An unrestricted, global, and ubiquitous connectivity, available to anyone, everywhere, and anytime, is a key objective of the 6G vision. A true, seamless integration of terrestrial (T) and non-terrestrial (NT) networks is mandatory to reach such an ambitious target. From this perspective, the three-year ITA-NTN project (2023-2025), funded by the European Union within the framework of NextGenerationEU work program, aims to investigate advanced solutions for the seamless integration of Terrestrial and Non-Terrestrial networks. This paper considers the project aspects concerning the provision of seamless connectivity across the heterogeneous T and NT layers by proposing an integrated ecosystem, which enables transparent information exchange among the various communicating nodes belonging to each layer. The ecosystem relies on the software-based management of fully reconfigurable network architectures based on disruptive concepts like cell-free multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), full software-defined radio (SDR)-based multi-waveforms physical layer design, use of aggressive capacity-oriented radio resource management strategies based on Non Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA), extended use of Software-Defined Networking (SDN), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to monitor and manage the entire network architecture. The discussion of the achieved results validates the proposed ecosystemic approach both in terms of viability and quantitative performance improvement.
{"title":"An Ecosystemic Approach for the Seamless Integration of Terrestrial and Non-Terrestrial Network Connections","authors":"Claudio Sacchi;Carmen D’Andrea;Elisa Conti;Tommaso Foggi;Amina Piemontese;Alessandro Ugolini;Armando Vannucci;Camilo Rojas;Nour Badini;Fabio Patrone;Mario Marchese;Fulvio Babich;Massimiliano Comisso;Alberto Carini;Francesco Adamo;Simone Pauletto;Henok Berhanu Tsegaye;Petro Mushidi Tshakwanda;Michael Devetsikiotis","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3670414","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3670414","url":null,"abstract":"An unrestricted, global, and ubiquitous connectivity, available to anyone, everywhere, and anytime, is a key objective of the 6G vision. A true, seamless integration of terrestrial (T) and non-terrestrial (NT) networks is mandatory to reach such an ambitious target. From this perspective, the three-year ITA-NTN project (2023-2025), funded by the European Union within the framework of NextGenerationEU work program, aims to investigate advanced solutions for the seamless integration of Terrestrial and Non-Terrestrial networks. This paper considers the project aspects concerning the provision of seamless connectivity across the heterogeneous T and NT layers by proposing an integrated ecosystem, which enables transparent information exchange among the various communicating nodes belonging to each layer. The ecosystem relies on the software-based management of fully reconfigurable network architectures based on disruptive concepts like cell-free multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), full software-defined radio (SDR)-based multi-waveforms physical layer design, use of aggressive capacity-oriented radio resource management strategies based on Non Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA), extended use of Software-Defined Networking (SDN), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to monitor and manage the entire network architecture. The discussion of the achieved results validates the proposed ecosystemic approach both in terms of viability and quantitative performance improvement.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"7 ","pages":"2344-2384"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11421422","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147440644","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-03-03DOI: 10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3669941
Saad Alaklabi
The proliferation of connected vehicles intensifies critical challenges in computation offloading, particularly concerning security, communication stability, and scalability within Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Existing offloading strategies are prone to routing loops, unstable vehicular connectivity, and are vulnerable to impersonation and Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks. To address these issues, this paper proposes a novel secure offloading framework that integrates a mobility-aware planar spanner graph for robust routing and a lightweight QR-code-based protocol for decentralized authentication. The graph theoretic component dynamically constructs a stable network topology that eliminates routing loops and provides proven bounded-path stretch which ensure routing optimality under dynamic urban mobility conditions. The QR-anchored mechanism establishes an initial trust between vehicles and Roadside Units (RSUs) through a visual channel which mitigate impersonation attacks without the overhead of traditional Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). Performance of the proposed method is evaluated through extensive simulations on the Veins-OMNeT $mathcal{CC}$ /SUMO platform under a dense urban grid scenario. The results demonstrate that our solution significantly outperforms state-of-the-art baselines like Multi-Layer Task Offloading (MTO), Mx-TORU, and Delay-Sensitive Task Offloading (MAFCPTORA), achieve up to 19% lower latency, a 22% higher task success ratio, and 17% reduced computational overhead on resource-constrained On-Board Unit (OBUs). This work highlights the efficacy of combining graph-theoretic routing with lightweight cryptography to enhance the security and efficiency of ITS offloading platforms.
{"title":"A QR-Anchored Secure Offloading for Intelligent Transportation Using Planar Graph Modeling","authors":"Saad Alaklabi","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3669941","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3669941","url":null,"abstract":"The proliferation of connected vehicles intensifies critical challenges in computation offloading, particularly concerning security, communication stability, and scalability within Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Existing offloading strategies are prone to routing loops, unstable vehicular connectivity, and are vulnerable to impersonation and Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks. To address these issues, this paper proposes a novel secure offloading framework that integrates a mobility-aware planar spanner graph for robust routing and a lightweight QR-code-based protocol for decentralized authentication. The graph theoretic component dynamically constructs a stable network topology that eliminates routing loops and provides proven bounded-path stretch which ensure routing optimality under dynamic urban mobility conditions. The QR-anchored mechanism establishes an initial trust between vehicles and Roadside Units (RSUs) through a visual channel which mitigate impersonation attacks without the overhead of traditional Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). Performance of the proposed method is evaluated through extensive simulations on the Veins-OMNeT <inline-formula> <tex-math>$mathcal{CC}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>/SUMO platform under a dense urban grid scenario. The results demonstrate that our solution significantly outperforms state-of-the-art baselines like Multi-Layer Task Offloading (MTO), Mx-TORU, and Delay-Sensitive Task Offloading (MAFCPTORA), achieve up to 19% lower latency, a 22% higher task success ratio, and 17% reduced computational overhead on resource-constrained On-Board Unit (OBUs). This work highlights the efficacy of combining graph-theoretic routing with lightweight cryptography to enhance the security and efficiency of ITS offloading platforms.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"7 ","pages":"2331-2343"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11419108","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147440643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-03-02DOI: 10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3669382
Doğa Gürgünoğlu;Zıya Gülgün;Emil Björnson;Gabor Fodor
When reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) are integrated into cellular networks, they can give rise to inter-operator pilot contamination, severely degrading network performance. While combating this effect is possible by orthogonalizing the RIS configurations, it requires inter-operator coordination and limits the degree of configuration freedom per RIS. Therefore, in this work, we explore the use of receive beamforming to mitigate inter-operator pilot contamination in RIS-aided multiple input multiple output systems, where two operators share infrastructure and deploy RISs to enhance network coverage. We focus on uplink channel estimation and data transmission and propose a method in which the base stations (BSs) apply a novel kind of receive beamforming to suppress pilot-contaminated interference. We compare our proposed method with a previous RIS orthogonalization approach and another approach that does not eliminate inter-operator pilot contamination by formulating two schemes. In Scheme 1, the BS beamforms towards its intended channel without nulling the interfering channel while orthogonal RIS configurations mitigate pilot contamination. In Scheme 2, the BS nulls the interfering channel, removing the need for orthogonalized RIS configurations and thereby halving the number of pilots. In the baseline scheme, the BS uses the same beamformer as in Scheme 1 and the same RIS configurations as in Scheme 2, hence does not eliminate pilot contamination. We assess the performance of both schemes under different channel conditions, in terms of channel estimation mean square error and capacity bounds with imperfect channel state information. Our numerical results indicate that Scheme 2 offers a superior rate at high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) due to fewer pilots and comparable channel estimation accuracy, while Scheme 1 performs better at very low SNRs due to capturing more energy. However, the reduced number of pilots in Scheme 2 makes it a favorable choice for practical systems, with minimal performance loss at low SNR. Overall, the proposed beamforming approach effectively mitigates inter-operator pilot contamination.
{"title":"Receive Beamforming Schemes to Mitigate Inter-Operator Pilot Contamination in RIS-Aided MIMO Networks","authors":"Doğa Gürgünoğlu;Zıya Gülgün;Emil Björnson;Gabor Fodor","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3669382","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3669382","url":null,"abstract":"When reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) are integrated into cellular networks, they can give rise to inter-operator pilot contamination, severely degrading network performance. While combating this effect is possible by orthogonalizing the RIS configurations, it requires inter-operator coordination and limits the degree of configuration freedom per RIS. Therefore, in this work, we explore the use of receive beamforming to mitigate inter-operator pilot contamination in RIS-aided multiple input multiple output systems, where two operators share infrastructure and deploy RISs to enhance network coverage. We focus on uplink channel estimation and data transmission and propose a method in which the base stations (BSs) apply a novel kind of receive beamforming to suppress pilot-contaminated interference. We compare our proposed method with a previous RIS orthogonalization approach and another approach that does not eliminate inter-operator pilot contamination by formulating two schemes. In Scheme 1, the BS beamforms towards its intended channel without nulling the interfering channel while orthogonal RIS configurations mitigate pilot contamination. In Scheme 2, the BS nulls the interfering channel, removing the need for orthogonalized RIS configurations and thereby halving the number of pilots. In the baseline scheme, the BS uses the same beamformer as in Scheme 1 and the same RIS configurations as in Scheme 2, hence does not eliminate pilot contamination. We assess the performance of both schemes under different channel conditions, in terms of channel estimation mean square error and capacity bounds with imperfect channel state information. Our numerical results indicate that Scheme 2 offers a superior rate at high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) due to fewer pilots and comparable channel estimation accuracy, while Scheme 1 performs better at very low SNRs due to capturing more energy. However, the reduced number of pilots in Scheme 2 makes it a favorable choice for practical systems, with minimal performance loss at low SNR. Overall, the proposed beamforming approach effectively mitigates inter-operator pilot contamination.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"7 ","pages":"2130-2147"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11417869","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147362505","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The rapid evolution of next-generation wireless networks poses new challenges for delivering ultra-high data rates and seamless connectivity across diverse environments. In remote areas, where licensed spectrum bands in terrestrial networks (TNs) are often underutilized, it is possible to allow non-terrestrial networks (NTN) to opportunistically access these spare spectrum resources. However, such spectrum sharing must maintain TN performance while enhancing the overall performance of the satellite-terrestrial integrated network (STIN), including network capacity and area spectral efficiency. In this paper, we propose a spectrum-sharing mechanism that enables an NTN to share TN bandwidth, using a three-dimensional (3D) conical protection-zone-based approach to mitigate co-channel interference from NTN to TN users. Leveraging tools from stochastic geometry, we introduce a novel spherical Poisson hole process (SPHP) to model the spatial distribution of satellites and derive tractable expressions for user coverage probabilities and the weighted-sum area data rate (WS-ADR) of the spectrum-sharing-enabled STIN (SS-STIN). Analytical results are validated through extensive Monte Carlo simulations based on Starlink constellations. Moreover, we investigate the impact of key design parameters on coverage probabilities of typical users and the WS-ADR. Simulation results indicate that optimizing the protection angle and bandwidth allocation factor enables the proposed SS-STIN to achieve up to 30 times higher WS-ADR than STINs without spectrum sharing, and more than threefold WS-ADR compared to SS-STINs without protection zones, while ensuring that the area data rate threshold for each user type is met.
{"title":"Spectrum Sharing for Satellite-Terrestrial Integrated Networks: A Spherical Poisson Hole Process-Based Approach","authors":"Bodong Shang;Xinyi Huang;Xiangyu Li;Chungang Yang;Xiaoli Chu;Haijun Zhang","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3669129","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3669129","url":null,"abstract":"The rapid evolution of next-generation wireless networks poses new challenges for delivering ultra-high data rates and seamless connectivity across diverse environments. In remote areas, where licensed spectrum bands in terrestrial networks (TNs) are often underutilized, it is possible to allow non-terrestrial networks (NTN) to opportunistically access these spare spectrum resources. However, such spectrum sharing must maintain TN performance while enhancing the overall performance of the satellite-terrestrial integrated network (STIN), including network capacity and area spectral efficiency. In this paper, we propose a spectrum-sharing mechanism that enables an NTN to share TN bandwidth, using a three-dimensional (3D) conical protection-zone-based approach to mitigate co-channel interference from NTN to TN users. Leveraging tools from stochastic geometry, we introduce a novel spherical Poisson hole process (SPHP) to model the spatial distribution of satellites and derive tractable expressions for user coverage probabilities and the weighted-sum area data rate (WS-ADR) of the spectrum-sharing-enabled STIN (SS-STIN). Analytical results are validated through extensive Monte Carlo simulations based on Starlink constellations. Moreover, we investigate the impact of key design parameters on coverage probabilities of typical users and the WS-ADR. Simulation results indicate that optimizing the protection angle and bandwidth allocation factor enables the proposed SS-STIN to achieve up to 30 times higher WS-ADR than STINs without spectrum sharing, and more than threefold WS-ADR compared to SS-STINs without protection zones, while ensuring that the area data rate threshold for each user type is met.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"7 ","pages":"2013-2033"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2026-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11417894","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147362506","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
AI-native, programmable, and disaggregated 6G networks will be highly dynamic and distributed, demanding tools that can explain, predict, and safely optimize behavior across the edge–cloud continuum. Network Digital Twins (NDTs) promise this capability, yet current efforts in research and industry are fragmented and lack widely accepted formal definitions and architectural guidelines. This paper proposes a structured framework for NDTs in 6G, addressing these gaps by refining the conceptual foundations of NDTs, introducing a functional architecture, inherited from the 6G-TWIN EU consortium, and clarifying key components such as AI-driven workflows, the place of simulation, data management, and orchestration. Concrete examples illustrate how these components enable network automation, optimization, and predictive analytics. The paper proceeds by reviewing related work and standardization efforts, specifying functional and non-functional requirements, presenting the architecture and its various domains, and detailing lifecycle management across cloud to edge. We then report early implementations and evaluation results, and discuss security, privacy, and governance considerations, concluding with directions for validation and uptake. The key objective is to offer a cohesive reference model that guides the community in shaping NDT development, ensuring interoperability, scalability, adaptability, and seamless integration into AI-native 6G networks for improved intelligence and efficiency.
人工智能原生、可编程和分解的6G网络将是高度动态和分布式的，需要能够解释、预测和安全优化边缘云连续体行为的工具。网络数字双胞胎（Network Digital Twins, ndt）承诺了这种能力，但是目前在研究和工业中的努力是分散的，并且缺乏被广泛接受的正式定义和体系结构指导方针。本文提出了6G中ndt的结构化框架，通过细化ndt的概念基础，引入继承自6G- twin欧盟联盟的功能架构，并澄清关键组件，如人工智能驱动的工作流，模拟位置，数据管理和编排，来解决这些差距。具体的例子说明了这些组件如何实现网络自动化、优化和预测分析。本文继续回顾相关工作和标准化工作，指定功能性和非功能性需求，展示体系结构及其各种领域，并详细介绍从云到边缘的生命周期管理。然后我们报告早期的实现和评估结果，并讨论安全性、隐私和治理方面的考虑，最后给出验证和吸收的方向。关键目标是提供一个有凝聚力的参考模型，指导社区塑造无损检测开发，确保互操作性、可扩展性、适应性以及与人工智能原生6G网络的无缝集成，以提高智能和效率。
{"title":"A Reference Functional Architecture for Network Digital Twins in 6G Systems","authors":"Ayat Zaki-Hindi;Paola Soto;German Castellanos;Touhid Hossain Pritom;Gaetano Volpe;Iskander Zellagui;Burkhard Hensel;Julian Jimenez;Michele Marvulli;Luís Santos;Ayse Sayin;Jean-Sébastien Sottet;Wasim Ali;Ines El-Korbi;Ion Turcanu;Andrey Belogaev;André Duarte;Ultan Kelly;Sumit Kumar;Georgy Myagkov;Stephen Parker;Mario Franke;Shajjad Hossain;Rajarshi Sanyal;Nida Shafi;Christoph Sommer;Miguel Camelo;Julien Baudouin;Régis Decorme;Maria Pia Fanti;Ramin Fuladi;Chris Murphy;Ana Pereira;Sidi Mohammed Senouci;Simon Pryor;Sébastien Faye","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3668035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3668035","url":null,"abstract":"AI-native, programmable, and disaggregated 6G networks will be highly dynamic and distributed, demanding tools that can explain, predict, and safely optimize behavior across the edge–cloud continuum. Network Digital Twins (NDTs) promise this capability, yet current efforts in research and industry are fragmented and lack widely accepted formal definitions and architectural guidelines. This paper proposes a structured framework for NDTs in 6G, addressing these gaps by refining the conceptual foundations of NDTs, introducing a functional architecture, inherited from the 6G-TWIN EU consortium, and clarifying key components such as AI-driven workflows, the place of simulation, data management, and orchestration. Concrete examples illustrate how these components enable network automation, optimization, and predictive analytics. The paper proceeds by reviewing related work and standardization efforts, specifying functional and non-functional requirements, presenting the architecture and its various domains, and detailing lifecycle management across cloud to edge. We then report early implementations and evaluation results, and discuss security, privacy, and governance considerations, concluding with directions for validation and uptake. The key objective is to offer a cohesive reference model that guides the community in shaping NDT development, ensuring interoperability, scalability, adaptability, and seamless integration into AI-native 6G networks for improved intelligence and efficiency.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"7 ","pages":"2068-2101"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11414124","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147362388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This work investigates covert wireless communication in an Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) system. To formulate an efficient sensing solution, we derive an analytical expression for the average Cramér-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) and analyze the detection performance at the warden Willie, deriving a lower bound on his minimum detection error probability. Based on these results, we formulate an optimization strategy aimed at minimizing the average CRLB under communication rate and covertness constraints. To address this problem, a semidefinite relaxation (SDR) method is developed for the joint design of the sensing and covert beamformers. Furthermore, a low-complexity scheme is proposed to decouple the sensing and communication beamformers for reducing the computational complexity. Simulation results demonstrate that both proposed algorithms effectively balance target sensing performance and covert communication performance in the ISAC system.
{"title":"Joint Beamforming Design for Integrated Sensing and Covert Wireless Communication","authors":"Tingting Xia;Danyang Ruan;Xiuying Zhou;Guiyang Xia;Xiaobo Zhou","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3668384","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3668384","url":null,"abstract":"This work investigates covert wireless communication in an Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) system. To formulate an efficient sensing solution, we derive an analytical expression for the average Cramér-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) and analyze the detection performance at the warden Willie, deriving a lower bound on his minimum detection error probability. Based on these results, we formulate an optimization strategy aimed at minimizing the average CRLB under communication rate and covertness constraints. To address this problem, a semidefinite relaxation (SDR) method is developed for the joint design of the sensing and covert beamformers. Furthermore, a low-complexity scheme is proposed to decouple the sensing and communication beamformers for reducing the computational complexity. Simulation results demonstrate that both proposed algorithms effectively balance target sensing performance and covert communication performance in the ISAC system.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"7 ","pages":"2056-2067"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11414434","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147362387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Secure, low-latency coordination is essential for collaborative UAV missions such as disaster response, precision agriculture, and environmental monitoring. However, existing Internet of Drones (IoD) authentication frameworks remain misaligned with dynamic swarm requirements: PKI-based schemes incur heavy certificate management overhead, blockchain-assisted protocols depend on continuous ledger interaction, and most lightweight solutions support only pairwise authentication without scalable group formation or auditable revocation. Even recent PUF-based approaches provide device-rooted identity but lack efficient group rekeying and verifiable control accountability. This paper proposes Chain Drone, a lightweight, auditable, and revocation-aware framework for secure authentication and data transfer in UAV swarms. ChainDrone integrates: 1) functional encryption with PUF-rooted identities to enable privacy-preserving, device-bound authentication; 2) scalable group key management using pairwise channels or an LKH-style hierarchy that supports forward/backward secrecy and $O(log n)$ revocation; and 3) a minimal, permissioned blockchain layer that records only hash commitments of control events, providing verifiable auditability without exposing sensitive data. Analytical evaluation and experimental results show that each drone incurs only one PUF-based key regeneration, a single elliptic-curve scalar multiplication, and a few hash operations during authentication, while blockchain overhead remains constant per epoch. Compared with representative lightweight and blockchain-assisted baselines, ChainDrone achieves predictable authentication and revocation costs with significantly lower on-chain gas and latency, providing a practical and scalable foundation for secure UAV swarm coordination.
{"title":"ChainDrone: Lightweight Group Authentication and Audited Data Transfer for Drone Swarms With Blockchain Integration","authors":"Somchart Fugkeaw;Channarong Chansudsuk;Nutpongpol Wongmasa;Peerapong Vipittragran","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3668230","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3668230","url":null,"abstract":"Secure, low-latency coordination is essential for collaborative UAV missions such as disaster response, precision agriculture, and environmental monitoring. However, existing Internet of Drones (IoD) authentication frameworks remain misaligned with dynamic swarm requirements: PKI-based schemes incur heavy certificate management overhead, blockchain-assisted protocols depend on continuous ledger interaction, and most lightweight solutions support only pairwise authentication without scalable group formation or auditable revocation. Even recent PUF-based approaches provide device-rooted identity but lack efficient group rekeying and verifiable control accountability. This paper proposes C<sc>hain</small> D<sc>rone</small>, a lightweight, auditable, and revocation-aware framework for secure authentication and data transfer in UAV swarms. ChainDrone integrates: 1) functional encryption with PUF-rooted identities to enable privacy-preserving, device-bound authentication; 2) scalable group key management using pairwise channels or an LKH-style hierarchy that supports forward/backward secrecy and <inline-formula> <tex-math>$O(log n)$ </tex-math></inline-formula> revocation; and 3) a minimal, permissioned blockchain layer that records only hash commitments of control events, providing verifiable auditability without exposing sensitive data. Analytical evaluation and experimental results show that each drone incurs only one PUF-based key regeneration, a single elliptic-curve scalar multiplication, and a few hash operations during authentication, while blockchain overhead remains constant per epoch. Compared with representative lightweight and blockchain-assisted baselines, ChainDrone achieves predictable authentication and revocation costs with significantly lower on-chain gas and latency, providing a practical and scalable foundation for secure UAV swarm coordination.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"7 ","pages":"1923-1940"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11414130","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147362545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper introduces a coordinated framework in which a base station (BS) and a Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) jointly support their respective user groups while mitigating the impact of a Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based jammer. Specifically, the RIS-assisted users rely on a reflective surface under attack from an UAV-jammer, and the BS simultaneously supports its own associated UEs alongside the RIS. We adopt an alternating optimization strategy that decomposes the original non-convex formulation into tractable subproblems using Block Coordinate Descent (BCD), thereby enabling multi-tier cooperation in complex interference environments. We frame our objective as the sum rate maximization, a metric for overall system performance, to maintain service quality and enhance robustness under severe jamming. The core of our methodology is the transformation of the resulting non-convex subproblems into tractable convex formulations via Semidefinite Programming (SDP). We employ a joint design of beamforming and phase shift optimization, whose combined effect leads to substantial performance improvements within the proposed framework. Extensive simulations and comparisons with existing algorithms demonstrate that this design achieves superior interference suppression and resource efficiency, significantly outperforming state-of-the-art baselines in sum rate, energy efficiency, UAV-jamming resilience and group-aware support for both BS- and RIS-served users.
{"title":"Joint mmWave Beamforming and RIS Phase Shift Optimization in Multi-User Group Networks Under UAV Jamming","authors":"Maria-Garyfallio Volakaki;Grigorios Papaioannou;Demosthenes Vouyioukas","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3668366","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3668366","url":null,"abstract":"This paper introduces a coordinated framework in which a base station (BS) and a Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) jointly support their respective user groups while mitigating the impact of a Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based jammer. Specifically, the RIS-assisted users rely on a reflective surface under attack from an UAV-jammer, and the BS simultaneously supports its own associated UEs alongside the RIS. We adopt an alternating optimization strategy that decomposes the original non-convex formulation into tractable subproblems using Block Coordinate Descent (BCD), thereby enabling multi-tier cooperation in complex interference environments. We frame our objective as the sum rate maximization, a metric for overall system performance, to maintain service quality and enhance robustness under severe jamming. The core of our methodology is the transformation of the resulting non-convex subproblems into tractable convex formulations via Semidefinite Programming (SDP). We employ a joint design of beamforming and phase shift optimization, whose combined effect leads to substantial performance improvements within the proposed framework. Extensive simulations and comparisons with existing algorithms demonstrate that this design achieves superior interference suppression and resource efficiency, significantly outperforming state-of-the-art baselines in sum rate, energy efficiency, UAV-jamming resilience and group-aware support for both BS- and RIS-served users.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"7 ","pages":"2034-2055"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11414115","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147362557","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-02-24DOI: 10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3667542
Ritabrata Maiti;A. S. Madhukumar;Tan Zheng Hui Ernest
Multi-access edge computing (MEC) has emerged as a key enabler for meeting the stringent performance demands of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications. However, the presence of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in industrial environments introduces additional complexity due to mobility-induced interference, fading conditions, and intermittent line-of-sight (LoS). This paper develops an integrated MEC-assisted IIoT framework that incorporates AMRs, small-cell base stations (SBSs), macro-cell base stations (MBSs), and edge caching capabilities. Within this framework, we investigate how different association mechanisms influence downlink energy efficiency. Three representative association strategies are considered: a distance-oriented approach, a cache-aware method that prioritizes local content availability, and a cloud-centric policy. To quantify their performance, we derive semi-analytical expressions that capture the effects of industrial propagation factors and network heterogeneity. The numerical evaluation reveals that cache-driven association markedly enhances energy efficiency compared to strategies that do not exploit edge caching, underscoring the importance of cache-centric designs in future IIoT deployments.
{"title":"Cache-Aware Association Strategies for Energy-Efficient MEC-Enabled IIoT Networks","authors":"Ritabrata Maiti;A. S. Madhukumar;Tan Zheng Hui Ernest","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3667542","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3667542","url":null,"abstract":"Multi-access edge computing (MEC) has emerged as a key enabler for meeting the stringent performance demands of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications. However, the presence of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in industrial environments introduces additional complexity due to mobility-induced interference, fading conditions, and intermittent line-of-sight (LoS). This paper develops an integrated MEC-assisted IIoT framework that incorporates AMRs, small-cell base stations (SBSs), macro-cell base stations (MBSs), and edge caching capabilities. Within this framework, we investigate how different association mechanisms influence downlink energy efficiency. Three representative association strategies are considered: a distance-oriented approach, a cache-aware method that prioritizes local content availability, and a cloud-centric policy. To quantify their performance, we derive semi-analytical expressions that capture the effects of industrial propagation factors and network heterogeneity. The numerical evaluation reveals that cache-driven association markedly enhances energy efficiency compared to strategies that do not exploit edge caching, underscoring the importance of cache-centric designs in future IIoT deployments.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"7 ","pages":"1873-1888"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11408844","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147362417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article presents a unique lightweight and interference-free backscatter communication (BC) scheme based on zero tail discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (ZT DFT-s-OFDM) waveform signals. In the proposed approach, the ZT region of the waveform is exploited to accommodate backscatter transmissions using delay shift keying (DSK) modulation. A backscatter device (BD) equipped with modulator based on acoustic-wave delay circuits conveys information by introducing deterministic delay shifts within the uncorrupted ZT portion of the ZT DFT-s-OFDM symbol, thus ensuring complete time-domain separation between the primary and BD signals. This approach effectively eliminates direct-link interference (DLI) while maintaining full compatibility with conventional receivers. To address the channel-estimation challenge, a low-complexity, non-coherent detector is developed, and its analytical performance is derived and validated through simulation. The simulations show consistency between the analytical and simulation results, demonstrating that the proposed design achieves a probability of missed detection ($P_{mathrm {MD}}$ ) as low as $10^{-3}$ at 30 dB, therefore, confirming its robustness and suitability for low-power BC applications.
{"title":"Interference-Free ZT DFT-s-OFDM-Based Symbiotic Backscatter Communication","authors":"Fikiri Salum Uledi;Yunusemre Yilmaz;Muhammad Bilal Janjua;Cagri Ozgenc Etemoglu;Hüseyin Arslan","doi":"10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3667403","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCOMS.2026.3667403","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents a unique lightweight and interference-free backscatter communication (BC) scheme based on zero tail discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (ZT DFT-s-OFDM) waveform signals. In the proposed approach, the ZT region of the waveform is exploited to accommodate backscatter transmissions using delay shift keying (DSK) modulation. A backscatter device (BD) equipped with modulator based on acoustic-wave delay circuits conveys information by introducing deterministic delay shifts within the uncorrupted ZT portion of the ZT DFT-s-OFDM symbol, thus ensuring complete time-domain separation between the primary and BD signals. This approach effectively eliminates direct-link interference (DLI) while maintaining full compatibility with conventional receivers. To address the channel-estimation challenge, a low-complexity, non-coherent detector is developed, and its analytical performance is derived and validated through simulation. The simulations show consistency between the analytical and simulation results, demonstrating that the proposed design achieves a probability of missed detection (<inline-formula> <tex-math>$P_{mathrm {MD}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) as low as <inline-formula> <tex-math>$10^{-3}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> at 30 dB, therefore, confirming its robustness and suitability for low-power BC applications.","PeriodicalId":33803,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society","volume":"7 ","pages":"1958-1972"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2026-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11408817","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147362416","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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