Physical-Layer Security in Drone Communications—2nd Edition

A special issue of Drones (ISSN 2504-446X). This special issue belongs to the section "Drone Communications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 November 2025 | Viewed by 395

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Cyber Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China
Interests: physical-layer security; UAV communications; green communications; signal processing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
School of Electronics and Information, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China
Interests: physical-layer security; cognitive radio networks; marine communications; machine learning; resource allocation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
College of Information Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology Weihai, Weihai 264209, China
Interests: cross-domain dommunications; cross-sea communications; maritime communication security
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Both drone communications and physical-layer security (PLS) have gained significant interest in recent years. The challenge lies in the vulnerability of signal transmissions in drone networks to impersonation attacks and eavesdropping due to the open line-of-sight nature of the low-altitude spatial channel environments. PLS, which leverages natural features instead of artificial complexity, provides quasi-Quantum features, including high security and low complexity. PLS in drone communications is significantly distinct from that of terrestrial communications due to unique factors such as jitter, trajectory planning and sparse scattering.

Continuing from the first edition of “Physical-Layer Security in Drone Communications”, this Special Issue aims to collect new developments regarding the solutions of PLS in drone communications. We welcome submissions including, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • Physical-layer wireless key generations in drone communications;
  • Radio frequency fingerprinting of drones and legacy authentication;
  • Wireless channel feature-based legacy authentication in drone communications;
  • Three-dimensional beamforming-based secrecy enhancements in drone communications;
  • Imperfect knowledge from eavesdropper-related issues;
  • Drone jitter and its impacts on PLS;
  • Security and beneficial trajectory design of drones;
  • Relay and jamming-assisted PLS drone communications;
  • Experimental methodology and designs in PLS drone communications;
  • Field tests related to the PLS of drone communications.

Dr. Dongming Li
Dr. Dawei Wang
Dr. Yi Lou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Drones is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • drone communications
  • physical-layer security
  • key generation
  • drone jitter
  • beamforming and jamming
  • trajectory planning

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

29 pages, 3403 KiB  
Review
A Review of Physical Layer Security in Aerial–Terrestrial Integrated Internet of Things: Emerging Techniques, Potential Applications, and Future Trends
by Yixin He, Jingwen Wu, Lijun Zhu, Fanghui Huang, Baolei Wang, Deshan Yang and Dawei Wang
Drones 2025, 9(4), 312; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones9040312 - 16 Apr 2025
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Abstract
The aerial–terrestrial integrated Internet of Things (ATI-IoT) utilizes both aerial platforms (e.g., drones and high-altitude platform stations) and terrestrial networks to establish comprehensive and seamless connectivity across diverse geographical regions. The integration offers significant advantages, including expanded coverage in remote and underserved areas, [...] Read more.
The aerial–terrestrial integrated Internet of Things (ATI-IoT) utilizes both aerial platforms (e.g., drones and high-altitude platform stations) and terrestrial networks to establish comprehensive and seamless connectivity across diverse geographical regions. The integration offers significant advantages, including expanded coverage in remote and underserved areas, enhanced reliability of data transmission, and support for various applications such as emergency communications, vehicular ad hoc networks, and intelligent agriculture. However, due to the inherent openness of wireless channels, ATI-IoT faces potential network threats and attacks, and its security issues cannot be ignored. In this regard, incorporating physical layer security techniques into ATI-IoT is essential to ensure data integrity and confidentiality. Motivated by the aforementioned factors, this review presents the latest advancements in ATI-IoT that facilitate physical layer security. Specifically, we elucidate the endogenous safety and security of wireless communications, upon which we illustrate the current status of aerial–terrestrial integrated architectures along with the functions of their components. Subsequently, various emerging techniques (e.g., intelligent reflective surfaces-assisted networks, device-to-device communications, covert communications, and cooperative transmissions) for ATI-IoT enabling physical layer security are demonstrated and categorized based on their technical principles. Furthermore, given that aerial platforms offer flexible deployment and high re-positioning capabilities, comprehensive discussions on practical applications of ATI-IoT are provided. Finally, several significant unresolved issues pertaining to technical challenges as well as security and sustainability concerns in ATI-IoT enabling physical layer security are outlined. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physical-Layer Security in Drone Communications—2nd Edition)
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