With the evolution toward 6G and beyond wireless systems, next-generation antenna technologies, such as extremely large-scale MIMO (XL-MIMO), fluid antenna systems (FAS), movable antennas (MA), and pinching antennas, are reshaping the electromagnetic propagation environment and unlocking spatial degrees of freedom for wireless communications. However, the increasingly dense and heterogeneous nature also exposes communications to more severe security threats, including eavesdropping, jamming, and surveillance of transmission behaviors. Conventional cryptography-based security solutions face growing challenges, and some emerging application scenarios, such as critical infrastructure protection and privacy-sensitive Internet-of-Things (IoT), impose stringent demands not only on the confidentiality of transmitted content but also on the covertness of the communication behavior. Physical layer security (PLS) and covert communications, empowered by the reconfigurability and spatial resolution of next-generation antenna systems, offer a promising pathway toward intrinsic wireless security. Nevertheless, fundamental issues including the theoretical limits of secrecy and covertness under near-field propagation, joint beamforming design, and the security-energy efficiency trade-off remain open, calling for systematic and in-depth investigation.
By gathering state-of-the-art researches from both academic and industrial communities, this special session seeks to catalyze progress in secure and covert communications for next-generation antenna systems from theoretical underpinnings and innovative transmission mechanisms to real-world system deployment. We cordially invite global researchers to contribute original manuscripts on emerging security paradigms, fundamental performance limits, and advanced optimization techniques in this field. Our target is to foster the development of future wireless systems with inherent security, strong resilience, and communication undetectability, ultimately supporting the realization of secure and dependable 6G networks.
Topics (Including but not limited to)
- Information-theoretic foundations of secure and covert communications (e.g., secrecy capacity, covert rate and its extensions under advanced antenna architectures)
- Physical layer security for XL-MIMO and near-field communications (including near-field beamfocusing-based confidentiality and distance-domain security)
- RIS/STAR-RIS-assisted secure and covert transmission (including joint beamforming and reflection optimization, malicious RIS)
- Secure and covert communications with fluid antenna systems (FAS), movable antennas (MA), and pinching antenna systems
- Covert waveform design and low-probability-of-detection/intercept (LPD/LPI) signal processing for next-generation antenna systems
- Joint design of covert communication and integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), including covert sensing and dual-functional waveform design
- Anti-jamming, anti-eavesdropping, and anti-spoofing transmission technologies enabled by reconfigurable antenna architectures
- Security and covertness in satellite-terrestrial integrated / space-air-ground-sea integrated networks
- Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven optimization for secure and covert communications (e.g., learning-based adversary modeling, intelligent resource allocation, generative AI for waveform concealment)
- Covert communication under practical constraints (e.g., imperfect channel state information, hardware impairments, finite blocklength, uncertain warden models)
- Privacy protection and anonymous communication technologies for IoT, vehicular, and UAV networks
Organizer: Dr. Minghao Chen, Hainan University, China
Minghao Chen (Member, IEEE) received the B.S. degree in Communication Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in Electric Information Technology from North China Electric Power University. Now, he is an Associate Researcher in School of Information and Communication, Hainan University, focusing on the research of secure wireless communications, AI-driven technologies, and UAV-enabled communication. He has been a reviewer of IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GREEN COMMUNICATION AND NETWORKING and IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS.
Co-organizer: Prof. Bin Li, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, China
Bin Li (Member, IEEE) received the Ph.D. degree from Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China, in 2019.,From 2013 to 2014, he was a Research Assistant with The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China. From 2017 to 2018, he was a visiting Ph.D. Student with the University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. In 2019, he joined Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, China. His research interests include UAV communications, reconfigurable intelligent surface,and mobile edge computing.
Co-organizer: Prof. Liang Yang, Hunan University, China
Liang Yang (Senior Member, IEEE) was born in Hunan, China. He received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, in 2006. From 2006 to 2013, he was a Teacher with Jinan University, Guangzhou. In 2013, he joined Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou. He is currently a Professor with Hunan University, Changsha, China. His current research interests include the performance analysis of wireless communications systems.
※ Important Dates | 重要日期
|
※ Submission Guideline / 投稿指南Template Download: WORD Formatting.doc (文章模板下载) | LaTex Template Please log in the
Submission System; ( .pdf only) to submit your full paper and abstract. |