Author Identifier (ORCID)
Shihao Yan: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4586-1926
Abstract
A novel intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-assisted multi-antenna unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) covert communication (IRS-UAVCC) with a finite blocklength is studied, in which the IRS is exploited to enhance the covert transmission capability of moving multi-antenna UAV and weaken the detection capability of a warden. Our goal is to maximize the UAV covert transmission rate by jointly optimizing the multi-antenna UAV’s trajectory (UAVTR) and transmit beamforming (UAVTB), and the IRS’s phase shift matrix (PSM). To tackle this non-convex problem, we decompose it into three sub-problems. Firstly, the semidefinite relaxation (SDR) technique is employed to solve the two sub-problems of UAVTB and IRS’s PSM. Secondly, by applying the successive convex approximation (SCA) technique, the non-convex multi-antenna UAVTR optimization sub-problem is reformulated into a convex one. Finally, an efficient block coordinate descent (BCD) structure is proposed to obtain a suboptimal solution for the original optimization problem. To further reduce the complexity, a low complexity penalty dual decomposition with gradient projection (PDDGP) method is developed to obtain the optimal moving multi-antenna UAVTB and the IRS’s PSM. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed algorithm in IRS-UAVCC with a finite blocklength.
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
1-1-2025
Publisher
IEEE
School
School of Science
RAS ID
83466
Funders
Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (622RC622) / National Natural Science Foundation of China (62261019, U22A2002) / Scientific Research Fund Project of Hainan University (KYQD(ZR)-21008, KYQD(ZR)-21132)
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published by IEEE. © 2025 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
Zhang, W., Liang, X., Deng, Q., Shu, F., Zhang, Z., Nie, L., & Yan, S. (2025). Joint trajectory and beamforming optimization for IRS-assisted multi-antenna UAV covert communications with a finite blocklength. IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1109/TGCN.2025.3585891