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.
Tabatabaee et al. (Thu,) studied this question.