Adaptive Software Radio Steganography

TL;DR

This paper introduces an adaptable, physical-layer radio steganography method that is protocol-independent and allows easy control of covert channel covertness, with demonstrated feasibility through simulations.

Contribution

It presents a novel physical-layer steganography technique that is adaptable and protocol-agnostic, with performance evaluated via simulations.

Findings

Feasible method with good performance-covertness trade-off

Protocol independence enhances applicability across radio systems

Adaptive control of covertness simplifies deployment

Abstract

This paper presents an adaptable steganography (information hiding) method for digital radio communication. Many radio steganography methods exist, but most are defined at higher levels of the protocol stack and are thus protocol dependent. In contrast, this method is defined at the physical layer, which makes it widely applicable regardless of the protocols used at higher layers. This approach is also adaptive; the covertness of the hidden channel is simple to control via a single continuous parameter either manually or automatically. Several variations are introduced, each with performance evaluated by simulation. Results show this to be a feasible method with a reasonable trade-off between performance and covertness.