Optimal secure message transmission by public discussion

Secure message transmission assumes n channels between a sender and a receiver such that up to t channels are under the control of a computationally unlimited adversary. In secure message transmission by public discussion protocol, sender and receiver have access to a public authenticated channel. In this paper we show that if n ¿ t + 1, a secure protocol requires at least 3 rounds of communication and 2 rounds invocation of the public channel. This gives a complete answer to a question raised by Garay and Ostrovsky in Eurocrypt 2008. We also describe a round optimal protocol that has constant transmission rate over the public channel.