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IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications

Covert Performance of NOMA System With Hardware Impairments in Nakagami Fading Channel

Xiangbin Yu, Keyu Shen, Yun Rui, Shihao Yan, Guoqing Jia, Mohsen Guizani

Published Jan 28, 2025• 9 citations
Publisher

Abstract

In this paper, the covert performance of the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system with random transmit power under hardware impairments over the Nakagami fading channel is investigated, where the stronger user serves as a covert user (Bob) and receives the secure message from the transmitter (Alice) under the cover of the weaker user (Carl). The transmission is monitored by a warden (Willie). To improve the covert performance, we randomize the transmit power of Alice, which is subject to a uniform distribution. Based on this, considering the randomness of covert user’s position, we derive the closed-form expressions of the average detection error probability (ADEP) respectively for the warden with instantaneous and statistical channel information. Then, the optimal detection threshold based on one-dimensional (1D) search method is presented for minimizing the ADEP. To simplify the optimal threshold, the suboptimal threshold with low complexity is also derived. Besides, the outage probability (OP) of the system is deduced for performance analysis and optimization. Under the constraints of covertness and reliability, the power allocation (PA) coefficient is optimized to minimize the OP of the covert user, and the 1D search scheme is proposed to obtain the optimal solution. Also, a suboptimal scheme is presented to reduce the complexity of the optimal scheme. Numerical results are presented to validate our theoretical analysis, and show that randomizing the transmit power can effectively improve the covert performance. Moreover, the system with two optimized thresholds can obtain lower ADEP than that with a fixed threshold, and the system with two optimized PA coefficients has a lower OP than that with a fixed PA.

DOI
10.1109/twc.2025.3531642

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In this paper, the covert performance of the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system with random transmit power under hardware impairments over the Nakagami fading channel is investigated, where the stronger user serves as a covert user (Bob) and receives the secure message from the transmitter (Alice) under the cover of the weaker user (Carl). The transmission is monitored by a warden (Willie). To improve the covert performance, we randomize the transmit power of Alice, which is subject to a uniform distribution. Based on this, considering the randomness of covert user’s position, we derive the closed-form expressions of the average detection error probability (ADEP) respectively for the warden with instantaneous and statistical channel information. Then, the optimal detection threshold based on one-dimensional (1D) search method is presented for minimizing the ADEP. To simplify the optimal threshold, the suboptimal threshold with low complexity is also derived. Besides, the outage probability (OP) of the system is deduced for performance analysis and optimization. Under the constraints of covertness and reliability, the power allocation (PA) coefficient is optimized to minimize the OP of the covert user, and the 1D search scheme is proposed to obtain the optimal solution. Also, a suboptimal scheme is presented to reduce the complexity of the optimal scheme. Numerical results are presented to validate our theoretical analysis, and show that randomizing the transmit power can effectively improve the covert performance. Moreover, the system with two optimized thresholds can obtain lower ADEP than that with a fixed threshold, and the system with two optimized PA coefficients has a lower OP than that with a fixed PA.
It is challenging to covert communication under channel distribution information (CDI) uncertainty caused by limited feedback and rapid-changing channels. This letter investigates covert communication in uplink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems under CDI uncertainty, where a covert user (CU) and reliable user (RU) transmit messages to a legitimate receiver (Bob) threatened by a warden (Willie). RU not only transmits its public messages but also helps CU to send private messages against Willie’s detection. To protect CU’s transmission with imperfect CDI, we first study the worst case for NOMA users and obtain a lower bound of the worst-case detection error probability (DEP). In addition, both closed-form expressions for RU and CU’s connection outage probabilities are derived. Constrained by the DEP and connection outage probability, we maximize the expected covert rate (ECR) and derive the optimal power settings for RU and CU under imperfect CDI. Numerical results show that the proposed robust power setting scheme achieves a positive maximum ECR despite CDI uncertainty causing the reduction of covertness performance.
This letter considers covert communication in downlink NOMA systems, where a public action (communication from Alice to the NOMA-weak user U1) is used to provide a cover for a secret action (communication from Alice to the NOMA-strong user U2). To aid system design, we first derive the detection error probability (DEP) at Willie and the connect outage probabilities (COPs) at U1 and U2. Then, considering the covertness and outage constraints, the optimization of power allocation factor ratio between U1 and U2 is tackled in order to maximize the effective covert rate. The results demonstrate that the minimum DEP is the power allocation factor for U1. In addition, for a given covert constraint, relaxing the outage constraint will effectively increase the maximum effective covert rate within a certain range of the maximum transmit power of U1.
This letter proposes a joint covert and secure transmission scheme in the non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) networks against internal eavesdropping and external monitoring. In the network, the strong user wiretaps the signals of the weak user while an external warden monitors the communication behaviors of the strong user. To address the issue, a random artificial noise (AN) based beamforming is adopted, which not only reduces the eavesdropping rate of the strong user but also confuses the warden. We consider the worst case, where the warden can minimize the detection error probability (DEP) by optimizing its detection threshold. Further, we characterize the closed-form expressions of the average minimum DEP of the warden, the connection outage probabilities of the NOMA users and the secrecy outage probability of the weak user under the imperfect successive interference cancellation (SIC). To improve the performance, an effective covert rate maximization problem is formulated, under the constraints of the covertness, reliability and secrecy, which is analytically solved. Numerical results validate the superiority of the proposed scheme.
This paper pioneers the exploitation of power domain superposition to embed covert messages within overt ones in a two-user uplink Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) system. This eliminates the need for a dedicated covert trans-mitter, enhancing practicality. Our method thwarts conventional radiometer detection at Willie, necessitating Likelihood Ratio Testing (LRT), which we evaluate under optimized overt transmission rates and imperfect Successive Interference Cancellation (SIC) scenarios at Willie. We then minimize Willie's detection error probability by optimizing his detection thresholds and subsequently maximize his minimum DEP by exploiting the user's transmit power and overt-covert power allocation. We show that covert communication is safe if the warden, Willie, doesn't decode any overt message and converges to 1 under high transmission power at users.
This paper investigates the application of a cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) network with two down-link users in Nakagami-m fading scenario. The near user acts as a decode-and-forward full-duplex relay for the far user. An eavesdropper is also present in the network, which tries to access messages intended for legitimate users. In full-duplex mode, the near user will send jamming signals and receive desired signals during the first phase. During the second phase, the base station sends jamming signals. Analytical expressions for the secrecy outage probabilities and the overall system secrecy outage probability (SOP) are derived. Also, the optimal power allocation coefficient that minimizes the overall SOP is determined using the simulated annealing (SA) algorithm. We establish that using optimal power allocation coefficients can reduce the overall outage probability significantly as compared to the random selection of the power allocation factor.
This paper investigates secure transmission for non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems where the imperfect successive interference cancellation (SIC) is considered at both legitimate users and eavesdropper (Eve). A power allocation scheme is designed for the legitimate users to mitigate the effect of the SIC error caused by imperfect SIC. For characterizing the secrecy performance of the NOMA system, the closed-form expressions for connection outage probability (COP), secrecy outage probability (SOP), and effective secrecy throughput (EST) are derived over Nakagami-m fading channels in both NOMA and benchmark orthogonal multiple access (OMA) systems. We also provide security and reliability trade-off results (SRT) for the users in the NOMA and OMA systems. Simulation results verify our analysis and show that the strong users achieve better secrecy performance but worse reliability performance and NOMA outperforms OMA in terms of SRT.