Transmit Power and Flying Location Optimization for Time-Efficient Covert Multicast in UAV-Enabled Wireless Communication Systems

This paper delves into the time-efficient covert multicast in a wireless communication system facilitated by Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), in which the UAV aims to disseminate a common covert information to multiple ground users (GUs) while suffering from the risk of detection by a ground warden (Willie). For a given flying location of the UAV, we first develop a theoretical framework for performance modeling of both the detection error probability at Willie and the transmission time at UAV, and then explore the optimal setting of UAV transmit power to achieve the minimum transmission time at this location. We further propose a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)-based algorithm to jointly optimize the UAV’s flying location and transmit power to achieve the overall minimum transmission time. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed PSO-based algorithm is substantiated through extensive numerical results.