Covert Communication With Truncated Channel Inversion Power Control in D2D Underlaid Cellular Networks

Ranran Sun

¹ School of Computer Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710071, China

² School of Computer and Information Engineering, Chuzhou University, Chuzhou, Anhui, 239000, China

³ MOSAIC Lab (www.mosaic-lab.org), Espoo 02150, Finland

*Corresponding author

Device-to-device (D2D) underlaid cellular networks are regarded as an emerging network structure in the 5G systems. We study the covert communication of such networks consisting of a base station BS, a cellular user Alice, a D2D pair with a transmitter Dt and a receiver Dr , and a warden W illie. To conduct the covert communication, Alice adopts the truncated channel inversion power control (CIPC) to hide itself from W illie, where the received signal power at BS is fixed avoiding channel estimation for decoding Alice’s signal. Meanwhile, the interference generated by the D2D pair reusing the spectrum of Alice is exploited to confuse W illie. To understand the fundamental covert rate performance in the considered network, we first provide a theoretical model for characterizing the detection error probability of W illie as well as the effective covert rate at BS under the truncated CIPC scheme. Based on the main results, we then explore the effective covert rate maximization under the constraint of the detection error probability to identify the optimal truncated CIPC scheme designing and interference management. Finally, extensive numerical results are presented to illustrate the impacts of the truncated CIPC and interference from Dt on the covert performance.

Device-to-device, covert communication, physical layer security, power control

Ranran Sun, Bin Yang (2021). Covert Communication With Truncated Channel Inversion Power Control in D2D Underlaid Cellular Networks. Journal of Networking and Network Applications, Volume 1, Issue 4, pp. 179–186. https://doi.org/10.33969/J-NaNA.2021.010405.

[1] M. N. Tehrani, M. Uysal, and H. Yanikomeroglu, “Device-to-device communication in 5G cellular networks: challenges, solutions, and future directions,” IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 52, no. 5, pp. 86–92, 2014.

[2] G. Fodor, E. Dahlman, G. Mildh, S. Parkvall, N. Reider, G. Mikl´os, and Z. Tur´anyi, “Design aspects of network assisted device-to-device communications,” IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 170–177, 2012.

[3] R. Khan, P. Kumar, D. N. K. Jayakody, and M. Liyanage, “A survey on security and privacy of 5G technologies: Potential solutions, recent advancements, and future directions,” IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 196–248, 2019.

[4] Y. Zhang, Y. Shen, X. Jiang, and S. Kasahara, “Mode selection and spectrum partition for D2D inband communications: A physical layer security perspective,” IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 67, no. 1, pp. 623–638, 2018.

[5] C. Ma, J. Liu, X. Tian, H. Yu, Y. Cui, and X. Wang, “Interference exploitation in D2D-enabled cellular networks: A secrecy perspective,” IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 63, no. 1, pp. 229–242, 2015.

[6] Y. J. Tolossa, S. Vuppala, G. Kaddoum, and G. Abreu, “On the uplink secrecy capacity analysis in D2D-enabled cellular network,” IEEE Systems Journal, pp. 2297–2307, 2017.

[7] W. Wang, K. C. Teh, and K. H. Li, “Enhanced physical layer security in D2D spectrum sharing networks,” IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 106–109, 2016.

[8] B. A. Bash, D. Goeckel, and D. Towsley, “Limits of reliable commu-nication with low probability of detection on AWGN channels,” IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 31, no. 9, pp. 1921–1930, 2013.

[9] M. S. Bullock, C. N. Gagatsos, S. Guha, and B. A. Bash, “Fundamental limits of quantum-secure covert communication over bosonic channels,” IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, pp. 1–1, 2020.

[10] M. Ahmadipour, S. Salehkalaibar, M. H. Yassaee, and V. Y. Tan, “Covert communication over a compound discrete memoryless channel,” in 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (ISIT). IEEE, 2019, pp. 982–986.

[11] L. Wang, G. W. Wornell, and L. Zheng, “Limits of low-probability-of-detection communication over a discrete memoryless channel,” pp. 2525–2529, 2015.

[12] P. H. Che, M. Bakshi, and S. Jaggi, “Reliable deniable communication: Hiding messages in noise,” in 2013 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory. IEEE, 2013, pp. 2945–2949.

[13] S. Lee and R. J. Baxley, “Achieving positive rate with undetectable communication over awgn and rayleigh channels,” in 2014 IEEE In-ternational Conference on Communications (ICC). IEEE, 2014, pp. 780–785.

[14] P. H. Che, M. Bakshi, C. Chan, and S. Jaggi, “Reliable deniable communication with channel uncertainty,” in 2014 IEEE Information Theory Workshop (ITW 2014). IEEE, 2014, pp. 30–34.

[15] S. Lee, R. J. Baxley, M. A. Weitnauer, and B. Walkenhorst, “Achieving undetectable communication,” IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing, vol. 9, no. 7, pp. 1195–1205, 2015.

[16] K. Li, P. A. Kelly, and D. Goeckel, “Optimal power adaptation in covert communication with an uninformed jammer,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 3463–3473, 2020.

[17] T. V. Sobers, B. A. Bash, S. Guha, D. Towsley, and D. Goeckel, “Covert communication in the presence of an uninformed jammer,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 16, no. 9, pp. 6193–6206, 2017.

[18] J. Wang, W. Tang, Q. Zhu, X. Li, H. Rao, and S. Li, “Covert commu-nication with the help of relay and channel uncertainty,” IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 317–320, 2018.

[19] C. Wang, Z. Li, J. Shi, and D. W. K. Ng, “Intelligent reflecting surface-assisted multi-antenna covert communications: Joint active and passive beamforming optimization,” IEEE Transactions on Communications, 2021.

[20] K. Shahzad, X. Zhou, S. Yan, J. Hu, F. Shu, and J. Li, “Achieving covert wireless communications using a full-duplex receiver,” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 17, no. 12, pp. 8517–8530, 2018.

[21] C. Gao, B. Yang, X. Jiang, H. Inamura, and M. Fukushi, “Covert communication in relay-assisted iot systems,” IEEE Internet of Things Journal, vol. 8, no. 8, pp. 6313–6323, 2021.

[22] R. Sun, B. Yang, S. Ma, Y. Shen, and X. Jiang, “Covert rate maximiza-tion in wireless full-duplex relaying systems with power control,” IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 69, no. 9, pp. 6198–6212, 2021.

[23] X. Zhou, S. Yan, Q. Wu, F. Shu, and D. W. K. Ng, “Intelligent reflecting surface (irs)-aided covert wireless communications with delay constraint,” IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun., vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 532–547, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1109/TWC.2021.3098099

[24] Y. Jiang, L. Wang, and H.-H. Chen, “Covert communications in D2D underlaying cellular networks with antenna array assisted artificial noise transmission,” IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 69, no. 3, pp. 2980–2992, 2020.

[25] Y. Jiang, L. Wang, H. Zhao, and H. H. Chen, “Covert communications in D2D underlaying cellular networks with power domain NOMA,” IEEE Systems Journal, vol. PP, no. 99, pp. 1–12, 2020.

[26] X. Shi, D. Wu, C. Yue, C. Wan, and X. Guan, “Resource allocation for covert communication in D2D content sharing: A matching game approach,” IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 72 835–72 849, 2019.

[27] X. Shi, D. Wu, C. Wan, M. Wang, and Y. Zhang, “Trust evaluation and covert communication-based secure content delivery for D2D networks: A hierarchical matching approach,” IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 134 838–134 853, 2019.

[28] H. Rao, M. Wu, J. Wang, W. Tang, S. Xiao, and S. Li, “D2D covert communications with safety area,” IEEE Systems Journal, 2020.

[29] J. Hu, S. Yan, X. Zhou, F. Shu, and J. Li, “Covert wireless communica-tions with channel inversion power control in rayleigh fading,” IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 68, no. 12, pp. 12 135–12 149, 2019.

[30] J. Hu, S. Yan, X. Zhou, F. Shu, and J. Wang, “Covert communications without channel state information at receiver in IoT systems,” IEEE Internet of Things Journal, vol. 7, no. 11, pp. 11 103–11 114, 2020.