Covert performance enhancement in NOMA enabled CoMP network with optimal RIS selection

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the covert rate maximization problem for the cell edge user in a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) aided downlink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) network with coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission in the presence of channel estimation errors. We derive the analytical expression for the detection error probability (DEP) at the adversary (Willie) assuming the worst case scenario where they employ optimal detection threshold. With the derived analytical expression, we propose an optimal RIS selection scheme to boost the covert rate. To further improve the covert performance, we optimize the NOMA power allocation coefficients and phase shifts of the selected RIS subject to the target rate and covertness constraints. Simulation results demonstrate the improvement in covert rate and robustness offered by the proposed scheme in the presence of channel estimation errors over other benchmarks.