Analysis of the low-probability-of-detection characteristics of ultraviolet communications.

Deep ultraviolet wavelengths have been proposed for low-probability-of-detection (LPD) communications, particularly for non-line-of-sight (NLOS) links, because of the increased atmospheric absorption at these wavelengths. Motivated by this favorable feature, we develop a modeling framework to quantitatively study the LPD characteristics of ultraviolet communications (UVC). We then demonstrate the application of our modeling framework by considering various friendly and adversarial system configurations and quantifying the proposed LPD metric (the range at which an adversary can detect communications that uses the minimum power needed to meet given communications performance requirements), as well as investigating the sensitivity of the analysis to various scenario parameters. The results demonstrate the potential for this modeling and analysis approach to provide key insights into the design and operation of LPD NLOS UVC systems.