Low Probability of Detection Communication: Opportunities and Challenges
It tackles privacy and security issues for wireless network users, but is incremental as it builds on existing information-theoretic studies.
The paper addresses privacy and security in wireless networks by exploring low probability of detection (LPD) communication, establishing fundamental limits on information bits under detection constraints and discussing optimal signaling strategies.
Low probability of detection (LPD) communication has recently emerged as a new transmission technology to address privacy and security in wireless networks. Recent studies have established the fundamental limits of LPD communication in terms of the amount of information bits that can be conveyed from a transmitter to a receiver subject to a constraint on a warden's detection error probability. The established information-theoretic metric enables analytical studies on the design and performance of LPD communication under various channel conditions. In this article, we present the key features of LPD communication and discuss various important design considerations. Firstly, we clarify the differences between LPD communication and the well-known physical-layer security. Then, from an information-theoretic point of view, we discuss the optimal signalling strategies for transmitting the message-carrying signal and artificial-noise signal for LPD communication. Finally, we identify the key challenges in the design of practical LPD communication systems and point out future research directions in this context. This article provides guidelines for designing practical LPD communication strategies in wireless systems and networks.