A covert $\alpha$-stable noise based extended random communication by incorporating multiple inverse systems

Ahmed, Areeb (author), Bosnić, Zoran (author)

Covert communication involves sending information in a manner that hides the presence of communication from recipients. This study introduces a strategy for ensuring covert communication by incorporating inverse systems to design an Extended Random Communication System (ERCS), where the carrier conveying the information is skewed alpha-stable random noise. In contrast to the approach that utilizes a single inverse system to provide covertness through a Random Communication System, this new technique integrates several m th-order inverse systems to transform skewed α-stable random signals on the transmitting end and the corresponding inverse systems on the receiving end to invert the signals received from the Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel. The retrieval of the binary message stream from the inverted signals is performed by the ERCS receiver by performing an estimation using the maximum extreme-value method. By spreading the tasks of encoding and decoding across various inverse systems, the suggested approach raises the difficulty level for eavesdroppers in retrieving the hidden stream of a binary message without the knowledge of ERCS parameters that are pre-shared solely between the intended receiver and transmitter. The results from Monte Carlo simulations show that deploying the proposed ERCS not only leads to better Bit Error Rate (BER) performance but also provides increased covertness values, which proves the design’s ability to enhance performance and security compared to earlier models. Simulation analysis also suggests that the utilization of multiple inverse systems in the proposed ERCS can enhance the physical-layer security of next-generation communication devices.

• Language: English
• Keywords: noise, linear systems, dynamical systems, security, bit error rate, decoding, covert communication
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FRI - Faculty of Computer and Information Science
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 13675-13685
• Numbering: Vol. 13
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-171507
• UDC: 004
• ISSN on article: 2169-3536
• DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3529712
• COBISS.SI-ID: 223081219
• Publication date in RUL: 27.08.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: IEEE access
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• ISSN: 2169-3536
• COBISS.SI-ID: 519839513

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: šum, linearni sistemi, dinamični sistemi, varnost, napaka bitov, dekodiranje, prikrita komunikacija

Projects

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Project number: 101081355
• Name: Machine learning for Sciences and Humanities
• Acronym: SMASH