On the Performance of Secured Ambient Backscatter Communications to Protect Digital Content and Copyrights

Ambient backscatter communications (AmBC) have emerged as a promising solution for sustainable and energy-efficient wireless networks. When integrated with physical layer security (PLS), AmBC systems offer intrinsic protection against unauthorized access, making them particularly suitable for securing digital content and upholding copyright in open, interference-prone wireless environments. In this work, we derive exact closed-form expressions for the outage probability (OP) and intercept probability (IP) of both the direct transmissions from the source and the backscattered signals from backscatter devices (BDs). To gain deeper insight into system behavior under low-noise conditions, we further develop an asymptotic analytical framework. The analytical results yield several key insights that aid in characterizing and optimizing the performance of AmBC systems. Finally, extensive Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to validate the theoretical findings, confirming the accuracy of the proposed framework. The results also provide practical design guidelines for enabling secure, reliable, and energy-efficient content delivery in next-generation wireless networks.