Advances in Satellite/UAV Communications

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Microwave and Wireless Communications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 July 2026 | Viewed by 1234

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Beijing National Research Center for Information Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Interests: satellite communication; channel coding; communication security; reinforcement learning
Department of Electronics and Information Engineering, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Interests: new multi-antenna communication, air-space-ground integrated network, communication and sensing integration, wireless AI
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
School of Information and Communication Engineering, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China
Interests: resource allocation; traffic control; networking in wireless and satellite networks

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As key enablers of next-generation communication systems, satellite and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications are becoming increasingly vital for the ubiquitous connections of the future Internet of Everything. These platforms, however, face unique challenges due to inherent constraints such as limited power, compact size, and restricted bandwidth, coupled with characteristics such as long transmission distances, high terminal mobility, and rapidly time-varying channels. How to build novel network architectures, adaptive coding/modulation schemes, and intelligent resource management solutions to enhance transmission efficiency and reliability under these conditions remains a critical challenge. Furthermore, operating in wide-area and open environments makes satellite and UAV communications more vulnerable to eavesdropping and information interception, posing significant security risks. Designing robust solutions to ensure secure data transmission is an urgent priority. To address these issues, this Special Issue aims to explore the latest innovative technologies and methodologies, including but not limited to efficient resource allocation, adaptive modulation schemes, physical-layer security, and AI-driven optimization techniques in the area of satellite/UAV communications and networking. Contributions addressing integration with emerging 6G paradigms such as integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), non-terrestrial networks (NTNs), and edge intelligence are particularly encouraged.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Satellite/UAV communication network architecture;
  2. Resource allocation and network control;
  3. Advanced channel coding/modulation schemes;
  4. Integrated sensing and communication;
  5. Physical-layer security for satellite/UAV communications;
  6. Grant-free massive/random access techniques;
  7. AI-empowered solutions for satellite/UAV network orchestration;
  8. Mobility and interference management;
  9. Routing/MAC protocols for satellite/UAV networks;
  10. Edge computing and service provisioning.

Dr. Zhao Chen
Dr. Ji Wang
Dr. Zhe Ji
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • satellite/UAV communication
  • efficient resource allocation
  • physical-layer security

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 2718 KB  
Article
Joint Beam Position Grouping and RO Allocation for LEO Satellite Communication Systems
by Bojun Guo, Yiming Zhu, Yi Zheng, Yafei Wang, Mengyao Cao, Wenjin Wang and Li Chai
Electronics 2025, 14(23), 4731; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics14234731 - 30 Nov 2025
Viewed by 400
Abstract
International organizations such as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) regard non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) as an essential component of the sixth-generation (6G) mobile communication technology and have advanced relevant standardization efforts. Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication [...] Read more.
International organizations such as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) regard non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) as an essential component of the sixth-generation (6G) mobile communication technology and have advanced relevant standardization efforts. Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication (SatCom) constitutes a key part of NTNs, and efficient uplink random access (RA) is crucial for establishing initial connections in LEO SatCom systems. However, the long propagation delay and wide coverage of LEO satellites substantially increase access latency and collision probability due to the limited number of beams and their constrained coverage areas. In addition, the highly non-uniform spatial distribution of user equipment (UE) further aggravates access inefficiency. To this end, this paper investigates joint beam position grouping and RA channel (RACH) occasions (ROs) allocation (JBPGRA) for LEO SatCom systems. Specifically, we develop a system model for RA under beam hopping and identify the key factors that influence RA performance. Furthermore, we derive expressions for both the instantaneous signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) and the average SINR under a given non-uniform UE spatial distribution. Building on this analysis, the JBPGRA problem is formulated as an integer linear programming problem that seeks to maximize RA success while conserving RO resources under non-uniform UE distribution. To achieve a practical solution, we propose an efficient JBPGRA algorithm composed of beam position classification, sparse beam position grouping, and RO allocation modules. Simulation results demonstrate that, under the same UE density, the proposed JBPGRA scheme achieves over 29% higher access success rate in dense beam positions compared with the uniform baseline adopted in existing SatCom systems, while reducing RO consumption by more than 49% and decreasing the number of beam position groups by over 57%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Satellite/UAV Communications)
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23 pages, 6417 KB  
Article
WeDIGAR: A Light-Weighted Webshell Detection Framework for Satellite and UAV Networks
by Shun Fu, Hao Li, Panpan Zhu, Jian Tong, Jinye Yang and Ji Xu
Electronics 2025, 14(21), 4301; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics14214301 - 31 Oct 2025
Viewed by 505
Abstract
In satellite and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) networks, detecting webshells presents unique challenges, particularly on ground station edge nodes. Large, resource-intensive detection models are not feasible as nodes have insufficient computing power and limited time for analysis. This paper introduces a novel approach [...] Read more.
In satellite and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) networks, detecting webshells presents unique challenges, particularly on ground station edge nodes. Large, resource-intensive detection models are not feasible as nodes have insufficient computing power and limited time for analysis. This paper introduces a novel approach for webshell detection tailored for these environments. Our method first extracts structural and semantic Information Granules (IGs) from the HTTP response bodies sent from the remote systems. Next, we construct a causal graph to identify and remove irrelevant IGs that are not linked to the webshell label. Finally, a random forest classifier is applied to the remaining, relevant IGs. This lightweight component has been empirically validated in both laboratory experiments and a simulated industrial application scenario. The results show that our method achieved an impressive accuracy rate exceeding 99% and a response time of less than 10 milliseconds for each request, significantly outperforming legacy systems based on graph convolutional networks. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Satellite/UAV Communications)
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