Recently, modern cellular communication networks have been applied in smart cities, the industrial internet of things, smart communities, and many other areas. To support the application and development of cellular communication networks, many wireless communication techniques have been proposed by researchers from academia and industry to enhance communication quality and guarantee system security. The use of intelligent reflecting surfaces has been shown to be one of the most promising technologies to support cellular communication networks, where wireless propagation environments can be intelligently reconfigured by integrating a large number of low-cost reflective elements on the plane, so as to significantly improve the communication and security of wireless communication.

The role of intelligent reflecting surfaces in communication and security has become a popular topic in the area of wireless communication and mobile computing. However, several critical challenges still exist in the research and development of intelligent reflecting surfaces for the security of cellular communication networks. One challenge is the complicated secrecy performance evaluation required, due to a large number of reflective elements in the system. Hence, an intelligent approach should be developed to perform the secrecy performance evaluation for cellular communication networks. Another challenge is the system design of intelligent reflecting surfaces, whereas the traditional communication techniques such as MIMO, OFDM, UAV, caching should be incorporated in an intelligent approach. Another challenge is the system secure resource management, where the spatial dimension enlarged by the large number of reflective elements should be intelligently exploited by intelligent algorithms using methods such as deep learning and federated learning.

This Special Issue aims to present state-of-the-art research exploring the various trends and challenges in the integration of intelligent reflecting surfaces into the security of cellular communication networks. Original research and review articles are welcome.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Intelligent reflecting surface techniques
• Intelligent secrecy performance evaluation of cellular communication networks
• Secure resource management of cellular communication networks
• Intelligent reflecting surfaces with secure OFDM5
• Intelligent reflecting surfaces with secure UAV6
• Intelligent reflecting surfaces with secure caching
• Security of massive MIMO systems
• Industrial internet of things, smart cities
• Deep learning, federated learning
• Secure element design for intelligent reflecting surfaces
• Secure intelligent reflecting surfaces with edge computing
• Implementation and applications of secure intelligent reflecting surfaces