Fundamental Scaling Laws of Covert Communication in the Presence of Block Fading

Abstract: Covert communication is the undetected transmission of sensitive information over a communication channel. In wireless communication systems, channel impairments such as signal fading present challenges in the effective implementation and analysis of covert communication systems. This paper generalizes early work in the covert communication field by considering asymptotic results for the number of bits that can be covertly transmitted in $n$ channel uses on a block fading channel. Critical to the investigation is characterizing the performance of optimal detectors at the adversary. Matching achievable and converse results are presented.