Theme and Scope

Telecommunication networks are growing tremendously around the globe. To meet the increasing communication needs, 5G and beyond networks have evolved. The features of 5G and beyond networks provide immense opportunities to create intelligent and seamless fast communication services. Beyond their healthy potentials, they suffer from security issues as well. Providing resilient security services is given the highest priority while the design of these modern networks. Some of the security issues that are possible in 5G and beyond networks are eavesdropping, unauthorized access, and demolishing integrity. A few of the open security challenges in 5G and beyond networks are lightweight security, scalability, low latency, and reliability. Traditional techniques such as cryptography can be used to provide security services. But there are few issues in cryptographic methods. First, the crypto functions require complex signal processing. Second, the centralized key distribution leads to increased delay. Thus, the cryptographic methods cause communication overhead. Instead, the physical layer security utilizes the properties of the transmission channel and acquires security.

The prominent advantage of physical layer security in 5G and beyond networks is the avoidance of centralized key distribution. Thus, it avoids the additional latency caused by key usage and serves with less complexity. A few of the performance metrics that are used to evaluate the efficiency of physical layer security are perfect secrecy, weak secrecy, strong secrecy, secrecy capacity, secrecy outage probability, security gap, reliability threshold, and rate interval. To tackle eavesdropping, transmission signal heterogeneity can be exploited. Much of the physical layer security is based on random-coding arguments. This code construction is an emerging research topic. The most prominent codes that are constructed to achieve physical layer security are LDPC codes, polar codes, and lattice codes.

In the future, to improvise physical layer security of 5G and beyond networks, the researchers could give much attention to wiretap coding, feedback policies design, and channel state information. Open research opportunities still exist in physical layer security threats such as signal cancellation attacks, unmanned aerial vehicle communication, millimeter-wave communication, full-duplex technology, synthesis of 5G characteristics, and visible light channel. This issue on Securing 5G and Beyond Networks with Physical Layer Security, gives an insight into the advantages of physical layer security in 5G, Beyond Networks, and delivers the future research directions for scientists and academicians.

List of Topics (include, but not limited to the following):

• Evolution of lightweight security mechanisms to secure 5G and beyond networks: Solutions and challenges
• Securing 5G and beyond networks communication in physical layer perspective
• Advances in physical layer security to promote secure communications in 5G and beyond networks
• Enabling blockchain technology integrated 5G and beyond networks to deliver intelligent security services
• Impact of the public key cryptography-based authentication scheme in physical layer security for 5G and beyond networks
• Role of physical layer authentication mechanisms to prevent active and passive eavesdropping in 5G and beyond networks
• Emerging trends on safeguarding 5G and beyond networks uplink and downlink using physical-layer security: A global perspective 
• Intelligent solutions to facilitate security using random-coding arguments and polarization in 5G and beyond networks
• Innovations in the tackling signal cancellation attack to secure 5G and beyond networks: Opportunities and challenges
• Emerging trends to ensure physical layer secrecy in heterogeneous applications of 5G and beyond networks
• Advances in secure communications in 5G and beyond networks using physical-layer security: Technology, practices, and future directions
• Emerging techniques to solve physical layer security threats for the betterment of 5G and beyond networks
• Advances in optimization-based physical layer security approach to secure wired and wireless applications of 5G and beyond networks
• Advances in addressing the challenges in safeguarding 5G and beyond networks using physical layer security
• Advances in performance of LDPC and polar codes for ensuring security in 5G and beyond networks

Instructions for Manuscripts

Each paper, written in English, the maximum words number in each paper should be below 8,000 words, including references and illustrations. More information can be found at https://jit.ndhu.edu.tw/. Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are located at https://jit.ndhu.edu.tw/about/submissions#authorGuidelines. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/internet-tech. When submitting papers, authors should specify that the manuscript is for Special Issue on “Securing 5G and Beyond Networks with Physical Layer Security”. The manuscript template can be found at https://jit.ndhu.edu.tw/about/submissions#authorGuideline.

Important Dates

Manuscript Submissions Deadline: April 15, 2022

Notification to Authors: July 5, 2022

Deadline for revision submissions: October 10, 2022       

Notification of final decisions: December 30, 2022       

Tentative Publication: the second quarter of 2023

Guest Editors

Dr. Ahmed A. Abd El-Latif

Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Menoufia University, Egypt

alatif@science.menofia.edu.eg

Dr. Edmond Shu-lim Ho

Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Northumbria University, United Kingdom

e.ho@northumbria.ac.uk

Dr. Jialiang Peng

School of Data Science and Technology, Heilongjiang University, China

jialiangpeng@hlju.edu.cn