Model of Message Transmission across Parallel Route Groups with Dynamic Alternation of These Groups in a Multichannel Steganographic System

Abstract

The subject of this study is steganographic systems that are able to hide not only the content of the transmitted information but also the fact of its transmission. In this paper, we present a novel data transmission model within such systems, combining a modified Dijkstra’s algorithm with the dynamic utilization of multiple transmission routes. Consequently, this allows the simultaneous transmission of messages through parallel groups of routes with the dynamic alternation of these groups during the information exchange process between the sender and the receiver in the steganographic network. Thus, the speed, reliability, and security of message transmission are improved. Moreover, to increase the security level, the proposed model uses a route–time matrix that is available only to the sender and receiver. Additionally, the data transmission model has been tested on synthetic data and data obtained from real devices. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the proposed model on the example of various structured steganographic systems shows the significant effectiveness of our model. As a result, in comparison with existing similar methods, the secrecy index was increased five times and the violation index was decreased four times.