Covert Wireless Communication in Presence of a Multi-Antenna Adversary and Delay Constraints

Abstract: Covert communication hides the transmission of a message from a watchful adversary while ensuring reliable information decoding at the receiver, providing enhanced security in wireless communications. In this letter, covert communication in the presence of a multi-antenna adversary and under delay constraints is considered. Under the assumption of quasi-static wireless fading channels, we analyze the effect of increasing the number of antennas employed at the adversary on the achievable throughput of covert communication. It is shown that in contrast to a single-antenna adversary, a slight increase in the number of adversary's antennas drastically reduces the covert throughput, even for relaxed covertness requirements.