Trillions of network-connected objects are expected to emerge in the global network around 2020, leading to Internet of things (IoT) for which wireless communications and networking are the communications and networking infrastructure. However, IoT and other multihop wireless networks (such as MANETs, WSNs, and Wireless Mesh networks) are subject to threats stemming from increasing reliance on communications and networking technologies. A lot of research advances have been made on communication and network system security for enabling multihop networks, including but not limited to physical layer security; anonymization and privacy methods; cross-layer methods for enhancing security and privacy; availability of communications and survivability of networks in the presence of attacks. Among these potential solutions, cross-layer methods represent one of the most promising solutions for securing multihop networks.

We seek high-quality papers focusing on novel cross-layer approaches for enhancing the security and privacy of wireless communications and networking. Papers will be peer-reviewed by independent reviewers and selected based on their quality and relevance to the topics of this special issue.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Cross-layer solutions for IoT protection
• Cross-layer hardware/software attacks and protections on IoT
• Hardware-supported trustworthy IoT
• Topographic and data flow modeling for IoT security
• Non-redundancy-based methods for persistent threat prognostics
• Security-enhanced hardware structure for IoT protection
• Trusted computing platforms for smart devices in IoT
• Interplay between security, trust, and reliability of emerging nanotechnologies
• Cross-layer security techniques for MANETs, WSNs, WMNs, and WBAN
• Cognitive cross-layer security mechanisms for wireless networks
• Intelligent cross-layer protocols (Routing, MAC)
• Cross-layer intrusion detection systems
• Cross-layer threats modeling
• Cross-layer security attacks simulations
• Cross-layer behavior management
• Cross-layer Game theoretic security modeling
• Artificial immune, artificial neural network, and other intelligent modeling for security and privacy