Innovative Trends in 6G Ecosystems

Submission Deadline:  15 September 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

 

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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.

Challenges and Endeavors of Radiated Radio Frequency Tests for 5G Radios

Submission Deadline: 31 January 2021

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Challenges and Endeavors of Radiated Radio Frequency Tests for 5G Radios.

By now, we have entered the fifth generation (5G) era with intensive research and development (R&D) of various 5G applications from both industry and academia. The 5G systems promise higher spectral efficiency/energy efficiency, lower latency, and more reliable communications. These advantages are supported by millimeter wave (mmWave) and/or massive multiple-input multiple-output (M-MIMO) techniques.

Cable conducted testing has been the dominant testing method for sub-6 GHz conventional communication systems, where antenna ports are mostly accessible for conducted testing. In the conducted testing, antenna characteristics are omitted completely by testing from antenna ports.  However, for M-MIMO antenna systems with hundreds of antenna elements, conducted testing obviously becomes infeasible. Moreover, it is likely that mmWave systems will not have standard antenna ports, rendering over-the-air (OTA) the only testing solution. However, many challenges for OTA testing of 5G devices arise, e.g., the lack of antenna connectors especially at frequency region (FR) 2, the high number of antenna connectors at RF1 for base stations; the complicated and expensive system resource requirement for testing electrically large 5G devices; the time-consuming array diagnosis and calibration for M-MIMO and millimeter-wave systems; the large measurement range requirement in the test system to meet the far field assumption; the link budget issue at FR2, etc. Besides conventional antenna and radio frequency (RF) testing, it is necessary as well to test both mmWave and M-MIMO systems with appropriate channel models due to the fact that the use of beamforming and spatial filtering is sensitive to time-variant radio channel conditions.

In addition, the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) problems of 5G systems become very serious due to the existence of complicated circuits and numerous wireless components. In practice, the EMC test needs to not only evaluate the radiated/conducted emission/susceptibility, but also identify the key sources of EMC failures. Due to the complexity of 5G systems, the identification of EMC failure source is especially challenging. Therefore, new testing solutions and post-processing techniques are needed to address the challenges of 5G EMC tests, also accounting for coexistence with existing fixed and mobile installations.

The objective of this Special Section is to address the challenges in OTA/EMC tests for 5G Technologies. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Anechoic chamber based testing methods for 5G applications
  • Reverberation chambers based testing methods for 5G applications
  • M-MIMO antenna array diagnosis and calibration
  • Millimeter-wave antenna array diagnosis and calibration
  • Numerical modeling and simulation methods for M-MIMO systems and 5G applications
  • OTA testing of 5G base stations and terminals
  • EMC tests of 5G devices and coexisting issues
  • Virtual drive testing
  • Performance evaluation of communication systems in critical propagation scenarios
  • Progress in standardization of 5G metrology
  • Developments 5G channel model, radio channel emulator, and other testbeds for performance testing
  • OTA methods of fading emulation for demodulation and radio resource management (RRM) testing
  • OTA methods for RF performance testing
  • Uncertainty analyses for OTA/EMC tests

We also highly recommend the submission of multimedia with each article as it significantly increases the visibility and downloads of articles.

 

Associate Editor:   Wei Fan, Aalborg University, Denmark
Huapeng Zhao, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China

 

Guest Editors:

    1. Xiaoming Chen, Xi’an Jiao tong University, China
    2. Su Yan, Howard University, USA
    3. Pekka Kyösti, Keysight technologies and Oulu University, Finland
    4. Jukka-Pekka Nuutinen, Spirent Technologies, USA
    5. Valter Mariani Primiani, Università Politecnica delle Marche – Ancona, Italy

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Antenna and Propagation for 5G and Beyond
  2. 5G and Beyond Mobile Wireless Communications Enabling Intelligent Mobility
  3. Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Propagation, Channel Modeling and Applications


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

Article submission: Contact Associate Editor and submit manuscript to:
http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact: wfa@es.aau.dk.

Body Area Networks

Submission Deadline: 30 July 2020

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of body area networks, wireless sensors networks, medical ICT, intelligent health management, and big data analysis.

Wearable communications and personal health management are the future trends of the healthcare industry. To make this happen, new technologies are required to provide trustable measurement and communication mechanisms, from the data source to medical health databases. Wireless body area networks (WBAN) are the focus of this Special Section, not just on-body devices, but also technologies providing information from inside the body. Dependable communications combined with accurate localization and behavior analysis will benefit WBAN technology and make healthcare processes more effective.

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

  • Wearable computing
  • Embedded devices and medical applications
  • In-, on- and off-body communications & networking
  • Antennas and propagation
  • Security and privacy of health data communications
  • Smart BAN for social inclusion
  • Socio-economic aspects of health caring
  • Medical device regulation
  • Human bond communications
  • Remote patient management and preventive care
  • Radio coexistence and interference management
  • Rehabilitation and activity monitoring
  • Wellness and sport applications of body area networks
  • ICT solutions for health and wellness education
  • Molecular communications
  • WBANs supporting cognitive impairments

We also highly recommend the submission of multimedia with each article as it significantly increases the visibility, downloads, and citations of articles.

 

Associate Editor:  Lorenzo Mucchi, University of Florence, Italy

Guest Editors:

    1. Matti Hämäläinen, University of Oulu, Finland
    2. Massimiliano Pierobon, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
    3. Diep Nguyen, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
    4. Hirokazu Tanaka, Hiroshima Hiroshima City University, Dept. of Biomedical Information Sciences

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Wearable and Implantable Devices and Systems
  2. Molecular Communication Networks
  3. Advances of Multisensory Services and Technologies for Healthcare in Smart Cities


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

Article submission: Contact Associate Editor and submit manuscript to:
http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact: lorenzo.mucchi@unifi.it.

Energy Harvesting Technologies for Wearable and Implantable Devices

Submission Deadline: 31 December 2020

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Energy Harvesting Technologies for Wearable and Implantable Devices.

Implantable and wearable electronic devices can improve the quality of life as well as the life expectancy of many chronically ill patients, provided that certain biological signs can be accurately monitored. Thanks to advances in packaging and nanofabrication, it is now possible to embed various microelectronic and micromechanical sensors (such as gyroscopes, accelerometers and image sensors) into a small area on a flexible substrate and at a relatively low cost. Furthermore, these devices have been integrated with wireless communication technologies to enable the transmission of both signals and energy.  However, to ensure that these devices can truly improve a patient’s quality of life, new preventative, diagnostic and therapeutic devices that can provide hassle-free, long-term, continuous monitoring will need to be developed, which must rely on novel energy harvesting solutions that are non-obstructive to their wearer.  So far, research in the field has focussed on materials, new processing techniques and one-off devices. However, existing progress is not sufficient for future electronic devices to be useful in any new application and a great demand exists towards scaling up the research towards circuits and systems. A few interesting developments in this direction indicate that special attention should be given towards the design, simulation and modeling of energy harvesting techniques while keeping system integration and power management in mind.

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

  • Novel piezoelectric, thermoelectric and photovoltaic energy harvesting technologies that lead to enhanced efficiency and controllability under standard or varying working conditions
  • Novel control strategies for achieving maximum or optimum energy harvesting
  • Power management circuits for energy harvesters
  • Novel data driven techniques for optimizing and forecasting the amount of energy that can be harvested
  • Low-Power circuits and sensors
  • Flexible sensors, circuits and energy harvesters for wearables
  • Implantable electronics
  • Novel wireless power transfer and delivery techniques
  • Numerical and computational modeling techniques

We also highly recommend the submission of multimedia with each article as it significantly increases the visibility, downloads, and citations of articles.

 

Associate Editor: Hadi Heidari, University of Glasgow, UK

Guest Editors:

    1. Mehmet Ozturk, North Carolina State University, USA
    2. Rami Ghannam,University of Glasgow, UK
    3. Law Man Kay, University of Macau, China
    4. Hamideh Khanbareh, University of Bath, UK
    5.  Abdul Halim Miah, University of Florida, USA

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Smart Health Sensing and Computational Intelligence: From Big Data to Big Impacts
  2. Neural Engineering Informatics
  3. Wearable and Implantable Devices and Systems


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

Article submission: Contact Associate Editor and submit manuscript to:
http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact:  hadi.heidari@glasgow.ac.uk.

Antenna and Propagation for 5G and Beyond

Submission Deadline: 31 December 2019

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Antenna and Propagation for 5G and Beyond.

5G is not just the next evolution of 4G technology; it’s a paradigm shift. “5G and Beyond” will enable bandwidth in excess of 100s of Mb/s with latency of less than 1 ms, in addition to providing connectivity to billions of devices. The verticals of 5G and beyond are not limited to smart transportation, industrial IoT, eHealth, smart cities, and entertainment services; transforming the way humanity lives, works, and engages with its environment.

“5G and beyond” is an enormous opportunity but the widespread deployment of 5G still faces many challenges, including reliable connectivity, a wide range of bands to support ranging from the 600 MHz UHF band to the mm-wave 60 GHz V-band, dynamic spectrum sharing, channel modeling and wave propagation for ultra-dense wireless networks, as well as price pressures. Besides other required features, the choice of an antenna system will be a critical component of all the node end devices. Choosing the right antenna for an application presents a key design challenge. Creating effective antenna performance requires engineers to examine several factors including antenna size, from what is needed to what is possible, antenna shape, and placement. As consumer electronic modules continue to shrink, incorporating more wireless technologies, making space for antennas is becoming an increasingly significant challenge. Thus, the antenna designers face the restrictions of maintaining reasonable performance in ever-shrinking footprints and under extreme interference conditions. Since high frequency bands are expected to be used in 5G, the propagation characteristics such as propagation loss and multipath characteristics must be evaluated for mm Wave frequencies and beyond. Therefore, new radio propagation modeling and prediction techniques need to be developed to cover the new frequency bands for future 5G wireless systems.

The explosive growth of 5G creates many scientific and engineering challenges that call for ingenious research efforts from both academia and industry. This Special Section in IEEE Access brings together scholars, professors, researchers, engineers, and administrators to find new approaches for exploiting challenging propagation channels and the development of efficient, cost-effective, scalable, and reliable antenna systems/solutions. Further, this Special Section will allow researchers to identify new opportunities for this exciting field.

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

  • Massive MIMO Antenna Systems: design and applications
  • Distributed Massive MIMO
  • Smart Reconfigurable Antenna Design and Systems
  • Antenna and propagation for smart wearables IoT
  • Base Station and Terminal Antennas
  • Antennas for Machine to Machine (M2M) Connection
  • mm Wave Antennas
  • Antennas for Terahertz applications
  • Antennas for Driverless Cars
  • Phased Array Antennas
  • Antenna Beamforming
  • Channel enhancement techniques
  • Propagation modeling for 5G
  • Channel modeling and wave propagation for smart cities
  • Electromagnetic wave attenuation and RF signal propagation in smart cities

We also highly recommend the submission of multimedia with each article as it significantly increases the visibility, downloads, and citations of articles.

 

Associate Editor:  Muhammad Ali Imran, University of Glasgow, UK

Guest Editors:

  1. Asimina Kiourti, The Ohio State University, USA
  2. Hassan Tariq Chattha, Islamic University of Madinah, Saudi Arabia
  3. Yejun He, Shenzhen University, China
  4. Akram Alomainy, Queen Mary University of London, UK
  5. Raheel M. Hashmi, Macquarie University, NSW, Australia
  6. Muhammad Zulfiker Alam, Queens University, Kingston, Canada
  7. Qammer H. Abbasi, University of Glasgow, UK

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Propagation, Channel Modeling and Applications
  2. 5G and Beyond Mobile Wireless Communications Enabling Intelligent Mobility
  3. Advances in Statistical Channel Modeling for Future Wireless Communications Networks


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

Article submission: Contact Associate Editor and submit manuscript to:
http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact: Muhammad.imran@glasgow.ac.uk; qammer.abbasi@glasgow.ac.uk.

.

5G and Beyond Mobile Wireless Communications Enabling Intelligent Mobility

Submission Deadline: 30 September 2019

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of 5G and Beyond Mobile Wireless Communications Enabling Intelligent Mobility.

Increasing urbanization is one major trend that shapes tomorrow’s society; by 2050 more than 85% of the developed world’s population will live in a comparatively small number of ever-growing cities. Within such cities and their commuter belts, reliable high-rate wireless communication will not only be required for (quasi-) static users, but also for hosts of people moving in public and private transportation networks. Yet, wireless connectivity is not restricted to people; frictionless functioning of such a society in motion is supported by Intelligent Mobility where each connected transportation vehicle (car, train, bus, ship, aircraft, motorcycle, bicycle) is expected to be a smart object equipped with a powerful multi-sensor platform, communication capability, computing units, and Internet protocol (IP)-based connectivity, such as to be highly efficient in various vehicular and transportation applications. This vision requires a more pervasive and ubiquitous communications and networking core, which will not be only driven by the existing research on 5G, but also enabled by future mobile wireless communications which employ new concepts, such as data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud-computing, etc. Therefore, this Special Section in IEEE Access focuses on various theoretical and experimental views on researching and developing the required technological enhancements of 5G and beyond mobile wireless communications to efficiently support the vision of intelligent mobility, providing mobility as a service and enabling dependable Internet services.

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

  • Propagation and channel measurement and modeling for connected cars, trains, ships, and aircrafts, especially at new frequency bands
  • Integrated space-air-vehicle-ground networks
  • Integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning into new wireless systems solutions and applications for intelligent mobility
  • Data analytics for intelligent transportation systems
  • Cloud- and edge based high-performance computing techniques for mobile networks
  • MIMO and Massive MIMO for intelligent transportation systems
  • Radio technologies for high mobility transportation systems
  • Physical layer techniques for connected vehicles, public transportation control and signaling
  • Wireless technologies for automated and connected vehicles
  • Millimeter wave, sub-millimeter wave, and THz communications enabling intelligent mobility
  • Heterogeneous networks and distributed antenna systems
  • Novel physical layer waveforms and modulation schemes

We also highly recommend the submission of multimedia with each article as it significantly increases the visibility, downloads, and citations of articles.

 

Associate Editor:  Ke Guan, Beijing Jiaotong University, China

Guest Editors:

  1. Markus Rupp, Vienna University of Technology, Austria
  2. Thomas Kürner, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
  3. Cesar Briso, Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain
  4. David W. Matolak, University of South Carolina, USA
  5. Jun-ichi Takada, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
  6. Wei Wang, Chang’an University, China

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Advances in Statistical Channel Modeling for Future Wireless Communications Networks
  2. Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Propagation, Channel Modeling and Applications
  3. Network Resource Management in Flying Ad Hoc Networks: Challenges, Potentials, Future Applications, and Wayforward


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

Paper submission: Contact Associate Editor and submit manuscript to:
http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact: kguan@bjtu.edu.cn.

Advances in Statistical Channel Modeling for Future Wireless Communications Networks

Submission Deadline: 30 June 2019

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Advances in Statistical Channel Modeling for Future Wireless Communications Networks.

Wireless communication technology, including both radio and optical frequencies, has become an important aspect of modern life. The accurate depiction of wireless signals is paramount. Statistical channel modeling is of great importance, as accurate characterization of the propagation channel is essential for different applications like system design and performance analysis.

Recently, various types of new wireless communication systems have emerged, such as device-to-device, millimeter wave, and massive multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) systems. However, traditional and well-established fading models, such as Rayleigh, Rician, and Nakagami-m, may not accurately model the random fluctuations of the received signal. There is a strong, credible body of evidence, suggesting that the complex electromagnetic propagation phenomena involved in new wireless communications should be taken into account by general and unifying, physically based channel models. Researchers have been making great efforts to propose appropriate channel models and readers of IEEE Access have keen interest in the research advances in this fundamental and important area.

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

  • Backscatter communications
  • Collocated, distributed and cell-free massive MIMO communications
  • Millimeter wave communications
  • Device-to-device communications
  • Satellite communications
  • UAV communications
  • Underwater and marine communications
  • Vehicular communications
  • Visible light/free-space optical communications
  • High-speed mobility scenarios
  • Wireless body area networks
  • Internet of Things in smart factories
  • Physical layer security of wireless communications

 

We also highly recommend the submission of multimedia with each article as it significantly increases the visibility, downloads, and citations of articles.

 

Associate Editor:  Daniel Benevides da Costa, Federal University of Ceará, Brazil

Guest Editors:

  1. Jiayi Zhang, Beijing Jiaotong University, China
  2. George K. Karagiannidis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
  3. Kostas P. Peppas, University of Peloponnese, Greece
  4. Michail Matthaiou, Queen’s University of Belfast, UK
  5. Octavia A. Dobre, Memorial University, Canada

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Big Data Analytics in Internet-of-Things And Cyber-Physical System
  2. Optical Wireless Technologies for 5G Communications and Beyond
  3. Modelling, Analysis, and Design of 5G Ultra-Dense Networks


IEEE Access Editor-in-Chief: Michael Pecht, Professor and Director, CALCE, University of Maryland

Paper submission: Contact Associate Editor and submit manuscript to:
http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact: danielbcosta@ieee.org

Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Propagation, Channel Modeling and Applications

Submission Deadline: 31 October 2019

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Millimeter-wave and Terahertz Propagation, Channel Modeling and Applications.

The demand for ever-increasing wireless data-transmission rates and throughput area-densities is common to several wireless services and application areas, from ultra-dense cellular networks to internet access, wireless networks on-chip, back-hauling, device-to-device communications and sensing techniques. This need is fostering the exploration of new spectrum in the millimeter-wave (30 to 300 GHz) and Terahertz (0.1 to 10 THz) bands and the study of techniques for multi-Gigabit transmission based on very high-gain antennas or using massive antenna arrays (massive-MIMO, i.e. massive Multiple Input Multiple Output systems).

Besides the greater spectrum availability, mm-wave and THz communications can benefit from the small wavelength, which allows for the design of compact, massive antenna arrays with very narrow beams and therefore of powerful beamforming techniques (pencil-beamforming) that yield optimum spectrum spatial re-use and consistently high signal to interference ratio.

Beamforming is likely to be of great interest for far-field Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) techniques, recently proposed to energize small, battery-less devices and sensors and foster the development of the Internet of Things (IoT). For example, small, low-cost passive tags could be attached to products in a warehouse and high gain mm-wave beam-scanning antenna arrays could be used to localize them and at the same time to acquire sensing information about them. Furthermore, the use of multiple bands in the mm-wave and Terahertz frequency ranges will allow the implementation of very high-accuracy sensing and localization techniques. This will enable a variety of applications, with special regard to security enforcing and vehicular systems, such as the detection and/or localization of drones or the accurate localization of vehicles in urban environment using multi-static cooperative radar techniques for safety and traffic control.

To fully exploit the potential of mm-wave and THz spectrum a deep understanding of the propagation channel will be required, including aspects such as materials’ electromagnetic properties, blockage and scattering due to people, vehicles, drones, as well as multidimensional, multi-frequency channel characterization.  Moreover, multi-disciplinary studies on link components such as antennas, devices, pointing systems, etc., will be necessary, especially for the development of reliable THz communications systems.

The goal of this Special Section in IEEE Access is to provide insight into the peculiar characteristics of electromagnetic propagation at millimeter wave and THz frequencies, to investigate and compare different channel modeling approaches, application scenarios, system architectures, information and power transmission techniques as well as novel localization and sensing solutions that the use of such frequency bands will foster.

 

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

  • Millimeter and Terahertz Wave Propagation
  • Millimeter and Sub-Millimeter Wave Measurements
  • Scattering and Blockage from Humans and Objects
  • Diffuse Scattering Modeling
  • Ray Tracing Propagation Modeling
  • Empirical / Statistical Propagation Modeling
  • Material Characterization at mm-wave and THz Frequencies
  • Mm-wave and THz Channel Modeling
  • Vehicular Communications
  • Railway Communications
  • Air-to-Ground Communications
  • 5G and Beyond Mobile Communications
  • Radar Techniques for Safety and Traffic Control
  • Mm-wave and THz Remote Sensing and Imaging Techniques
  • High Accuracy Localization Techniques
  • Localization and Mapping Techniques
  • Inter- and Intra-chip Wireless Networks
  • Device-to-Device and Rack-to-Rack Communications
  • Gigabit and Terabit Wireless Links for Back-Hauling and High-Speed Access
  • Mm-wave and Terahertz Transmission Techniques and System Architectures
  • Massive MIMO Communications Techniques
  • Analog and Digital Beamforming Techniques
  • Multi-user Beamforming and Space Division techniques
  • Internet of Things
  • Mm-wave RFID techniques
  • Far-field Wireless Power Transmission
  • Wireless Power Focusing techniques and Frequency Diverse Arrays
  • Mm-wave and THz Antennas, Rectennas and Devices
  • Submillimeter Wave Technology

 

We also highly recommend the submission of multimedia with each article as it significantly increases the visibility, downloads, and citations of articles.

 

Associate Editor: Vittorio Degli-Esposti and Franco Fuschini, University of Bologna, Italy

Guest Editors:

  1. Henry L. Bertoni, NYU School of Engineering, New York, USA
  2. Reiner Thomä, Technische Hochschule Ilmenau, Germany
  3. Thomas Kürner, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
  4. Xuefeng Yin, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
  5. Ke Guan, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, China

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Roadmap to 5G: Rising to the Challenge
  2. Multi-Function RF Components for Current and Future 5G Wireless Communications
  3. Modelling, Analysis, and Design of 5G Ultra-Dense Networks


IEEE Access Editor-in-Chief: Michael Pecht, Professor and Director, CALCE, University of Maryland

Paper submission: Contact Associate Editor and submit manuscript to:
http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact: : v.deglesposti@unibo.it, franco.fuschini@unibo.it

Wireless Body Area Networks

Submission Deadline: 31 March 2019

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Wireless Body Area Networks.

This Special Section collects extended versions of the best-ranked papers presented in Bodynets 2018 Conference in Oulu, Finland. In addition, other researchers are encouraged to submit their recent research work for possible publication in the Special Section.

Wearable devices and wireless communications combined with a personalized health management are the future trends of healthcare practices and procedures. To make this progress happen, new technologies and methods are required to provide reliable measuring, end-to-end communications and data analysis mechanisms from the data source to medical health records. Wireless body area networks (WBAN) are one major element in this process. Not limited to only on-body WBAN devices but also benefiting technologies which can distribute vital information inside a human body, or allow control of implantable devices are also  the main focus of this Special Section. Dependable wireless communications combined with versatile application areas, such as accurate localization or behavior analysis techniques, remote monitoring, adoption of vital sensors and actuators, etc. can benefit the increased use of new WBAN technologies in various healthcare related studies. Eventually, this will make the healthcare processes more effective and user friendly, and simultaneously increase the safety of (out)patients.

This Special Section in IEEE Access focuses on various theoretical and experimental views on the WBAN applications, technologies, implementations and utilizations based on the extended versions of the best-evaluated papers from Bodynets 2018. Articles should be extended versions of the 2018 Bodynets Conference articles since only 35% overlap is allowed. Original and new research articles are also welcome.

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

  • In-, on- and off-body communications and networking
  • Wearable computing
  • Embedded devices
  • Medical applications
  • WBAN radio channel modeling
  • WBAN antennas
  • Security aspects of WBAN or security for medical ICT
  • Experimentations of WBAN technologies and services
  • Utilization of WBAN in general

We also highly recommend the submission of multimedia with each article as it significantly increases the visibility, downloads, and citations of articles.

 

Associate Editor: Matti Hämäläinen, University of Oulu, Finland.


Guest Editors:

  1. Daizuke Anzai, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan
  2. Giancarlo Fortino, University of Calabria, Italy
  3. Jari Iinatti, University of Oulu, Finland
  4. Lorenzo Mucchi, University of Florence, Italy
  5. Carlos Pomalaza-Raez, Purdue University, USA

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Wearable and Implantable Devices and Systems
  2. Advanced Information Sensing and Learning Technologies for Data-centric Smart Health Applications
  3. Trends, Perspectives and Prospects of Machine Learning Applied to Biomedical Systems in Internet of Medical Things


IEEE Access Editor-in-Chief: Michael Pecht, Professor and Director, CALCE, University of Maryland

Paper submission: Contact Associate Editor and submit manuscript to:
http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact:  matti.hamalainen@oulu.fi

 

Wirelessly Powered Networks: Algorithms, Applications and Technologies

Submission Deadline: 31 October 2018

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Wirelessly Powered Networks: Algorithms, Applications and Technologies.

Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) is, by definition, a process that occurs in any system where electrical energy is transmitted from a power source to a load without the connection of electrical conductors. WPT is the driving technology that will enable the next stage in the current consumer electronics revolution, including battery-less sensors, passive RF identification (RFID), passive wireless sensors, the Internet of Things and 5G, and machine-to-machine solutions. WPT-enabled devices can be powered by harvesting energy from the surroundings, including electromagnetic (EM) energy, leading to a new communication networks paradigm, the Wirelessly Powered Networks.

While recent advances in wireless utensils appear to be unlimited, the dependence of their operation on batteries remains a weakness, mainly because batteries come with a limited lifetime and require a fast charge time to achieve continuous operation. This is where the technologies of WPT become useful, bringing together wireless energy and data transmission. WPT technologies substitute the traditional powering concept, where a cable or a battery is connected to the wireless device, by the transmission of energy over the air in an efficient way to power-up the device.

Wirelessly Powered Networks have recently evolved into a very active research field, as well as a topic of rapid technological progress, emerging practical developments and standardization activities. However, a solid foundational, technological, and applied background is still necessary for Wirelessly Powered Networks to achieve their full potential. The provisioning of relevant technological models, algorithmic design and analysis methods, networking principles, circuit and system design, and application methodologies is a challenging task. This Special Section in IEEE Access invites academic and industrial experts to make their contributions on Wirelessly Powered Networks. It will selectively span a coherent, large spectrum of fundamental aspects of WPT, and will focus on three main thematic pillars and relevant themes: Algorithms, Applications and Technologies.

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

Algorithms

  • Optimization and approximation algorithms (mobility/energy/data management)
  • Joint operation scheduling (routing, data gathering, ambient harvesting)
  • Precise algorithmic models and efficient distributed protocols
  • WPT devices deployment
  • Safety provisioning through EM radiation control algorithms
  • Peer-to-peer and crowd charging algorithms
  • Algorithms for simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT)

Applications

  • Medical implants and wearable devices
  • Automotive technology and electric vehicles
  • Mobile communications, wireless sensor networks and UAVs
  • Spacecraft engineering
  • Home/Industrial appliances
  • Standardization, regulations and biological effects
  • Solutions for SWIPT

Technologies

  • RF energy harvesting, rectennas and rectenna arrays
  • High-frequency rectifying circuits, power transmitters and devices
  • Near-field (inductive, resonant) energy transfer
  • Microwave transmission and beaming
  • Novel materials, fabrication techniques
  • Energy storage elements, RFID-related electronics and self-powered sensors
  • Measurement and characterization approaches for WPT components

We also highly recommend the submission of multimedia with each article as it significantly increases the visibility, downloads, and citations of articles.

 

Associate Editor:  Theofanis P. Raptis, National Research Council, Italy


Guest Editors:

  1. Nuno Borges Carvalho, University of Aveiro, Portugal
  2. Diego Masotti, University of Bologna, Italy
  3. Lei Shu, Nanjing Agricultural University, China / University of Lincoln, UK
  4. Cong Wang, Old Dominion University, USA
  5. Yuanyuan Yang, Stony Brook University, USA


Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

 

  1. Energy Efficient Wireless Communications with Energy Harvesting and Wireless Power Transfer
  2. Exploiting the Benefits of Interference in Wireless Networks: Energy Harvesting and Security
  3. Energy Harvesting and Scavenging: Technologies, Algorithms, and Communication Protocols


IEEE Access Editor-in-Chief: Michael Pecht, Professor and Director, CALCE, University of Maryland

Paper submission: Contact Associate Editor and submit manuscript to:
http://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/ieee-access

For inquiries regarding this Special Section, please contact:  theofanis.raptis@iit.cnr.it