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Sensing Aided Covert Communications: Turning Interference into Allies

Xinyi Wang, Zesong Fei, Peng Liu, J. Andrew Zhang, Qingqing Wu, Nan Wu

TL;DR

The paper addresses covert communication in a radar–communication cooperative system by leveraging radar sensing to track an aerial adversary and construct adversary CSI for joint BS and radar design. It introduces an EKF-based tracking pipeline and develops two optimization frameworks: a decoupled SOCP/SDP approach under perfect CSI for high-altitude LoS links, and a robust fractional-programming/SDR approach with ellipsoidal CSI uncertainty for low-altitude scenarios. The results show accurate adversary tracking, guaranteed covertness through KL-divergence constraints, and significant rate gains over conventional schemes; ISAC configurations can deliver similar covert performance with reduced power. These findings demonstrate the practical potential of sensing-assisted covert transmission and offer scalable paths for multi-user and countermeasure extensions in ISAC platforms.

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the realization of covert communication in a general radar-communication cooperation system, which includes integrated sensing and communications as a special example. We explore the possibility of utilizing the sensing ability of radar to track and jam the aerial adversary target attempting to detect the transmission. Based on the echoes from the target, the extended Kalman filtering technique is employed to predict its trajectory as well as the corresponding channels. Depending on the maneuvering altitude of adversary target, two channel state information (CSI) models are considered, with the aim of maximizing the covert transmission rate by jointly designing the radar waveform and communication transmit beamforming vector based on the constructed channels. For perfect CSI under the free-space propagation model, by decoupling the joint design, we propose an efficient algorithm to guarantee that the target cannot detect the transmission. For imperfect CSI due to the multi-path components, a robust joint transmission scheme is proposed based on the property of the Kullback-Leibler divergence. The convergence behaviour, tracking MSE, false alarm and missed detection probabilities, and covert transmission rate are evaluated. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms achieve accurate tracking. For both channel models, the proposed sensing-assisted covert transmission design is able to guarantee the covertness, and significantly outperforms the conventional schemes.

Sensing Aided Covert Communications: Turning Interference into Allies

TL;DR

The paper addresses covert communication in a radar–communication cooperative system by leveraging radar sensing to track an aerial adversary and construct adversary CSI for joint BS and radar design. It introduces an EKF-based tracking pipeline and develops two optimization frameworks: a decoupled SOCP/SDP approach under perfect CSI for high-altitude LoS links, and a robust fractional-programming/SDR approach with ellipsoidal CSI uncertainty for low-altitude scenarios. The results show accurate adversary tracking, guaranteed covertness through KL-divergence constraints, and significant rate gains over conventional schemes; ISAC configurations can deliver similar covert performance with reduced power. These findings demonstrate the practical potential of sensing-assisted covert transmission and offer scalable paths for multi-user and countermeasure extensions in ISAC platforms.

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the realization of covert communication in a general radar-communication cooperation system, which includes integrated sensing and communications as a special example. We explore the possibility of utilizing the sensing ability of radar to track and jam the aerial adversary target attempting to detect the transmission. Based on the echoes from the target, the extended Kalman filtering technique is employed to predict its trajectory as well as the corresponding channels. Depending on the maneuvering altitude of adversary target, two channel state information (CSI) models are considered, with the aim of maximizing the covert transmission rate by jointly designing the radar waveform and communication transmit beamforming vector based on the constructed channels. For perfect CSI under the free-space propagation model, by decoupling the joint design, we propose an efficient algorithm to guarantee that the target cannot detect the transmission. For imperfect CSI due to the multi-path components, a robust joint transmission scheme is proposed based on the property of the Kullback-Leibler divergence. The convergence behaviour, tracking MSE, false alarm and missed detection probabilities, and covert transmission rate are evaluated. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms achieve accurate tracking. For both channel models, the proposed sensing-assisted covert transmission design is able to guarantee the covertness, and significantly outperforms the conventional schemes.
Paper Structure (22 sections, 2 theorems, 45 equations, 12 figures, 1 table, 1 algorithm)

This paper contains 22 sections, 2 theorems, 45 equations, 12 figures, 1 table, 1 algorithm.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. System Model
  3. General Signal Models
  4. Sensing and Tracking Model
  5. ISAC Signal Models
  6. Covert Communication Requirement
  7. Radar-Aided Covert Communication Design under Perfect CSI
  8. Problem Formulation
  9. Proposed Algorithm
  10. Optimization of BS beamformer
  11. Optimization of radar waveform
  12. Radar-Aided Covert Communication Design under Imperfect CSI
  13. Problem Formulation
  14. Proposed Algorithm
  15. $D(p_0 \Vert p_1) \leq 2\epsilon^2$
  16. ...and 7 more sections

Key Result

Lemma 1

(S-Procedure2004Convex): Let where $\mathbf{A}_k \in \mathbb{C}^{n \times n}, \mathbf{b}_k \in \mathbb{C}^{n \times 1}, \mathbf{x} \in \mathbb{C}^{n \times 1}$, and $c_k \in \mathbb{R}$. Then, the implication $f_1(\mathbf{x}) \leq 0 \Rightarrow f_2(\mathbf{x}) \leq 0$ holds if and only if there exists a $\mu \geq 0$, such that as long as there exists a point $\tilde{\mathbf{x}}$ such that $f_1(\

Figures (12)

  • Figure 1: An illustration of the downlink covert communication and radar cooperation system.
  • Figure 2: An illustration of simulation set-up.
  • Figure 3: Two examples of real trajectory and estimated trajectory.
  • Figure 4: The empirical CDF of tracking MSE on the aerial target (adversary target).
  • Figure 5: The empirical CDF of (a) $D(p_0 \Vert p_1)$ (b) $P_{FA}$ and $P_{MD}$ of adversary target under different transmission schemes ($\rm MSE_{max} = 10$).
  • ...and 7 more figures

Theorems & Definitions (4)

  • Remark 1
  • Remark 2
  • Lemma 1
  • Lemma 2