Covert Communication for Integrated Satellite–Terrestrial Relay Networks with Cooperative Jamming

Abstract

We explore the influence of cooperative jamming on covert communication for integrated satellite–terrestrial relay networks (ISTRN) in this article, where one full-duplex relay is utilized to support communications and acts as a jammer to confuse eavesdroppers. A cooperative scheme is first proposed to efficiently achieve covert communication in this specific scenario. Further, the probability of detection error (PDE) is derived. Subsequently, the minimum PDE is calculated using the optimal detection threshold. Moreover, a closed-form expression of outage probability (OP) is acquired to quantify the system’s covert performance. Based on this, we design a power optimization algorithm to enhance the effective covert rate under covertness constraints. Lastly, numerical simulation results are given to verify the efficiency of our cooperative jamming scheme when interrupting the eavesdroppers. Notably, an optimal power allocation factor can be obtained, leading to a higher effective covert rate.