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International Conference on Networking and Network Applications (NaNA)

Multi-Relay Covert Communication in Industrial IoT with Independent and Collaborative Adversaries

Jiale Feng, Yanping Chen, Cong Gao, Wei Zhong

Published Aug 1, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher
DOI
10.23919/nanacps00070.2026.00019

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In covert communication, Alice tries to communicate with Bob without being detected by a warden Willie. When the distance between Alice and Bob becomes large compared with the distance between Alice and Willie(s), the performance of covert communication will be degraded. In this case, multi-hop message transmission via intermediate relays can help to improve the performance. Hence, in this paper, multi-hop covert communication over a moderate size network and in the presence of multiple collaborating Willies is considered. The relays can transmit covertly using either a single key for all relays or different independent keys at the relays. For each case, we develop efficient algorithms to find optimal paths with maximum throughput and minimum end-to-end delay between Alice and Bob. As expected, employing multiple hops significantly improves the ability to communicate covertly versus the case of a single-hop transmission. Furthermore, at the expense of more shared key bits, analytical results and numerical simulations demonstrate that the multi-hop covert communication with different independent keys at the relays has better performance than the multi-hop covert communication with a single key.
In the context of Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications, ensuring secure and covert wireless communication remains a critical challenge, especially when using energy harvesting relays. Moreover, the analysis of hardware impairments is a pivotal practical aspect in the evaluation of IoT communication networks. This paper investigates four scenarios to address security and covert communication. In the first scenario, the focus is on guaranteeing the security in the presence of hardware impairments. In this case, the external jammer transmits interference signals toward both the relay and Bob to prevent information leakage from the untrusted relay. However, in this scenario, since the state of the untrusted relay is always superior to that of Bob, security cannot be guaranteed under any network parameters. Accordingly, in the second scenario, to tackle this problem, a receiver equipped with the capability to transmit jamming signals (receiver jammer) is proposed, aiming to protect the communication against potential information leakage from the untrusted relay. In the third and fourth scenarios, the relay is considered a trusted node, and warden (Willie) is introduced into the system. Here, the external jammer plays a crucial role when transmitting interference signals simultaneously toward Bob, relay, and Willie to ensure communication security. This scenario incorporates covert communication designed to counter threats from Willie’s detection. Covert communication in these two scenarios is analyzed under the following two conditions: 1) When Willie has Channel State Information (CSI); 2) When Willie lacks CSI, in which case he equips himself with multiple antennas. Simulation results show that the proposed power allocation can enhance secure and covert communications, even in the presence of hardware impairments and a multi-antenna Willie. Moreover, it is shown that when Willie has CSI, the performance of covert communication is severely reduced.
Covert communication aims to enhance the security of the wireless communication by hiding the transmission behavior from the eavesdropper. In this paper, a spectrum mask-based multi-antenna covert communication strategy is proposed in Internet of Things (IoT) networks. Specifically, the transmitter superimposes its messages on the existing overt channel to prevent the transmission being detected by the adversary eavesdropper, which can significantly enhance communication covertness without the need for additional spectrum resources. To eliminate the interference cause to the existing overt channel, multi-antenna technology and improper Gaussian signaling (IGS) are leveraged at the covert transmitter. Moreover, maximum ratio transmission (MRT) is adopted at the covert transmitter can fully exploit the additional degrees of freedom (DoF) that the multi-antenna provides to achieve reliable and covert transmission. Firstly, the optimal detection threshold at the eavesdropper is analyzed, and minimum error detection probability is then calculated, which indicates the worst-case from the covert transmitter’s perspective. In this scenario, a joint transmit power and IGS factor optimization problem is proposed to maximize the covert throughput under the covertness constraints. Secondly, the optimization problem is divided into three subproblems based on the power relationship, then the optimal transmit power and IGS factor are solved, respectively. Finally, extensive simulation is executed to demonstrate that under the given covertness constraints, the proposed strategy can effectively improve the covert communication performance of the multi-antenna system in IoT networks.