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Symmetry
Special Issues
Symmetry and Asymmetry in Wireless Sensor Networks
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Symmetry and Asymmetry in Wireless Sensor Networks

A special issue of Symmetry (ISSN 2073-8994). This special issue belongs to the section "Computer".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2027 | Viewed by 1533

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Bobin Yao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Electronics and Control Engineering, Chang’an University, Xi’an, China
Interests: wireless communications; wireless sensing theory; array signal processing; intelligent networked sensing and control; multi-dimensional pattern recognition; AI for intelligent transportation
Dr. Xiaoping Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
Interests: array signal processing; phase unwrapping; wireless communication coding; wireless sensor networks
Dr. Bin Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Electronics and Information, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China
Interests: array signal processing; integrated sensing and communication; MIMO communication; wireless sensor networks

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, with the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), edge computing, and 5G/6G, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are evolving from the traditional ‘data collecting–wireless transmitting’ to ‘intelligent sensing–autonomous decision-making’. They play a crucial role in smart cities, the industrial internet, medicine and health, energy and electricity, intelligent transportation, etc. However, an improvement in their functional level will inevitably aggravate the consumption of the limited underlying resources, as well as bringing about more serious imbalances between different types of functions or performance indicators, e.g., the resource allocation of communication and perception in integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), the joint optimization of limited energy and wide-area coverage, the computing balance between massive data processing and real-time operation, the compatibility of cross-platform collaboration and protocol fragmentation, and the compromise of the time and space complexity of system parameter identification. At present, these thorny problems are being investigated by many scholars in various fields, and some promising solutions have been proposed, which have greatly improved the depth and breadth of the theory of intelligent WSNs.

In these studies, relevant theories and methods have always depended on symmetry, which is an intrinsic property of the WSNs. Symmetry helps to promote system architecture, algorithm design, and performance optimization. Symmetrical structure improves the connectivity and fault tolerance of WSNs, reduces the energy consumption of the routing protocol, and even enhances the security of the entire network.

We invite scholars, innovators, and designers to contribute original research work, insightful cases, and valuable ideas. Your contributions will help reshape the future landscape of WSNs from theory to technology. We welcome a variety of diverse and differentiated perspectives and discussions to be submitted to this Special Issue.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Symmetry/asymmetry protocol design in WSNs;
  • Symmetry/asymmetry resource allocation in WSNs;
  • Symmetry/asymmetry ISAC in WSNs;
  • Symmetry/asymmetry sensing for connected and autonomous vehicles/drones;
  • Symmetrical/asymmetrical sensor deployment for target detection and tracking;
  • Symmetry/asymmetry mechanism for phase unwrapping and its applications;
  • Symmetry/asymmetry methods for non-line-of-sight imaging in WSNs;
  • Symmetry/asymmetry reconfigurable intelligent surface-aided sensing in WSNs;
  • Symmetry/asymmetry privacy and security in WSNs;
  • Symmetry/asymmetry computing in AI-strengthened WSNs.

Dr. Bobin Yao
Dr. Xiaoping Li
Dr. Bin Li
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Symmetry 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 2400 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

  • wireless sensor networks
  • multiple input multiple output system
  • antenna arrays
  • integrated sensing and communication
  • phase unwrapping
  • target detection and tracking
  • non-line-of-sight imaging
  • privacy and security
  • artificial intelligence

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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18 pages, 842 KB  
Article
Model-Embedded Lightweight Network for Joint I/Q Imbalance and CFO Estimation in NB-IoT
by Yijun Ling and Yue Meng
Symmetry 2025, 17(12), 2157; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym17122157 - 15 Dec 2025
Viewed by 565
Abstract
Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) was designed as a key Low-Power Wide-Area Network technology when 5G networks were established. The ideal quadrature demodulation in NB-IoT relies on the fundamental symmetry between the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) branches, characterized by a perfect 90-degree [...] Read more.
Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) was designed as a key Low-Power Wide-Area Network technology when 5G networks were established. The ideal quadrature demodulation in NB-IoT relies on the fundamental symmetry between the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) branches, characterized by a perfect 90-degree phase shift and matched amplitude. However, practical hardware imperfections in mixers, filters, and ADCs break this symmetry, leading to I/Q imbalances. Moreover, I/Q imbalance is coupled with carrier frequency offset (CFO), which arises from asymmetry in the frequency of the transceiver oscillator. In this paper, we propose a model-embedded lightweight network for joint CFO and I/Q imbalance estimation for NB-IoT systems. An I/Q imbalance compensation model is embedded as a layer to connect two subnetworks, I/Q estimation network (IQENET) and CFO estimation network (CFOENET). By embedding the physical model, the network gains the capability to learn the features of coupling effects during the training process, as the image signals caused by I/Q imbalance are removed before CFO estimation. A phased training strategy is also proposed. In the first phase, the two subnetworks are pre-trained independently. In the second phase, they are fine-tuned jointly to deal with the coupling effects. Simulation results show that the proposed network achieves high estimation accuracy while maintaining low complexity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Symmetry and Asymmetry in Wireless Sensor Networks)
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24 pages, 2143 KB  
Article
Symmetry-Aided Active RIS for Physical Layer Security in WSN-Integrated Cognitive Radio Networks: Green Interference Regulation and Joint Beamforming Optimization
by Yixuan Wu
Symmetry 2025, 17(12), 2047; https://doi.org/10.3390/sym17122047 - 1 Dec 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 543
Abstract
Driven by 5G/6G and the Internet of Things (IoT), wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are confronted with core challenges such as limited energy constraints, unbalanced resource allocation, and security vulnerabilities. To address these, WSNs are integrated with cognitive radio networks (CRNs) to alleviate spectrum [...] Read more.
Driven by 5G/6G and the Internet of Things (IoT), wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are confronted with core challenges such as limited energy constraints, unbalanced resource allocation, and security vulnerabilities. To address these, WSNs are integrated with cognitive radio networks (CRNs) to alleviate spectrum scarcity, and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) are adopted to enhance performance, but traditional passive RIS suffers from “double fading” (signal path loss from transmitter to RIS and RIS to receiver), which undermines WSNs’ energy efficiency and the physical layer security (PLS) (e.g., secrecy rate, SR) of primary users (PUs) in CRNs. This study leverages symmetry to develop an active RIS framework for WSN-integrated CRNs, constructing a tripartite collaborative model where symmetric beamforming and resource allocation improve WSN connectivity, reduce energy consumption, and strengthen PLS. Specifically, three symmetry types—resource allocation symmetry, beamforming structure symmetry, and RIS reflection matrix symmetry—are formalized mathematically. These symmetries reduce the degrees of freedom in optimization (e.g., cutting precoding complexity by ~50%) and enhance the directionality of green interference, while ensuring balanced resource use for WSN nodes. The core objective is to minimize total transmit power while satisfying constraints of PU SR, secondary user (SU) quality-of-service (QoS), and PU interference temperature, achieved by converting non-convex SR constraints into solvable second-order cone (SOC) forms and using an alternating optimization algorithm to iteratively refine CBS/PBS precoding matrices and active RIS reflection matrices, with active RIS generating directional “green interference” to suppress eavesdroppers without artificial noise, avoiding redundant energy use. Simulations validate its adaptability to WSN scenarios: 50% lower transmit power than RIS-free schemes (with four CBS antennas), 37.5–40% power savings as active RIS elements increase to 60, and a 40% lower power growth slope in multi-user WSN scenarios, providing a symmetry-aided, low-power solution for secure and efficient WSN-integrated CRNs to advance intelligent WSNs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Symmetry and Asymmetry in Wireless Sensor Networks)
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