Random puncturing for secrecy

The traditional framework under which error-correcting codes can enable secrecy involves the use of nested codes. While this structure provide us with means to achieve weak secrecy, it is not clear how these codes can be applied to varying wiretap channels. In the spirit of rate-compatible codes, we propose a new framework for coding for the wiretap channel. The proposed scheme is based on random-puncturing, where the puncturing pattern is kept secret from the eavesdropper. Our results indicate that such strategy can indeed achieve high equivocation-rates (even when the channel is degraded) without the need to re-design the underlying codes.