The rapid growth of intelligent sensing capabilities and super computation power in 6G mobile communication systems has facilitated their application in diverse domains such as smart health, smart factories, and the industrial Internet of Things. Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC), as a core technology, has merged with artificial intelligence (AI) to enable intelligent connectivity, leading to a paradigm shift in traditional communication modes. This paper presents a visionary design for an ISAC-oriented unified IoT architecture that integrates software-defined communication and super-intelligent agents. By leveraging dynamic adaptability, self-learning, and optimization, the ISAC system can intelligently and flexibly respond to evolving requirements and environments. The architecture is redefined into three layers: the hardware layer, the omniscient layer, and the application layer. Furthermore, a retrospective survey of ISAC technology development over the past decade is conducted, highlighting new design principles for AI-empowered networks and multi-modals that support “intelligent connectivity" across various application scenarios and reinforce the security of ISAC. This paper categorizes the related works according to the different layer structures of the proposed architecture, and some important physical and machine learning models are introduced. Additionally, we summarize the current technological bottlenecks associated with ISAC and propose future research directions and potential solutions that lay the foundation for the future development of secure and intelligent communication networks.

Discrete chaotic systems based on memristors exhibit excellent dynamical properties and are more straightforward to implement in hardware, making them highly suitable for generating cryptographic keystreams. However, most existing memristor-based chaotic systems rely on a single memristor. This paper introduces a novel discrete chaotic system employing dual memristors, named the 3D memristive cubic map with dual discrete memristors (3D-MCM). The 3D-MCM system demonstrates richer and more intricate dynamical behaviors compared to its single-memristor counterparts, as verified through bifurcation diagrams, Lyapunov exponent spectra, and complexity analyses. Notably, the system exhibits coexisting attractors, substantially enhancing its dynamical complexity. Hardware implementation of the 3D-MCM attractors confirms its feasibility for industrial applications. To illustrate the system’s potential in encryption tasks, this study integrates the quaternary-based permutation and dynamic emanating diffusion (QPDED-IE) scheme for image encryption with the 3D-MCM.Experimental results demonstrate that the QPDED-IE scheme based on the 3D-MCM exhibits strong diffusion and confusion properties, effectively resisting cryptanalytic attacks.

Traditional video encryption methods protect video content by encrypting each frame individually. However, in resource-constrained environments, this approach consumes significant computational resources. To overcome this challenge, this paper proposes a novel method called “Encrypt a story (EAS)”, which aims to enhance encryption efficiency by focusing on encrypting specific segments of the video rather than encrypting each frame. The EAS refers to selecting segments in the time dimension of the video that contain important information or key events for encryption. This method leverages video segmentation techniques to focus encryption efforts on continuous key frames, significantly reducing the consumption of computational resources. To address the need for a large number of key streams during the encryption process, this paper proposes a discrete sinusoidal memristive Rulkov neuron map (DSM-RNM). Through attractor analysis, complexity comparison, Lyapunov exponent, and NIST tests, we validated its ability to generate high-performance pseudorandom sequences, which significantly enhances the security of the encryption algorithm. Notably, the DSM-RNM is shown to exhibit a phenomenon of infinitely coexisting attractors. Furthermore, by constructing a digital circuit to capture the attractors of the DSM-RNM, its potential for industrial applications is demonstrated. Evaluation results show that the EAS saves approximately 90% of the time while ensuring security, exhibiting strong practicality and efficiency

Images are widely used in social networks, necessitating efficient and secure transmission, especially in bandwidth-constrained environments. This paper aims to develop a color image encryption algorithm that enhances security while optimizing computational efficiency. A novel parallel color image encryption algorithm based on the 2D Logistic-Rulkov neuron map (2D-LRNM) is proposed. In this approach, the three channels of the color image are first separated. Cross-channel information interaction is introduced to form three new channels, which are then processed in parallel. During the encryption process of each channel, a block-wise parallel encryption mechanism is applied, ensuring simultaneous encryption of each block. This block-wise strategy effectively leverages parallel computing resources and balances the task load. To meet the demand for a large number of keystreams during encryption, the 2D-LRNM is introduced. It combines the simplicity and chaotic properties of the Logistic map with the multi-timescale dynamics and neurodynamic behaviors of the Rulkov map. By overcoming the dimensional limitations inherent in the single Logistic map, this approach extends the system to a two-dimensional framework, significantly increasing the complexity of chaotic behavior and improving its unpredictability. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed encryption algorithm achieves high security and reduces computation time by approximately 83.3%.