域的局部刻画。当广播信道为物理退化或反物理退化时，该刻画是最优的。此外，将局部刻画扩展至需对整个传输信息保密的情形。通过二元联合通信与感知模型，展示了联合方法相较于基于分离的保密通信与状态感知方法的优势。