Covert Communication with Relay Selection

In this letter, we investigate covert communication in relay networks with relay selection. We consider the scenario that while forwarding the source’s message, the selected relay opportunistically transmits its own message to the destination covertly. We derive the probability of detection error (PDE) and the average covert rate (ACR) in a closed form, based on which we analyse the effects of system parameters on the performance of the covert communication. Our analysis indicates that applying relay selection causes a decrease in the PDE, however, it can provide an ACR gain when the transmission rate of the source increases.