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Wireless networks have evolved significantly over time, enabling a wide range of advanced services and applications in various areas, including communications, healthcare, industry, and transportation. These applications have a tremendous impact on our daily lives, making us overly dependent on wireless technologies, hence, emphasizing the need for security. Wireless networks are vulnerable to a wide range of security threats and attacks that can compromise the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data. The complexity of these threats increases exponentially as the current wireless network infrastructure evolves, such that security attacks target network resources, confidential data, and exploit user privacy. For this reason, new security models are highly needed to overcome these threats and provide a secure environment for wireless applications.

Zero trust is a contemporary security model that provides a new cybersecurity strategy to eliminate implicit trust. It assumes that all users, devices, applications, and their network traffic, internal and external, are untrusted and should be continuously verified and validated at every stage of a digital interaction before granting admission to network resources. Zero trust can be applied to various applications of wireless networks as it is able to protect against unauthorized access. This alliance can be seen in diverse methods, including network segmentation, multi-factor authentication, device security, and autonomous continuous monitoring. Implementing zero trust methods for wireless networks can be challenging due to the lack of experience in this area, its integration with existing system complexity, and its enduring maintenance. These challenges increase with the complexity of the used technology as new advanced attacks can be designed allowing for the exploitation of wireless network resources.

The purpose of this Special Issue (SI) is to elaborate on and emphasize the key aspects of zero-trust methods for wireless networks, understanding the principles of Zero Trust Security and how they can be applied to wireless networks, and implementation of Zero Trust Security in wireless networks - best practices and challenges. It welcomes original research and innovative solutions on the above subjects as well as case studies that explore the potential exploitation of zero trust security and its applications in wireless technology. Research may cover and focus on either the fundamental methodological studies or the use-case and application demonstrations.

Topics of interest include, but are certainly not limited to:

• Zero trust techniques, architectures, and models.
• Network segmentation and micro-segmentation.
• Zero-trust networks and modeling.
• Decentralized zero trust models.
• AI-based zero trust models.
• Advanced authentication mechanisms using zero trust.
• Identity and access management using zero trust.
• Zero trust-enabled continuous monitoring and detection.
• Advanced risk assessment and management using zero trust.
• Machine learning and zero trust security in wireless networks.
• Zero trust in mobile and satellite networks; and in the metaverse.
• Zero trust in cloud/edge computing.
• Cyberattacks in zero-trust environments.
• Implementation of zero-trust security in wireless networks.
• Scalability of zero trust.
• Evaluation of zero trust deployment models for wireless networks.
• Zero trust in various areas for wireless network applications.
• Integration of zero trust with other security measures.
• Industry efforts on zero trust techniques.
• Understanding the standards of Zero Trust Security and wireless networks.
• Network and energy overheads of zero trust techniques.
• Challenges of zero trust implementation in MMTC environments.

Submission Guidelines

Prospective authors should prepare their submissions in accordance with the rules specified in the "Information for Authors" of the IEEE Wireless Communications guidelines.

Authors should submit a PDF version of their complete manuscript to Manuscript Central. The timetable is as follows:

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 15 August 2023 (Extended Deadline)
Initial Decision Date: 1 October 2023
Revised Manuscript Due: 1 November 2023
Final Decision Date: 1 December 2023
Final Manuscript Due: 1 February 2024
Publication Date: April 2024

Guest Editors

Moayad Aloqaily
MBZUAI, UAE

Helen Paik
University of New South Wales Sydney, Australia

Willian Tessaro Lunardi
Technology Innovation Institute, TII, UAE

Cihan Tunc
University of North Texas, USA

He Fang
Soochow University, China