Dear Colleagues,

Security and privacy have consistently been crucial concerns within wireless communication systems. To address these concerns effectively, innovative approaches to cryptography, physical layer transmission strategies, network protocols, and related regulations are in high demand. Over the past decade, wireless communication networks have witnessed significant advancements and transformations across various dimensions.

Primarily, the research focus within wireless communication systems has shifted from 5G to 6G, leading to heightened device connectivity and information flow within wireless networks. This transition has been accompanied by the emergence of novel applications, such as remote real-time medical services and patient care, which necessitate the exclusive reception and processing of confidential data by designated service providers.

Secondly, the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a key catalyst for automation in diverse domains, including smart homes, precision agriculture, and intelligent manufacturing. However, the design parameters for IoT systems, such as packet length, transmission patterns, and time delays, exhibit significant variations across different applications. Consequently, these variations present distinct challenges in security and privacy design. Notably, integrating lightweight cryptography is imperative to cater to the power constraints inherent in IoT systems.

Thirdly, the development and introduction of new technologies, such as intelligent reflection surfaces, edge/fog/cloud computing, blockchain, and artificial intelligence (AI), into the wireless communication system design bring new opportunities and challenges in guaranteeing information security and user privacy.

This Special Issue focuses on the latest research in protocols, software/hardware development and implementation, and system architecture design that addresses the emerging security and privacy issues in modern wireless communication networks. The scope of this Issue encompasses various relevant topics, including but not limited to the following:

• Deep-learning-based security and privacy design;
• Covert communications;
• Security in UAV-assisted networks;
• Information‒theoretical foundations for advanced security and privacy techniques;
• Lightweight cryptography for power-constrained networks;
• Physical layer key generation;
• Prototype and testbed for security and privacy solutions;
• Encryption and decryption algorithm for low-latency-constrained networks;
• Security protocols for modern wireless communication networks;
• Network intrusion detection;
• Physical layer design with security consideration;
• Anonymity in data transmission;
• Vulnerabilities in security and privacy in modern wireless communication networks;
• Challenges of security and privacy in node‒edge‒cloud computation;
• Security and privacy design for low-power wide-area IoT networks;
• Security and privacy design for vehicle networks;
• Security and privacy design for underwater communications network;
• Blockchain-based solutions for modern wireless communication networks.

Dr. Tao Huang
Dr. Shihao Yan
Prof. Dr. Guanglin Zhang
Dr. Tsz Hon Yuen
Dr. YoHan Park
Prof. Dr. Changhoon Lee
Dr. Jusak Jusak
Guest Editors

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• physical layer security
• covert communications
• information‒theoretical foundations
• lightweight cryptography
• privacy
• key generation
• security protocols
• intrusion detection
• machine learning
• blockchain
• prototype and testbed

• Security and Privacy for Modern Wireless Communication Systems in Electronics (15 articles)