TY - JOUR
T1 - Covert communication achieved by a greedy relay in wireless networks
AU - Hu, Jinsong
AU - Yan, Shihao
AU - Zhou, Xiangyun
AU - Shu, Feng
AU - Li, Jun
AU - Wang, Jiangzhou
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2002-2012 IEEE.
PY - 2018/7
Y1 - 2018/7
N2 - Covert wireless communication aims to hide the very existence of wireless transmissions in order to guarantee a strong security in wireless networks. In this paper, we examine the possibility and achievable performance of covert communication in amplify-and-forward one-way relay networks. Specifically, the relay is greedy and opportunistically transmits its own information to the destination covertly on top of forwarding the source's message, while the source tries to detect this covert transmission to discover the illegitimate usage of the resource (e.g., power and spectrum) allocated only for the purpose of forwarding the source's information. We propose two strategies for the relay to transmit its covert information, namely rate-control and power-control transmission schemes, for which the source's detection limits are analyzed in terms of detection error probability and the achievable effective covert rates from the relay to destination are derived. Our examination determines the conditions under which the rate-control transmission scheme outperforms the power-control transmission scheme, and vice versa, which enables the relay to achieve the maximum effective covert rate. Our analysis indicates that the relay has to forward the source's message to shield its covert transmission and the effective covert rate increases with its forwarding ability (e.g., its maximum transmits power).
AB - Covert wireless communication aims to hide the very existence of wireless transmissions in order to guarantee a strong security in wireless networks. In this paper, we examine the possibility and achievable performance of covert communication in amplify-and-forward one-way relay networks. Specifically, the relay is greedy and opportunistically transmits its own information to the destination covertly on top of forwarding the source's message, while the source tries to detect this covert transmission to discover the illegitimate usage of the resource (e.g., power and spectrum) allocated only for the purpose of forwarding the source's information. We propose two strategies for the relay to transmit its covert information, namely rate-control and power-control transmission schemes, for which the source's detection limits are analyzed in terms of detection error probability and the achievable effective covert rates from the relay to destination are derived. Our examination determines the conditions under which the rate-control transmission scheme outperforms the power-control transmission scheme, and vice versa, which enables the relay to achieve the maximum effective covert rate. Our analysis indicates that the relay has to forward the source's message to shield its covert transmission and the effective covert rate increases with its forwarding ability (e.g., its maximum transmits power).
KW - Physical layer security
KW - covert communication
KW - detection
KW - transmission schemes
KW - wireless relay networks
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85046417490&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TWC.2018.2831217
DO - 10.1109/TWC.2018.2831217
M3 - Article
SN - 1536-1276
VL - 17
SP - 4766
EP - 4779
JO - IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
JF - IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
IS - 7
ER -