Jul
31
The sixth generation (6G) of wireless networks is set to redefine signal processing by fusing communications, sensing, computation, and control into adaptive, programmable ecosystems. Emerging transformative applications, such as embodied intelligence, digital twins, and real-time Industry 4.0, call for advanced signal processing frameworks that ensure trustworthiness amid unprecedented vulnerabilities. Aligning with this critical demand and laying a strategic foundation for advancing trustworthy 6G communications, IMT-2030 has identified trustworthiness as one of the overarching pillars of 6G development, encompassing core dimensions of security (confidentiality, integrity, authenticity, availability), privacy (unobservability, anonymity, and non-inferability), and resilience. Classical cryptographic authentication mechanisms primarily safeguard against unauthorized entities gaining access to networks, data, or resources. However, these mechanisms are fundamentally agnostic to signal-level treat, such as data forgery, active jamming, traffic analysis, user traceback, malicious inference, and so on. Thus, relying solely on classical cryptographic approaches is insufficient to guarantee the end-to-end trustworthiness of 6G systems throughout their operational lifecycle.
This Special Issue provides a platform for innovative research on trustworthy signal processing architectures, methodologies, algorithms, optimizations, analysis, and implementations, that underpin trustworthy 6G ecosystems. Topics including, but not limited to, the following are solicited:
- Information and coding theory for trustworthy 6G;
- Signal processing for trustworthy cryptography (encryption/decryption, key management, authentication and digital signature);
- AI- and LLM-enhanced trustworthy signal processing;
- Novel metrics for trustworthy signal processing (e.g., anonymity, covertness, differential privacy);
- Multimodal signal processing for trustworthy 6G;
- Cross-layer signal processing designs for trustworthy 6G;
- Zero-trust-driven signal processing for trustworthiness;
- Signal processing for confidential computing architectures and optimizations;
- Trustworthy signal processing with emerging techniques (e.g., V2X, THz, satellite communications, ISAC, new antennas architectures);
- Quantum and post-quantum signal processing for trustworthiness;
- Trusted RF-front end and hardware architectures;
- Novel signal-level attack models undermining trustworthiness and their countermeasures;
- Signal processing-oriented datasets, evaluation frameworks, prototype, and hardware development for trustworthiness;
Prospective authors should follow the instructions given on the IEEE JSTSP webpage and submit their manuscripts via the IEEE Author Portal submission system.
Important Dates (Tentative):
- Manuscript submissions due: July 31, 2026
- First review completed: Oct. 15, 2026
- Revised manuscript due: November 15, 2026
- Second review completed: December 15, 2026
- Final decision: January 15, 2027
- Publication date: March 2027
Guest Editors:
George C. Alexandropoulos (Lead), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, email: alexandg@di.uoa.gr
Zhongxiang Wei, Tongji University, China, email: zwei@tongji.edu.cn
Christos Masouros, University College London, UK, email: c.masouros@ucl.ac.uk
Jingjing Wang, Beihang University, China, email: drwangjj@buaa.edu.cn
Ahmad Bazzi, NYU Abu Dhabi, UAE, & NYU WIRELESS, Brooklyn, USA, email: ahmad.bazzi@nyu.edu
Aylin Yener, The Ohio State University, USA, email: yener@ece.osu.edu
Tse-Tin Chan, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, email: tsetinchan@eduhk.hk
Alain Mourad, InterDigital, UK, email: Alain.Mourad@InterDigital.com
