| Title | Covert Communication by Exploiting Node Multiplicity and Channel Variations |
| Publication Type | Conference Paper |
| Year of Publication | 2020 |
| Authors | Kim, S. W., Ta, H. Q. |
| Conference Name | ICC 2020 - 2020 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) |
| Date Published | jun |
| Keywords | broadcast channels, channel variation, compositionality, covert channels, covert communication, covert message, detection error probability, detection probability, error probability, error statistics, Information hiding, low probability of detection (LPD), node multiplicity, noncovert message, noncovert users, pre-shared secret, private message, Propagation losses, pubcrawl, radio networks, Receivers, resilience, Resiliency, Scalability, superposition coding, telecommunication security, Throughput, Transmitters, Uncertainty, wireless broadcast networks, wireless channels, Wireless communication |
| Abstract | We present a covert (low probability of detection) communication scheme that exploits the node multiplicity and channel variations in wireless broadcast networks. The transmitter hides the covert (private) message by superimposing it onto a non-covert (public) message such that the total transmission power remains the same whether or not the covert message is transmitted. It makes the detection of the covert message impossible unless the non-covert message is decoded. We exploit the multiplicity of non-covert messages (users) to provide a degree of freedom in choosing the non-covert message such that the total detection error probability (sum of the probability of false alarm and missed detection) is maximized. We also exploit the channel variation to minimize the throughput loss on the non-covert message by sending the covert message only when the transmission rate of the non-covert message is low. We show that the total detection error probability converges fast to 1 as the number of non-covert users increases and that the total detection error probability increases as the transmit power increases, without requiring a pre-shared secret among the nodes. |
| DOI | 10.1109/ICC40277.2020.9149011 |
| Citation Key | kim_covert_2020 |
Covert Communication by Exploiting Node Multiplicity and Channel Variations