Innovative Trends in 6G Ecosystems

Submission Deadline:  01 May 2023

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Innovative Trends in 6G Ecosystems.   

Next generation wireless networks will need to provide a variety of efficient and flexible services, such as improved mobile broadband access, ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), and massive machine-type communications. Future networks will have to support multiple operational standards to exploit the network heterogeneity, which stems from different types of base stations and user equipment as well as from traffic variability. Future networks should be able to process information generated from a huge volume of heterogeneous sources and should have an intrinsic durability to deal with potential security threats. These networks are expected to make intelligent and informed decisions by adapting to appropriate network functionality under constraints set by the time-varying workload. Therefore, the key question is how to set up a wireless ecosystem, which is not only faster, but also more energy-efficient and smarter.

The proposal refers to new technological solutions to deal with high data rate, increased capacity, efficient spectrum usage, reduced latency, adaptive traffic routing, longer battery life, etc. New principles are expected to be proposed for licensed shared access in the millimeter wave (mmWave) band in line with optimal business models, in order to improve capacity, data rate and reliability of future networks. New artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms must be introduced in order to perform network prediction and also to ensure quality of experience in wireless ecosystems. Also, an intelligent Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) architecture is expected to be developed to support a Management and Orchestration (MANO) framework. In addition, novel beamforming techniques and direction of arrival estimation algorithms must be introduced in a massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) environment by using machine learning, neural networks as well as deep learning concepts, in order to enhance the communication efficiency, save energy and thus make the ecosystem environmentally friendly. The communication efficiency will further be enhanced in the mmWave and terahertz band by newly proposed antennas installed either on base stations, or on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or on users (wearable antennas, antennas on terminal equipment), and based on recent technological solutions, like metamaterials, periodic metasurfaces, graphene, and graphene products.

The present Special Section aspires to provide researchers with a body of knowledge in different interdisciplinary areas that are critical to the future development of mobile and wireless communications, and to contribute to the development of innovative solutions to significant challenges in future wireless networks. This Special Section also aims to provide researchers with the opportunity to understand both the scientific and business aspects of future ecosystems. The research results are expected to activate many new areas related to AI in wireless communications, antenna design, spectrum management, business models, UAV communications, and IoT platforms, and will attract the interest not only of large research institutes and organizations, but also of private companies and government agencies.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • AI-assisted spectrum sharing in 6G ecosystems
 – Dynamic spectrum access
 – Licensed shared access
 – Blockchain-based approach to spectrum management
 – Business models for spectrum access
 – Cognitive radio techniques

  • Propagation and channel modeling in the mmWave and terahertz bands
 – mmWave/terahertz measurements
 – mmWave/terahertz antennas and devices
 – Scattering and blockage from humans and objects

  • MIMO techniques in 6G ecosystems
 – Analog and digital beamforming
 – Direction of arrival estimation
 – Simultaneous localization and mapping
 – Location-aware communications

  • Antenna design in 6G ecosystems
 – Optimization of base station antennas, UAV antennas, terminal antennas, wearable antennas
 – Reconfigurable antenna design
 – MIMO antennas

  • Network prediction in 6G ecosystems
 – NFV architecture
 – MANO framework
 – Routing and re-transmission protocols
 – Network sharing techniques
 – Quality of experience
 – Self-organizing networks
 – Cloud radio access network (C-RAN) and open radio access network (O-RAN)

  • Other relevant topics in 6G ecosystems
 – Energy-efficient communications
 – Energy-harvesting communications
 – UAV communications for safety and security
 – Massive connectivity in communication systems
 – IoT algorithms for URLLC

 

We also highly recommend the submission of a video with each article as it significantly increases the visibility of articles.

 

Associate Editors: 

    1. Zaharias Zaharis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
    2. Pavlos Lazaridis, University of Huddersfield, UK

Guest Editors:

    1. Ramjee Prasad, Aarhus University, Denmark
    2. Alexandros Feresidis, University of Birmingham, UK
    3. Vladimir Poulkov, Technical University of Sofia, Bulgaria
    4. Karu Esselle, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
    5. Ashutosh Dutta, Johns Hopkins University, USA
    6. Seshadri Mohan, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, USA
    7. Anand Prasad, Deloitte Tohmatsu Cyber LLC, Japan

 

IEEE Access Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Derek Abbott, University of Adelaide

Article submission: Submit manuscripts to: http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For information regarding IEEE Access, including its peer review policies and APC information, please visit the website http://ieeeaccess.ieee.org

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact: zaharis@auth.gr.

Advances on High Performance Wireless Networks for Automation and IIoT

Submission Deadline:  31 March 2023

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Advances on High Performance Wireless Networks for Automation and IIoT.   

High dependability and bounded transmission times are historically the main requirements of any communication networks conceived for automation. The recent pervasive introduction of wireless extensions to the wired backbones has opened new complex challenges, the most critical one being the ability to satisfy such requirements also over intrinsically unreliable communication supports like the radio spectrum.

Technologies for making devices communicate seamlessly over the air are expected to be adopted more and more in future digital ecosystems, including cyber-physical systems. The primary enabler is probably constituted by the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which can be profitably applied to smart industry, smart environment, and smart agriculture, to cite a few. Thanks to IIoT, applications are hidden details about the underlying physical networks, as long as constraints on reliability and timeliness of end-to-end data transfers are overall met. Additional requirements often have to be considered, which impact on feasibility (technical, economical, and ecological); for example, power consumption may affect maintenance costs and battery waste, whereas communication range is a critical aspect in brownfield scenarios.

Because of the inherent complexity of wirelessly interconnected distributed systems, the relevant key performance indicators (KPI) to be used for design and optimization are application-driven, and usually the work of designers involves finding a compromise between a plurality of aspects, e.g., dependability, latency and jitter, power consumption, covered area, and node density.

It is worth stressing that, when dealing with IIoT, the term “high performance” does not refer simply to raw throughput, but rather to the ability of the network to satisfy in the best way and at the same time all the increasingly demanding requirements and constraints, both functional (mobility through wireless communication, ability to operate self-powered for very long times, support for safety and security, clock synchronization, etc.) and about performance (as expressed by above KPIs), dictated by modern distributed control applications for specific classes of (cyber-)physical systems. As an example, time, and consequently bounded latencies and synchronization, are essential for control applications: if the density of nodes is high, coordinated access to the channel is needed. If nodes are not fixed, low energy consumption and seamless mobility are other main requirements that need to be optimized to achieve high performance in this kind of network.

While a single winning wireless IIoT technology cannot be clearly identified, several competing solutions are currently available off-the-shelf. In the context of unlicensed bands, which are particularly appealing to users because they do not imply any fees, some of the most important ones are IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi), wireless sensor and actuator networks (WSN/WSAN) based on IEEE 802.15.4, including DSME and TSCH (Zigbee, WIA-PA, WirelessHART, ISA100.11a, 6TiSCH, etc.), Bluetooth Low Energy (IO-Link Wireless), and LoRaWAN. Concerning solutions operating in licensed bands, recent additions to 5G/6G, like URLLC and mMTC, are deemed particularly relevant in view of their use in the context of automation and sensing.

Current research on high-speed, highly dependable, and low-power wireless networks opens a promising door for the evolution of communications in automated systems, which will be heterogeneous in nature but, at the same time, capable of meeting very demanding constraints.

This Special Section aims to provide a forum for the academic and industrial communities to present the latest advances on wireless communication, with a specific focus on automation.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Dependable and timely wireless networking: protocols, algorithms, and architectures
  • Ultra-Reliable, Low-Latency, and Quasi-Deterministic wireless networks
  • Ultra-Low Power and Green wireless networks
  • Mesh, Long-Range, and Ultra-Dense wireless networks
  • Cross-Layer optimization of wireless protocol stacks
  • Software-Defined Radios (SDR) and Networks (SDN for wireless) to enhance communication KPIs
  • Coexistence and compatibility among wireless networks with performance optimization
  • High performance Mobile Ad Hoc Networks and opportunistic networking
  • Analysis, simulation, and modeling techniques in time-critical wireless systems
  • Extension of TSN features to wireless including IEEE 802.11 and 5G/6G cellular networks
  • Performance optimized integration and adaptation of 5G/6G systems with legacy industrial protocols
  • Standardization efforts on next generation wireless networks and convergence toward TSN
  • Precise time synchronization and localization over wireless networks
  • Reliable roaming and fast handover in wireless networks
  • Data compression techniques for high performance wireless networks
  • Machine learning to improve the quality of wireless communication
  • Wireless design for high performance applications in smart factories, smart agriculture, and smart environment
  • Non-5G high performance wireless networks for rural areas
  • PHY layer security mechanisms for URLLC wireless communication links
  • Fault mitigation for reliable wireless networks
  • Future demanding industrial applications that require high performance wireless networks

 

We also highly recommend the submission of a video with each article as it significantly increases the visibility of articles.

 

Associate Editor:  Stefano Scanzio, CNR-IEIIT, Italy

Guest Editors:

    1. Hans-Peter Bernhard, Silicon Austria Labs and Johannes Kepler University, Austria
    2. Dave Cavalcanti, Intel Corporation, USA
    3. Gianluca Cena, CNR-IEIIT, Italy
    4. Lei Shu, Nanjing Agricultural University, China
    5. Iñaki Val, IKERLAN, Spain
    6. Lukasz Wisniewski, Institute Industrial IT – inIT of Technische Hochschule OWL, Germany

 

IEEE Access Editor-in-Chief:  Prof. Derek Abbott, University of Adelaide

Article submission: Submit manuscripts to: http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For information regarding IEEE Access, including its peer review policies and APC information, please visit the website http://ieeeaccess.ieee.org

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact: stefano.scanzio@ieiit.cnr.it.