Design, Control, Optimization, and Security of Next-Generation Communications Networks

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 September 2025 | Viewed by 1753

Special Issue Editors

School of Automation, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
Interests: networked estimation and control in wireless sensor and actuator networks; cyber-physical systems; task mapping and resource allocation in embedded systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Interests: Internet of Things; reinforcement learning; game theory; network security

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

To satisfy various business/industrial applications and extreme performance requirements based on Next-Generation Communication Networks (NGCNs) such as 6G, WiFi 8, and vehicular networks, the coordination of modeling, control, optimization, and security is needed to provide wide-area access to spatial information about the connected devices and surrounding environments. This scenario paves the way for pioneering innovative applications such as automation, aided driving, digital twins, industry 4.0, and integration with artificial intelligence, enhancing the perception and iteration of the physical environment.

The applications of NGCNs are difficult to implement without addressing the issues of implementing communication and networking models for more efficient communications between wireless devices and reliable data processing mechanisms that improve systems' control performances, especially when system resources are limited or subject to multiple hard/soft constraints such as system QoS, real-time response, and energy efficiency. Although it has attracted tremendous attention from academia and industry, many open questions remain to be explored.

The scope of this Special Issue is to present and highlight the advances in the latest optimization, control technologies, implementations, and applications of high-performance computation and communication for NGCNs. Consequently, the topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Design and new architectures for NGCNs;
  • Federated learning for NGCNs;
  • AI-based data analytics methods for NGCNs;
  • Distributed/decentralized control for NGCNs;
  • Energy transfer, harvesting, and saving in NGCNs;
  • Optimization of Resource Allocation and Management for NGCNs;
  • Security and Privacy Issues in NGCNs;
  • Green AI for training and inferencing;
  • Enabling machine learning over wireless networks;
  • Prototyping and testbeds for NGCN smart applications.

Dr. Lei Mo
Dr. Guiyun Liu
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • next-generation communication networks
  • system architecture
  • federated learning
  • data analysis
  • distributed/decentralized control
  • energy efficiency
  • resource allocation and management
  • security and Privacy
  • AI technology
  • machine learning

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 2628 KiB  
Article
Privacy-Preserving Dynamic Spatial Keyword Query Scheme with Multi-Attribute Cost Constraints in Cloud–Edge Collaboration
by Zhenya Chen, Yushen Deng, Ming Yang, Xiaoming Wu, Xin Wang and Peng Wei
Electronics 2025, 14(5), 897; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics14050897 - 24 Feb 2025
Viewed by 304
Abstract
The rapid advancement of the Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile devices has made location-based services (LBSs) increasingly prevalent, significantly improving daily convenience and work efficiency. However, this widespread usage has raised growing concerns about privacy and security, particularly during data outsourcing to [...] Read more.
The rapid advancement of the Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile devices has made location-based services (LBSs) increasingly prevalent, significantly improving daily convenience and work efficiency. However, this widespread usage has raised growing concerns about privacy and security, particularly during data outsourcing to cloud servers, where users’ location information and related data are susceptible to breaches by malicious actors or attackers. Traditional privacy-preserving spatial keyword schemes often employ Bloom filters for data encoding and storage. While Bloom filters offer high lookup speeds, they suffer from limitations such as a relatively high false positive rate in certain scenarios and poor space efficiency. These issues can adversely affect query accuracy and overall user experience. Furthermore, existing schemes have not sufficiently addressed the multi-attribute characteristics of spatial textual data. At the same time, relying solely on cloud servers for large-scale data processing introduces additional challenges, including heavy computational overhead, high latency, and substantial communication costs. To address these challenges, we propose a cloud–edge collaborative privacy-preserving dynamic spatial keyword query scheme with multi-attribute cost constraints. This scheme introduces a novel index structure that leverages security-enhanced Xor filter technology and Geohash techniques. This index structure not only strengthens query security and efficiency but also significantly reduces the false positive rate, thereby improving query accuracy. Moreover, the proposed scheme supports multi-attribute cost constraints and dynamic data updates, allowing it to adapt flexibly to practical requirements and user-specific needs. Finally, through security analysis and experimental evaluation, we demonstrate that the proposed scheme is both secure and effective. Full article
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15 pages, 1756 KiB  
Article
Improved Execution Efficiency of FPE Scheme Algorithm Based on Structural Optimization
by Xian-Wei Yang, Lan Wang, Ma-Li Xing and Qiang Li
Electronics 2024, 13(20), 4007; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13204007 - 11 Oct 2024
Viewed by 781
Abstract
The model of preserving a format encryption scheme based on a Feistel structure has developed rapidly and has been widely used in recent years. In this paper, the software implementation of the FF1 algorithm for the model was presented, and its execution efficiency [...] Read more.
The model of preserving a format encryption scheme based on a Feistel structure has developed rapidly and has been widely used in recent years. In this paper, the software implementation of the FF1 algorithm for the model was presented, and its execution efficiency was evaluated. Then, the efficiency bottleneck problem and its causes were identified. Based on the above analysis results, optimization methods were given from the perspectives of prepossessing, algorithm structure, and format conversion function, and implementation plans were provided. Finally, the simulation results show that the optimized performance improvement is significant, and the degree of performance improvement increases with the increase in plain text length. Full article
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