Gamma Approximation Based Multi-Antenna Covert Communication Detection

Covert communication technology makes wireless communication more secure,but it also provides more opportunities for illegal users to transmit harmful information.In order to detect the illegal covert communication of the lawbreakers in real time for subsequent processing,this paper proposes a Gamma approximation-based detection method for multi-antenna covert communication systems.Specifically,the Gamma approximation property is used to calculate the miss detection rate and false alarm rate of the monitor firstly.Then the optimization problem to minimize the sum of the missed detection rate and the false alarm rate is proposed.The optimal detection threshold and the minimum error detection probability are solved according to the properties of the Lambert W function.Finally,simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Cooperative Covert Communication in Multi-Antenna Broadcast Channels

With the gradual popularization of 5G communications,the application of multi-antenna broadcasting technology has become widespread.Therefore,this study aims to investigate the wireless covert communication in the two-user cooperative multi-antenna broadcast channel.We focus on the issue that the deteriorated reliability and undetectability are mainly affected by the transmission power.To tackle this issue,we design a scheme based on beamforming to increase the reliability and undetectability of wireless covert communication in the multi-antenna broadcast channel.We first modeled and analyzed the cooperative multi-antenna broadcasting system,and put forward the target question.Then we use the SCA(successive convex approximation)algorithm to transform the target problem into a series of convex subproblems.Then the convex problems are solved and the covert channel capacity is calculated.In order to verify the effectiveness of the scheme,we conducted simulation verification.The simulation results show that the proposed beamforming scheme can effectively improve the reliability and undetectability of covert communication in multi-antenna broadcast channels.

Cognitive Jammers Assisted Covert Communication in Cognitive Radio Networks

In this work,we investigate the covert communication in cognitive radio(CR)networks with the existence of multiple cognitive jammers(CJs).Specifically,the secondary transmitter(ST)helps the primary transmitter(PT)to relay information to primary receiver(PR),as a reward,the ST can use PT's spectrum to transmit private information against the eavesdropper(Eve)under the help of one selected cognitive jammer(CJ).Meanwhile,we propose three jammer-selection schemes,namely,link-oriented jammer selection(LJS),min-max jammer selection(MMJS)and random jammer selection(RJS).For each scheme,we analyze the average covert throughput(ACT)and covert outage probability(COP).Our simulation results show that CJ is helpful to ST's covert communication,the expected minimum detection error probability and ACT can be significantly improved with the increase of false alarm of CJ.Moreover,the LJS scheme achieves best performance in ACT and COP,followed by RJS scheme,and MMJS scheme shows the worst performance.

Age of Information for Short-Packet Covert Communication with Time Modulated Retrodirective Array

In this paper,the covert age of information(CAoI),which characterizes the timeliness and covertness performance of communication,is first investigated in the short-packet covert communication with time modulated retrodirective array(TMRDA).Specifically,the TMRDA is designed to maximize the antenna gain in the target direction while the side lobe is sufficiently suppressed.On this basis,the covertness constraint and CAoI are derived in closed form.To facilitate the covert transmission design,the transmit power and block-length are jointly optimized to minimize the CAoI,which demonstrates the trade-off between covertness and timelessness.Our results illustrate that there exists an optimal block-length that yields the minimum CAoI,and the presented optimization results can achieve enhanced performance compared with the fixed block-length case.Additionally,we observe that smaller beam pointing error at Bob leads to improvements in CAoI.

CCM-FL:Covert communication mechanisms for federated learning in crowd sensing IoT

The past decades have witnessed a wide application of federated learning in crowd sensing,to handle the numerous data collected by the sensors and provide the users with precise and customized services.Meanwhile,how to protect the private information of users in federated learning has become an important research topic.Compared with the differential privacy(DP)technique and secure multiparty computation(SMC)strategy,the covert communication mechanism in federated learning is more efficient and energy-saving in training the ma-chine learning models.In this paper,we study the covert communication problem for federated learning in crowd sensing Internet-of-Things networks.Different from the previous works about covert communication in federated learning,most of which are considered in a centralized framework and experimental-based,we firstly proposes a centralized covert communication mechanism for federated learning among n learning agents,the time complexity of which is O(log n),approximating to the optimal solution.Secondly,for the federated learning without parameter server,which is a harder case,we show that solving such a problem is NP-hard and prove the existence of a distributed covert communication mechanism with O(log logΔlog n)times,approximating to the optimal solution.Δis the maximum distance between any pair of learning agents.Theoretical analysis and nu-merical simulations are presented to show the performance of our covert communication mechanisms.We hope that our covert communication work can shed some light on how to protect the privacy of federated learning in crowd sensing from the view of communications.

Intelligent Reflecting Surface-Aided Secure and Covert Communications

This work employs intelligent reflecting surface(IRS)to enhance secure and covert communication performance.We formulate an optimization problem to jointly design both the reflection beamformer at IRS and transmit power at transmitter Alice in order to optimize the achievable secrecy rate at Bob subject to a covertness constraint.We first develop a Dinkelbach-based algorithm to achieve an upper bound performance and a high-quality solution.For reducing the overhead and computational complexity of the Dinkelbach-based scheme,we further conceive a low-complexity algorithm in which analytical expression for the IRS reflection beamforming is derived at each iteration.Examination result shows that the devised low-complexity algorithm is able to achieve similar secrecy rate performance as the Dinkelbach-based algorithm.Our examination also shows that introducing an IRS into the considered system can significantly improve the secure and covert communication performance relative to the scheme without IRS.

Space/Air Covert Communications:Potentials,Scenarios,and Key Technologies

Space/air communications have been envisioned as an essential part of the next-generation mobile communication networks for providing highquality global connectivity. However, the inherent broadcasting nature of wireless propagation environment and the broad coverage pose severe threats to the protection of private data. Emerging covert communications provides a promising solution to achieve robust communication security. Aiming at facilitating the practical implementation of covert communications in space/air networks, we present a tutorial overview of its potentials, scenarios, and key technologies. Specifically, first, the commonly used covertness constraint model, covert performance metrics, and potential application scenarios are briefly introduced. Then, several efficient methods that introduce uncertainty into the covert system are thoroughly summarized, followed by several critical enabling technologies, including joint resource allocation and deployment/trajectory design, multi-antenna and beamforming techniques, reconfigurable intelligent surface(RIS), and artificial intelligence algorithms. Finally, we highlight some open issues for future investigation.

Deep Learning for Covert Communication

In recent years,deep learning has been gradually used in communication physical layer receivers and has achieved excellent performance.In this paper,we employ deep learning to establish covert communication systems,enabling the transmission of signals through high-power signals present in the prevailing environment while maintaining covertness,and propose a convolutional neural network(CNN)based model for covert communication receivers,namely Deep CCR.This model leverages CNN to execute the signal separation and recovery tasks commonly performed by traditional receivers.It enables the direct recovery of covert information from the received signal.The simulation results show that the proposed Deep CCR exhibits significant advantages in bit error rate(BER)compared to traditional receivers in the face of noise and multipath fading.We verify the covert performance of the covert method proposed in this paper using the maximum-minimum eigenvalue ratio-based method and the frequency domain entropy-based method.The results indicate that this method has excellent covert performance.We also evaluate the mutual influence between covert signals and opportunity signals,indicating that using opportunity signals as cover can cause certain performance losses to covert signals.When the interference-tosignal power ratio(ISR)is large,the impact of covert signals on opportunity signals is minimal.

Joint Active and Passive Beamforming Design in Intelligent Reflecting Surface(IRS)-Assisted Covert Communications:A Multi-Agent DRL Approach

Intelligent Reflecting Surface(IRS),with the potential capability to reconstruct the electromagnetic propagation environment,evolves a new IRSassisted covert communications paradigm to eliminate the negligible detection of malicious eavesdroppers by coherently beaming the scattered signals and suppressing the signals leakage.However,when multiple IRSs are involved,accurate channel estimation is still a challenge due to the extra hardware complexity and communication overhead.Besides the crossinterference caused by massive reflecting paths,it is hard to obtain the close-formed solution for the optimization of covert communications.On this basis,the paper improves a heterogeneous multi-agent deep deterministic policy gradient(MADDPG)approach for the joint active and passive beamforming(Joint A&P BF)optimization without the channel estimation,where the base station(BS)and multiple IRSs are taken as different types of agents and learn to enhance the covert spectrum efficiency(CSE)cooperatively.Thanks to the‘centralized training and distributed execution’feature of MADDPG,each agent can execute the active or passive beamforming independently based on its partial observation without referring to others.Numeral results demonstrate that the proposed deep reinforcement learning(DRL)approach could not only obtain a preferable CSE of legitimate users and a low detection of probability(LPD)of warden,but also alleviate the communication overhead and simplify the IRSs deployment.

Covert Communication in Integrated High Altitude Platform Station Terrestrial Networks

In recent years,Internet of Things(IoT)technology has emerged and gradually sprung up.As the needs of largescale IoT applications cannot be satisfied by the fifth generation(5G)network,wireless communication network needs to be developed into the sixth generation(6G)network.However,with the increasingly prominent security problems of wireless communication networks such as 6G,covert communication has been recognized as one of the most promising solutions.Covert communication can realize the transmission of hidden information between both sides of communication to a certain extent,which makes the transmission content and transmission behavior challenging to be detected by noncooperative eavesdroppers.In addition,the integrated high altitude platform station(HAPS)terrestrial network is considered a promising development direction because of its flexibility and scalability.Based on the above facts,this article investigates the covert communication in an integrated HAPS terrestrial network,where a constant power auxiliary node is utilized to send artificial noise(AN)to realize the covert communication.Specifically,the covert constraint relationship between the transmitting and auxiliary nodes is derived.Moreover,the closed-form expressions of outage probability(OP)and effective covert communication rate are obtained.Finally,numerical results are provided to verify our analysis and reveal the impacts of critical parameters on the system performance.

Covert Communication with a Spectrum Sharing Relay in the Finite Blocklength Regime

In this paper,we investigate the feasibility and performance of the covert communication with a spectrum sharing relay in the finite blocklength regime.Specifically,the relay opportunistically forwards the source's messages to the primary receiver or conveys the covert messages to its own receiver via the sharing spectrum,while the warden attempts to detect the transmission.First,we derive a lower bound on the covertness constraint,and the analytical expressions of both the primary average effective covert throughput(AECT)and sum AECT are presented by considering the overall decoding error performance.Then,we formulate two optimization problems to maximize the primary and sum AECT respectively by optimizing the blocklength and the transmit power at the source and the relay.Our examinations show that there exists an optimal blocklength to maximize the primary and sum AECT.Besides,it is revealed that,to maximize the primary AECT,the optimal transmit power of each hop increases as its channel quality deteriorates.Furthermore,in the optimization for maximizing the sum AECT,the optimal transmit power at the source equals to zero when the channel quality from relay to the secondary receiver is not weaker than that from relay to the primary receiver.

Multi-Antenna Jammer Assisted Covert Communications in Data Collected IoT with NOMA

In this paper,we investigate covert communications in data collected IoT with NOMA,where the paired sensor nodes S_(m) and S_(n) transmit covert messages to a legitimate receiver(Bob)in the presence of a Warden(Willie).To confuse the detection at Willie,an extra multi-antenna friendly jammer(Jammer)has been employed to transmit artificial noise(AN)with random power.Based on the CSI of Willie is available or not at Jammer,three AN transmission schemes,including null-space artificial noise(NAN),transmit antenna selection(TAS),and zeroforcing beamforming(ZFB),are proposed.Furthermore,the closed-form expressions of expected minimum detection error probability(EMDEP)and joint connection outage probability(JCOP)are derived to measure covertness and reliability,respectively.Finally,the maximum effective covert rate(ECR)is obtained with a given covertness constraint.The numerical results show that ZFB scheme has the best maximum ECR in the case of the number of antennas satisfies N>2,and the same maximum ECR can be achieved in ZFB and NAN schemes with N=2.Moreover,TAS scheme also can improve the maximum ECR compared with the benchmark scheme(i.e.,signal-antenna jammer).In addition,a proper NOMA node pairing can further improve the maximum ECR.

Deep Reinforcement Learning for IRS-Assisted UAV Covert Communications

Covert communications can hide the existence of a transmission from the transmitter to receiver.This paper considers an intelligent reflecting surface(IRS)assisted unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)covert communication system.It was inspired by the high-dimensional data processing and decisionmaking capabilities of the deep reinforcement learning(DRL)algorithm.In order to improve the covert communication performance,an UAV 3D trajectory and IRS phase optimization algorithm based on double deep Q network(TAP-DDQN)is proposed.The simulations show that TAP-DDQN can significantly improve the covert performance of the IRS-assisted UAV covert communication system,compared with benchmark solutions.

A Derivative Matrix-Based Covert Communication Method in Blockchain

The data in the blockchain cannot be tampered with and the users are anonymous,which enables the blockchain to be a natural carrier for covert communication.However,the existing methods of covert communication in blockchain suffer from the predefined channel structure,the capacity of a single transaction is not high,and the fixed transaction behaviors will lower the concealment of the communication channel.Therefore,this paper proposes a derivation matrix-based covert communication method in blockchain.It uses dual-key to derive two types of blockchain addresses and then constructs an address matrix by dividing addresses into multiple layers to make full use of the redundancy of addresses.Subsequently,to solve the problem of the lack of concealment caused by the fixed transaction behaviors,divide the rectangular matrix into square blocks with overlapping regions and then encrypt different blocks sequentially to make the transaction behaviors of the channel addresses match better with those of the real addresses.Further,the linear congruence algorithm is used to generate random sequence,which provides a random order for blocks encryption,and thus enhances the security of the encryption algorithm.Experimental results show that this method can effectively reduce the abnormal transaction behaviors of addresses while ensuring the channel transmission efficiency.

A Covert Communication Method Using Special Bitcoin Addresses Generated by Vanitygen

As an extension of the traditional encryption technology,information hiding has been increasingly used in the fields of communication and network media,and the covert communication technology has gradually developed.The blockchain technology that has emerged in recent years has the characteristics of decentralization and tamper resistance,which can effectively alleviate the disadvantages and problems of traditional covert communication.However,its combination with covert communication thus far has been mostly at the theoretical level.The BLOCCE method,as an early result of the combination of blockchain and covert communication technology,has the problems of low information embedding efficiency,the use of too many Bitcoin addresses,low communication efficiency,and high costs.The present research improved on this method,designed the V-BLOCCE which uses base58 to encrypt the plaintext and reuses the addresses generated by Vanitygen multiple times to embed information.This greatly improves the efficiency of information embedding and decreases the number of Bitcoin addresses used.Under the premise of ensuring the order,the Bitcoin transaction OP_RETURN field is used to store the information required to restore the plaintext and the transactions are issued at the same time to improve the information transmission efficiency.Thus,a more efficient and feasible method for the application of covert communication on the blockchain is proposed.In addition,this paper also provides a more feasible scheme and theoretical support for covert communication in blockchain.

Covert LEO Satellite Communication Aided by Generative Adversarial Network Based Cooperative UAV Jamming

In this paper,we study the covert performance of the downlink low earth orbit(LEO)satellite communication,where the unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)is employed as a cooperative jammer.To maximize the covert rate of the LEO satellite transmission,a multi-objective problem is formulated to jointly optimize the UAV’s jamming power and trajectory.For practical consideration,we assume that the UAV can only have partial environmental information,and can’t know the detection threshold and exact location of the eavesdropper on the ground.To solve the multiobjective problem,we propose the data-driven generative adversarial network(DD-GAN)based method to optimize the power and trajectory of the UAV,in which the sample data is collected by using genetic algorithm(GA).Simulation results show that the jamming solution of UAV generated by DD-GAN can achieve an effective trade-off between covert rate and probability of detection errors when only limited prior information is obtained.

Jamming Assisted Covert Wireless Communication in Multi-Channel Systems

This paper investigates the jammerassisted multi-channel covert wireless communication(CWC)by exploiting the randomness of sub-channel selection to confuse the warden.In particular,we propose two sub-channel selection transmission schemes,named random sub-channel selection(RSS)scheme and maximum sub-channel selection(MSS)scheme,to enhance communication covertness.For each proposed scheme,we first derive closed-form expressions of the transmission outage probability(TOP),the average effective rate,and the minimum average detection error probability(DEP).Then,the average effective covert rate(ECR)is maximized by jointly optimizing the transmit power at the transmitter and the number of sub-channels.Numerical results show that there is an optimal value of the number of sub-channels that maximizes the average ECR.We also find that to achieve the maximum average ECR,a larger number of subchannels are needed facing a stricter covertness constraint.

Tradeoffs in Covert Wireless Communication with a Controllable Full-Duplex Receiver

This paper investigates the tradeoff of the communication link and the eavesdropping link in covert communication in the presence of a full-duplex(FD)receiver.When a warden(Willie)attempts to detect the signal transmitted from a legitimate transmitter(Alice),the controllable FD receiver(Bob)can transmit with random power to impose interference uncertainty to Willie and force it to make an incorrect decision.To maximize the average transmission rate(ATR)of Alice-Bob and the average covert probability(ACP)for Willie,we propose a multi-objective optimization framework to optimize Bob’s power uncertainty range(PUR)and spatial position jointly,subject to the sufficient condition for covert communication and the none-deployed-zone(NDZ).Due to the presence of multiple optimization objectives and nonconvex constraints,the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm II(NSGA-II)is utilized to explore the Pareto front and to give a set of solutions that reflect tradeoffs between the two conflicting objectives.Simulation results reveal that the solutions determined by the NSGA-II have larger values for both ATR and ACP than the other two baselines.Simulations also show the positive effect of the width of the PUR of Bob on the Pareto front.

Covert communication based on transmission antenna selection in the downlink communication link

A downlink covert communication model that consists of a base station and two legitimate users was considered. In addition to the general signals shared by the two users, the base station will send the covert signals only to one user in a certain time without wanting the other to detect this covert communication behavior. In order to achieve covert communication, two information transmission schemes are designed based on transmission antenna selection(TAS) with the help of artificial noise(AN) transmitted by the user receiving the covert signals, denoted as TAS-Ⅰ and TAS-Ⅱ respectively. Considering the best detection performance of the user only receiving the general signals, under the two schemes, the detection error probabilities and their average values, the connection probabilities, the system covert throughputs are separately calculated. In addition, on the premise of meeting the system's covert conditions, an optimization scheme is proposed to maximize the covert system throughput. Finally, the simulation results show that the proposed system can realize covert communication successfully, and the system covert performance under TAS-Ⅰ is better than that under TAS-Ⅱ.

Undercover communication using image and text as disguise and countermeasures

A brief survey of some representative techniques of steganography and steganalysis is presented. Various methods developed in the authors＇ laboratory are introduced, including symmetric LSB embedding, secure steganography in JPEG, palette, and uncompressed color images, histogram-based analysis and least histogram abnormality steganography, multiple-base notational system based embedding, stego-encoding integrated with error correction, etc. Some of the proposed approaches provide overall improvement, while others offer alternatives to existing techniques with advantage in certain aspects. Data hiding in text using the typesetting tool TeX is also introduced, with a brief description of a recently developed technique. Current research topics and the future plan are outlined. The discussion is focused mainly on steganography/steganalysis in still images.