IEEE Communications Magazine provides timely information on all aspects of (electrical/electronic) communications. The magazine covers services (telecommunications, multimedia, Internet and digital), network (including its softwarization, as well as underlying infrastructure) and device technology, support systems, transversal topics like artificial intelligence applied to telecommunications, market trends, strategy and regulatory issues. Articles are tutorial in nature and written in a style comprehensible to readers outside the specialty of the article. These articles are complemented with non-indexed columns.

Special Issue on Advancing Secure Communication in the Era of 6G through the Air-Space-Ground-Maritime Networks
Submission Date: 2024-11-30

With the relentless advancement of 6G technology, the future landscape of mobile communication networks is poised to witness a seamless integration between terrestrial cellular networks and non-terrestrial networks. This integration aims to establish a globally extensive air-space-ground-maritime network to meet the expanding application demands of next-generation mobile communication. Its service coverage extends from the traditional, limited two-dimensional terrestrial space to the vast three-dimensional expanse near the Earth's surface, facilitating comprehensive and volumetric network connectivity. In addition, the exponential growth in demand for 6G networks in the future makes network security more important than ever. However, due to the broadcasting nature of wireless transmission, wireless links are susceptible to security threats such as interference attacks and information leakage. Therefore, research on information security technologies, such as covert communication, is essential for the future development of air-space-ground-maritime networks.

Against the backdrop of 6G advancements, the integration of the air-space-ground-maritime network presents formidable challenges in the realm of information security. The amalgamation of terrestrial, aerospace and maritime networks introduces vulnerabilities at the intersection, requiring innovative solutions to secure the seamless fusion of these disparate communication domains. Moreover, expanding communication networks into the three-dimensional space near the Earth's surface brings forth unique security concerns. Addressing these challenges necessitates a thorough exploration of encryption, authentication, and intrusion detection mechanisms tailored to the specific characteristics of this volumetric communication landscape. The covert communication aspect within this integrated framework adds an additional layer of complexity. Exploring techniques and protocols for covert communications demands attention to balance security and privacy concerns while harnessing the benefits of concealed data transmission. Lastly, as 6G networks evolve, so do the threats to information security. Establishing resilient mechanisms to counteract emerging threats is vital. 

Consequently, this Special Issue (SI) aims to offer a platform for researchers from both academia and industry to publish recent research findings and to discuss opportunities, challenges, and solutions related to air-space-ground-maritime Networks. Potential topics of interest include but are not limited to the following.

    Global Air-space-Ground-Maritime Network: A Paradigm Shift in Mobile Communication
    Security Challenges in Air-space-Ground-Maritime Networks
    Resilience Against Emerging Threats in Integrated Air-Space-Ground-Maritime Networks
    Innovative Approaches to Mitigate Interference Attacks in Integrated Air-Space-Ground-Maritime Networks
    Information Leakage Prevention for Air-space-Ground-Maritime Network 
    Proactive Security Measures for the Exponential Growth for Air-space-Ground-Maritime Network
    Three-Dimensional Security Concerns in Near-Earth Communication
    Encryption Strategies for Volumetric Communication Landscape
    Key technologies to enhance the resilience for the Air-space-Ground-Maritime integrated network
    Traffic control technologies in the Air-space-Ground-Maritime integrated network
    Intrusion Detection in Three-Dimensional Network Space
    Secure Communication in Air-space-Ground-Maritime Networks
    Covert Communication Techniques in Air-space-Ground-Maritime Networks

Special Issue on Generative Foundation Models for Communications
Submission Date: 2024-12-30

Conventional artificial intelligence (AI) has demonstrated its ability to enhance the communication performance by improving channel estimation, signal detection, and error correction, leveraging its strengths in analysis, compression, and feature extraction to boost these critical functions. However, as the industry progresses towards 6G, characterized by extraordinarily high data rates, extremely broad coverage, and ubiquitous network access, traditional AI may face challenges in addressing the complexities resulting from the large volume of data generated by numerous interconnected devices and the real-time requirements in dynamic and unpredictable environments. Generative foundation models (GFMs), marked by innovative models like generative pretrained transformers (GPTs), has emerged as a paradigm shift in overcoming the limitations of traditional AI approaches for communication systems. Specifically, GFMs are powerful for learning the input signal distributions, modeling complex channel distributions, and inferring latent variables for blind channel equalization. 

Despite the significant potential of integrating GFMs with communication, several challenges arise. First, ensuring the security and privacy of communication is a paramount challenge since the GFM system is vulnerable to adversarial attacks in potentially unsecured environments with increasingly sensitive information. Moreover, the large-scale nature and complexity of GFMs introduce difficulties in real-time adaptation to the highly dynamic context of communication systems while maintaining high-performance levels without prior channel knowledge. Accordingly, addressing these challenges is essential for exploiting the full potential of GFMs in enhancing the communication system performance.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

    New framework of GFM, e.g., LLMs, Large Language Models (LLMs), Variational Autoencoders (VAEs), Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), Normalizing Flows (NFs), Diffusion Models, and Transformers for wireless physical layer communication
    New theories and algorithms of GFM for wireless physical layer communications
    GFM-based channel equalization in wireless physical layer communications
    GFM-empowered channel modeling in wireless physical layer communications
    Wireless signal processing supported by GFM
    GFM-assisted channel estimation for wireless physical layer communications
    Communication security enhancement by GFMs
    GFM-based approach for IRS
    GFM for massive MIMO and extremely large MIMO beamforming
    Near-field communications enabled by GFM
    GFM for joint source-channel coding
    GFM-empowered channel state information (CSI) feedback
    GFM for radio map and channel delay estimation
    GFM-based radio resource management 
    GFM-empowered spectrum sharing and allocation in communication systems 
    Adaptive modulation and coding schemes supported by GFM
    GFM for dynamic spectrum access and cognitive radio networks
    GFM-enabled power control and energy-efficient communications
    GFM for network slicing
    GFM-based scheduling and MAC layer protocols for 5G/6G networks
    Cross-layer optimization and design using GFM
    GFM-enabled access control and admission control mechanisms
    Testbed and real experiments of GFM implementation for communications