Covert Wireless Communication Against Surveillance With Detection and Localization

In this paper, we address finite block-length covert wireless communication against an adversary that not only detects the signals but also localizes the source. Because of the probability of failed localization, the adversary’s detection strategy differs greatly from the former works. In the free space propagation model, we discuss the surveillance strategy of an adversary equipped with a uniform linear antenna array and the legitimate users’ resources optimization scheme for achieving covert communication. The theoretical analysis and the numerical results illustrate the properties of the adversary’s surveillance and the achievable covert communication performance, showing that the randomness in the source’s transmission time may also improve the covertness.