A network of chaotic systems can be designed in such a way that the cluster patterns formed by synchronous nodes can be controlled through the coupling parameters. We present a novel approach to exploit such a network for covert communication purposes, where controlled clusters encode the symbols spatio-temporally. The cluster synchronization network is divided into two subnetworks as transmitter and receiver. First, we specifically design the network whose controlled parameters reside in the transmitter. Second, we ensure that the nodes of the links connecting the transmitter and receiver are not in the same clusters for all the control parameters. The former condition ensures that the control parameters changed at the transmitter change the whole clustering scheme. The second condition enforces the transmitted signals are always continuous and chaotic. Hence, the transmitted signals are not modulated by the information directly, but distributed over the links connecting the subnetworks. The information cannot be deciphered by eavesdropping on the channel links without knowing the network topology. The performance has been assessed by extensive simulations of bit error rates under noisy channel conditions.

翻译：混沌系统的网络可以通过耦合参数控制同步节点形成的集群模式。本文提出一种利用这种网络进行隐蔽通信的新方法，其中受控集群以时空方式编码符号。集群同步网络被划分为发送器和接收器两个子网络。首先，我们专门设计了其受控参数位于发送器中的网络。其次，我们确保对于所有控制参数，连接发送器和接收器的链路节点不会处于相同的集群中。第一个条件确保发送器中改变的控制参数会改变整个集群方案。第二个条件强制传输信号始终保持连续且混沌。因此，传输信号并不直接由信息调制，而是分布在连接子网络的链路上。在不了解网络拓扑的情况下，无法通过窃听信道链路来破解信息。通过噪声信道条件下误码率的大量仿真，对性能进行了评估。