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Secure transmission with different security requirements based on covert communication and information-theoretic security in the presence of friendly jammer

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Published/Copyright: February 20, 2026
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Frequenz
From the journal Frequenz

Abstract

This paper addresses the power allocation problem in a network where joint information-theoretic secrecy and covert communication are required. In this network, a single transmitter (Alice) sends information to two legitimate users (Bob and Carol). There is also an untrusted user who attempts to detect the content of Bob’s message and a warden (Willie) who wants to detect the existence of communication between Alice and the two users. Thus, Carol requires covert transmission, and Bob requires secure and covert communication. The network utilizes a friendly jammer to address these demands and overcome the low transmission rate of covert communication. To achieve covert communication, Alice sends both users’ data simultaneously in selected time slots to hide it from Willie, while the jammer continuously transmits signals in all time slots. The objective is to maximize the average transmission rate over the allocated powers of Bob, Carol, and the jammer while meeting the two users’ requirements. A novel iterative algorithm is proposed to obtain an effective solution. Simulation results indicate that the proposed method can enhance the network’s average rate while satisfying the users’ demands.

Keywords: information theoretic security; covert communication; physical layer security; wireless network; friendly jammer
Corresponding author: Farid Samsami Khodadad, Modern Technologies Engineering Department, Amol University of Spatial of Modern Technologies, Amol, Iran, E-mail:

  1. Research ethics: Not applicable.

  2. Informed consent: Not applicable.

  3. Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  4. Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: None declared.

  5. Conflict of interest: The authors state no conflict of interest.

  6. Research funding: None declared.

  7. Data availability: Not applicable.

Appendix: Obtaining (15b) and (15c) from (13f)

By replacing θ op obtained from (11) in the constraint (13f) and according to (10), we have

(24) p F A + p M D θ o p ≥ 1 − ε ⇒ e − λ 1 × λ 2 λ 2 − λ 1 × ln λ 2 λ 1 λ 1 + λ 2 λ 2 − λ 1 1 − e − λ 1 × λ 2 λ 2 − λ 1 × ln λ 2 λ 1 λ 2 − λ 1 λ 2 − λ 1 1 − e − λ 1 × λ 2 λ 2 − λ 1 × ln λ 2 λ 1 λ 1 ≥ 1 − ε .

By applying some mathematical operations, we will face the following formula for the constraint (13f):

(25) λ 1 λ 2 − λ 1 × ln λ 1 λ 2 ≤ ln ε .

Now, with the help of the auxiliary variable t = λ 2 − λ 1 and replacing it in the (25), this equation can be represented as

(26) λ 1 × ln λ 1 λ 2 − t × ln ε ≤ 0 .

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Received: 2025-06-07
Accepted: 2025-12-10
Published Online: 2026-02-20

© 2026 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

https://doi.org/10.1515/freq-2025-0190
Keywords for this article
information theoretic security; covert communication; physical layer security; wireless network; friendly jammer
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