Advanced Communications and Networking Techniques for Wireless Connected Intelligent Robot Swarms

Submission Deadline: 31 May 2020

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Advanced Communications and Networking Techniques for Wireless Connected Intelligent Robot Swarms.

Robot swarm is one of the hottest topics in both robotics and artificial intelligence, and exciting progress is being achieved. As the key enablers in practical robot swarms, communication and networking are attracting attention. Most applications consider centralized control and reliable communication infrastructure, in order to avoid the significantly increased complexity of distributed task allocation, formation control and collision avoidance in robot swarms.

There are many challenges and problems that are yet to be solved in developing real-world applications of wireless connected robot swarms. For example, collaborations of heterogeneous robot swarms need to function reliably and robustly in the absence of communication infrastructures in remote areas or post-disaster rescues. The research of communications and networking for wireless-connected robot swarms demands joint efforts in robotic and communications disciplines. The objective is to develop technologies that enable efficient management of wireless spectrum resources and highly-networked intelligent behaviors to achieve the full potential of wireless-connected robot swarms.

This Special Section in IEEE Access aims to present recent developments in communications and networking for wireless connected intelligent robot swarms, and their applications, as well as to provide a reference for future research of wireless communication and networking, and their integration with autonomous robotics. The contributions of this Special Section will cover a wide range of research and development topics relevant to autonomous robotic design, cognitive communications, cognitive networking and artificial intelligence. We invite submissions of high-quality original technical and survey articles, which have not been published previously, on the analysis, modeling, simulations and field experiments, as well as articles that can fill the gap between theoretical contributions on intelligent swarms and practical demonstrations and applications.

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

  • Channel modeling and simulation for wireless connected robot swarms
  • Cognitive PHY and MAC protocol design for wireless connected robot swarms
  • Ad hoc networking for wireless connected robot swarms
  • Decentralized control and distributed protocol design for wireless connected robot swarms
  • Energy scavenging and power transfer techniques for wireless connected robot swarms
  • Data-driven optimization of wireless networks for robot swarms
  • Joint design of wireless communications and autonomous robot behaviours, e.g. networked control, network-based fault detection and tolerance, path planning, formation control, data sharing without explicit wireless communications etc.
  • Testbeds and experimental evaluations for communications and networking in wireless-connected robot swarms
  • Field demonstrations and applications of aerial, ground and underwater robotic swarms
  • Resource allocation in wireless-connected robot swarms
  • Applications of deep learning techniques in wireless connected robot swarms
  • Transfer learning and reinforcement learning for networking and communications of robot swarms in complex unknown and unexplored environments
  • Maintaining wireless communication-connectivity in wireless-connected robot swarms
  • Underwater robotic swarm communications and networking design
  • Control algorithm and behavior issues in wireless-connected robot swarms
  • Distributed sensing and precise mapping in wireless-connected robot swarms
  • Effect of smart sensing technologies on communications in wireless-connected robot swarms
  • Control, formation and navigation in wireless-connected robot swarms
  • Swarm intelligence in wireless-connected robot swarms
  • Cooperative robotic swarms for Internet-of-Things ecosystems

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

 

Associate Editor:  Jiankang Zhang, University of Southampton, UK

Guest Editors:

  1. Bo Zhang, National Innovation Institute of Defense Technology, China
  2. DaeEun Kim, Yonsei University, Korea
  3. Hui Cheng, Sun Yat-sen University, China
  4. Jinming Wen, University of Toronto, Canada
  5. Luciano Bononi, University of Bologna, Italy
  6. Venanzio Cichella, University of Iowa, USA

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Networks of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Wireless Communications, Applications, Control and Modelling
  2. Network Resource Management in Flying Ad Hoc Networks: Challenges, Potentials, Future Applications, and Wayforward
  3. Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Computing for Communications and 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: jz09v@ecs.soton.ac.uk.

Mobile Multimedia: Methodology and Applications

Submission Deadline: 31 December 2019

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Mobile Multimedia: Methodology and Applications.

With the development of mobile computing and high-speed communication technologies, there is an increasing demand for mobile multimedia services and applications. Emerging technologies, such as mobile TV, 3D video, 360-degree video, multi-view video, free-viewpoint video, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR), have received significant interest and attention from both academia and industry. Those technologies are widely expected to bring exciting services and applications for monitoring, entertaining, training, and operating in the areas of smart home, smart city, public safety, healthcare, education, manufacturing, transportation, etc.

There are many open research issues in developing mobile multimedia systems, which could potentially affect many domains, including mobile computing, context-aware computing, human-computer interaction, cybernetics, cyber-physical human systems (CPHS), and information security and privacy. For example, the two-way communication between user devices and content providers in mobile interactive multimedia systems is highly delay-sensitive. Thus, latency modeling and evaluation is critical to system architecture design and resource allocation. Besides, as many mobile multimedia applications are location-related, research on real-time location-aware computing and context-aware computing becomes important in the development of mobile multimedia systems. Moreover, new networking and computing technologies, such as social networks, software-defined networks, edge and fog computing, and content-centric networking are expected to have great impacts on the design of mobile multimedia systems. For example, to reduce latency for AR/VR applications, software on edge computing servers can provide local object tracking and local AR/VR content caching. In addition, trust and privacy issues are very important concerns to users as malicious applications could deceive users by taking advantage of interactivity and providing false content. This Special Section in IEEE Access focuses on various theoretical and experimental views on the methodology and applications of mobile multimedia.

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

  • Architecture, algorithms, and applications of next-generation mobile multimedia systems
  • Metrics and evaluation of mobile multimedia quality
  • 3D mobile multimedia
  • Mobile interactive multimedia and AR/VR
  • Mobile multimedia networking, streaming, and computing
  • Mobile multimedia for internet of things (IoT)
  • Mobile multimedia for human-centered cyber-physical systems (CPS)
  • Standardization and prototypes
  • Security and privacy
  • Mobile multimedia data analytics
  • Artificial intelligence for mobile multimedia

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

 

Associate Editor:  Honggang Wang, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, USA

Guest Editors:

  1. Dalei Wu, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USA
  2. Qing Yang, University of North Texas, USA
  3. Dapeng Wu, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China
  4. Danda B. Rawat, Howard University, USA
  5. Enzo Mingozzi, University of Pisa, Italy

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Recent Advances on Video Coding and Security
  2. Smart Caching, Communications, Computing and Cybersecurity for Information-Centric Internet of Things
  3. Sustainable Infrastructures, Protocols, and Research Challenges for Fog Computing


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: dalei-wu@utc.edu.

Green Communications on Wireless Networks

Submission Deadline: 31 January 2020

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Green Communications on Wireless Networks.

Green communications, with a focus on energy efficiency, is a hot topic in both academic and industry communities since they can significantly enhance sustainability with regard to power resources and environmental conditions. Recently, with much effort in this area, several green communication approaches are entering into a more mature phase, with exciting applications in various networks. For instance, a simple and effective green communication solution is to place a device in sleep mode, which was incorporated by various MAC protocols with broad applications in wireless networks. However, it is essential to investigate the trade-off between the energy efficiency for green communications, and the network requirements. Moreover, it is crucial to evaluate the performance concerning the energy consumption, the throughput, and the response time, regarding green communications under different wireless network conditions (e.g., different traffic, different channels).

With this motivation, this Special Section in IEEE Access solicits the submissions of high-quality and unpublished articles that aim to address the open technical problems and challenges concerning green communications, taking into account the constraints of wireless networks. In particular, we seek submissions, which efficiently integrate novel approaches, focusing on the network performance evaluation and comparison with existing green communication solutions. Both theoretical and experimental studies for typical green communication scenarios are encouraged. High-quality review and survey papers are also welcome.

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

  • Energy efficiency for wireless communication
  • Energy efficiency for mobile communication
  • Infrastructure for green communication
  • Measurement for QoS-aware networks
  • Life-cycle assessment for wireless networks
  • Cooperative mechanisms for green networks
  • Cross-layer mechanisms for green networks
  • Security and privacy for green networks
  • Applications for green networks

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

 

Associate Editor:   Ilsun You, Soonchunhyang University, South Korea

Guest Editors:

  1. Giovanni Pau, Kore University of Enna, Italy
  2. Wei Wei, The Xi’an University of Technology, China
  3. Carol Fung, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Green Signal Processing for Wireless Communications and Networking
  2. Exploiting the Benefits of Interference in Wireless Networks: Energy Harvesting and Security
  3. Resource Management in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks: Energy Management, Communication Protocol and Future Applications


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: ilsunu@gmail.com.

Secure Communication for the Next Generation 5G and IoT Networks

Submission Deadline: 31 January 2020

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Secure Communication for the Next Generation 5G and IoT Networks.

New forms of technology continue to permeate modern day society, and can have significant impacts on business, government and personal interactions. Two such technologies are next generation 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) networks. While 5G promises to deliver significant increases in speed, connectivity and capacity, the IoT extends the traditional thinking of a device to encompass a range of new connected things (from the physical through to the cyber-physical). Together these technologies are predicted to offer substantial advances in communications. As these technologies grow in prominence however, their security becomes even more crucial. This security needs to consider and accommodate the unique features of these new platforms, and build security in as a standard. Areas of importance include secure communications, risk assessment and management in IoT and 5G, balancing security and quality of service, and other security needs.

With this motivation, this Special Section in IEEE Access solicits the submissions of high-quality and unpublished articles that aim to address the open technical problems and challenges concerning secure communications, taking into account the unique nature of 5G and IoT systems and networks. In particular, we seek submissions that target this and related problems, with a focus on current and future developments. Both theoretical and experimental studies for secure communication scenarios are encouraged. Additionally, high-quality review and survey papers are also welcome.

While 5G Wireless Technologies and the Internet of Things are regular topics in IEEE Access Sections, this proposal aims to combine these two topics and consider them within the context of secure communications.

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

  • Secure communications in 5G and IoT networks
  • Authentication and key exchange protocols in 5G and IoT networks
  • Formal security analysis on security protocols for 5G and IoT networks
  • Developing secure communication systems or environments
  • Security risk management and assessment in 5G and IoT networks
  • Usability and human factor issues and studies with 5G and IoT networks
  • Privacy and trust in 5G and IoT networks
  • Infrastructure for secure communications
  • Balancing security and quality services in 5G and IoT networks
  • Emerging security issues in 5G and IoT networks

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

Associate Editor:   Ilsun You, Soonchunhyang University, South Korea

Guest Editors:

  1. Jason R.C. Nurse, University of Kent, UK
  2. Isaac Woungang, Ryerson University, Canada
  3. Antonio F. Skarmeta, University of Murcia, Spain

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Roadmap to 5G: Rising to the Challenge
  2. Smart Caching, Communications, Computing and Cybersecurity for Information-Centric Internet of Things
  3. Security, Privacy, and Trust Management in Smart Cities


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: ilsunu@gmail.com.

Millimeter-Wave Communications: New Research Trends and Challenges

Submission Deadline: 30 September 2019

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Millimeter-Wave Communications: New Research Trends and Challenges.

With various applications emerging, e.g., virtual reality, artificial intelligence, ultra-high definition video, Internet of things, and mobile Internet, there is an urgent demand to increase the bandwidth of wireless networks. To meet the bandwidth requirement of new and emerging applications, it is necessary to move from the existing microwave bands toward higher frequency, i.e., the millimeter wave (mmWave) band. In the last decade, the unlicensed spectrum around 60 GHz has been applied to wireless local area network (WLAN), exploring the indoor use of mmWave communications. Recently, mmWave communication has been proposed as one of the key technologies for 5G cellular networks to fulfill the demand of ultra-high data rates. Satellite communications and high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications also tend to exploit the mmWave band (Ka band) to increase the transmission capacity.

Both industry and academia have developed key technologies of mmWave communications, and have made significant progress, e.g., in beamforming design, channel estimation, and capacity evaluation. However,  there are new emerging areas where mmWave communications also play a crucial role, with key challenges demanding substantial research; for instance, mmWave communications with non-orthogonal multiple access (mmWave-NOMA) to accommodate the rapidly increasing number of users; full-duplex mmWave communications for relay and backhaul to double link throughput; mmWave UAV communications for both low-altitude and high-altitude UAVs; mmWave communications for 5G vehicle-to-everything (V2X), etc. The key challenges on the design of these new mmWave communication technologies include multi-user interference mitigation in mmWave-NOMA, self-interference cancellation in full-duplex mmWave communications, fast beam tracking in mmWave UAV communications, and the security and multiple access issues in mmWave communications, among others.

This Special Section in IEEE Access focuses on new trends and challenges for mmWave communications. The aim of this Special Section is to share and discuss recent advances and future trends of mmWave communications, and to bring academic researchers and industry developers together.

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

  • MmWave communication for 5G/B5G/6G
  • Beamforming, precoding, channel estimation, etc., for mmWave communication
  • Beamforming, power allocation, user pairing techniques and joint designs for mmWave-NOMA
  • Performance evaluation and system design for mmWave-NOMA
  • Beamforming and self-interference cancellation for mmWave full-duplex communications
  • Performance analysis and system design for mmWave full-duplex communications
  • UAV deployment, beamforming, beam tracking techniques and joint designs for mmWave UAV communications
  • Mobility management and blockage issues in mmWave UAV communications
  • Very high date rate and very long distance mmWave data links
  • Security and Privacy in mmWave 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:  Zhenyu Xiao, Beihang University, China

Guest Editors:

  1. Jinho Choi, Deakin University, Australia
  2. Ning Zhang, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, USA
  3. Jianhua He, Aston University, UK
  4. Lin Bai, Beihang University, China
  5. Qinyu Zhang, Harbin Institute of Technology, China

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. New Waveform Design and Air-Interface for Future Heterogeneous Network towards 5G
  2. Green Signal Processing for Wireless Communications and Networking
  3. D2D Communications: Security Issues and Resource Allocation


IEEE Access Editor-in-Chief:  Derek Abbott, Professor, 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: xiaozy@buaa.edu.cn.

Mobile Edge Computing and Mobile Cloud Computing: Addressing Heterogeneity and Energy Issues of Compute and Network Resources

Submission Deadline: 30 July 2019

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Mobile Edge Computing and Mobile Cloud Computing: Addressing Heterogeneity and Energy Issues of Compute and Network Resources.

Mobile applications are advancing towards higher network and computation requirements which are similar to the requirements of server applications. Users prefer to perform their tasks on mobile devices instead of stationary desktop and server systems. Modern mobile applications are limited by the battery since high processing and data demands drain the batter quickly. Other resources are also limited in mobile devices such as Memory, CPU time, etc.). Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) is a paradigm that facilitates resource-scarce mobile devices to enhance their capabilities and execute data/computation-intensive applications while collaborating with resource-rich network servers to enable ubiquitous computing. Mobile Cloud Computing also provides more resources for applications that have low response requirements (non-interactive applications). Both mobile edge computing and mobile cloud computing are enabling paradigms for Internet of Things (IoT), smart grids, and e-health applications.

Smartphone applications rely on offloading techniques to leverage high-performance computing opportunities available on edge and cloud servers. Two main research challenges arise due to the heterogeneity of network and compute resources. Computation resources are unable to execute offloading and collaborative tasks without consideration of heterogeneity. The heterogeneity of computer resources can be in the form of architecture (ARM, Intel), processing power, and network capabilities. To address these issues, solutions based on application and system virtualization need to be proposed. In addition, the network heterogeneity results in varying radio capabilities for the end devices. Network access and collaboration algorithms need to consider this heterogeneity for optimal performance of applications executing on end devices. Moreover, energy is a persistent issue for most of the computing applications. Energy optimization techniques in mobile edge and mobile cloud computing can help mobile devices function longer without draining the users’ batteries.

 

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

  • Energy efficient edge computing
  • Heterogeneous resource management in edge networks
  • Smart caching
  • Edge content placement and delivery
  • D2D communication for content delivery
  • Edge content popularity prediction
  • Multi-platform computation frameworks
  • Collaborative caching

 

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 Khurram Khan, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia

Guest Editors:

  1. Junaid Shuja, Comsats University Islamabad, Pakistan
  2. Yaser Jararweh, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan
  3. Guanding Yu, Zhejiang University, China
  4. Mohsen Guizani, University of Idaho, USA
  5. Christos Verikoukis, Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC), Spain
  6. Raja Wasim Ahmad, Comsats University Islamabad, Pakistan

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Towards Service-Centric Internet of Things (IoT): From Modeling to Practice
  2. Collaboration for Internet of Things
  3. Mobile Edge Computing


IEEE Access Editor-in-Chief:  Derek Abbott, Professor, 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: mkhurram@KSU.EDU.SA.

Information Centric Wireless Networking with Edge Computing for 5G and IoT

Submission Deadline:  15 March 2020

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Information Centric Wireless Networking with Edge Computing for 5G and IoT.

The advent of the Internet of Things (IoTs) and Fifth Generation (5G) high-speed communication networks is expected not only to make it necessary to rapidly increase the number of communication nodes and generate large amounts of data, but also to change the nature of the network to a more dynamic environment. However, the present network structure and operation method have various problems to be solved in order to cope with the aforementioned changes. Some issues, for example, are Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)-based and end-to-end-based centralized and rigid network structure, the lack and allocation difficulties of IP addresses, increasing network traffic forwarding massive data to the cloud at remote locations for high capacity data processing, increasing delays in receiving effective analytic results from the remote cloud server, etc.

To address these issues, Information Centric Networking (ICN) technology is proposed to replace the current TCP/IP structure and present a flexible network structure in the IoT environment. Edge Computing technology is proposed to provide low-delay services by processing large amounts of data quickly in short proximity. Well-known related projects are Content Centric Networking (CCN) and Named Data Networking (NDN). While ICN has actively been studied, ICN for wireless networks has not been studied much. In addition, since ICN and Edge Computing have common functionalities such as caching, the two technologies may need to be co-located, and cooperate with each other. Integrating the technologies has not extensively been studied, and even less so for wireless environments.

Therefore, in this Special Section in IEEE Access, we invite researchers and experts to contribute original research articles as well as review articles about the research topics related to Information Centric Wireless Networking (ICWN). It adopts ICN technology for efficient and seamless wireless networks and Information Centric Wireless Edge Networking (ICWEN) technology, which integrates ICWN and EDGE computing technologies for the high reliability and low delay communication networks required by 5G LTE.

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

  • Architecture and protocols for adopting ICN technologies to distributed and centralized wireless networks
  • Network-wide architecture and node architecture for ICWN and ICWEN
  • Naming schemes for ICWN and ICWEN
  • Applications for ICWN and ICWEN
  • Caching schemes for ICWN and ICWEN
  • Performance evaluations in regard to: ICN vs. ICWN, ICN with Edge vs. ICN without Edge
  • Reliability, QoS support, Sustainability, Mobility support, Energy efficiency, Securities of ICWN and ICWEN
  • Interoperability of ICWN and ICWEN with other heterogeneous networks
  • Theoretical and experimental performance evaluations of ICWN and ICWEN
  • Analytic models for the behavior of ICWN and ICWEN, especially for scalability properties
  • Test-Bed implementation and measurement using CCNx, CCN-Lite, NDN
  • ICWN and ICWEN with IoT, 5G LTE, and Autonomous Driving, etc.

 

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

 

Associate Editor: Byung-Seo Kim, Hongik University, Korea

Guest Editors:

  1. Chi Zhang, University of Science and Technology of China, China
  2. Yuanxiong Guo, Oklahoma State University, USA
  3. Muhammad Khalil Afzal, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Pakistan
  4. Balazs Sonkoly, Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), Hungary

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Fog Radio Access Networks (F-RANs) for 5G: Recent Advances and Future Trends
  2. Sustainable Infrastructures, Protocols, and Research Challenges for Fog Computing
  3. Smart Caching, Communications, Computing and Cybersecurity for Information-Centric Internet of 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: jsnbs@hongik.ac.kr.

Advances in Power Line Communication and its Applications

Submission Deadline: 30 April 2019

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Advances in Power Line Communication and its Applications.

Power line communication (PLC) is a growing technology which utilizes the existing pre-installed power delivery network for data transmission. While it is true that the history of this technology goes back to the beginning of the last century when the first data transmission over power lines took place for low data rate control and monitoring purposes, PLC has recently regained a considerable amount of research attention due to the dawn of the internet and the increasing need for fast connectivity. PLC is also expected to serve as a reliable communication medium for many emerging applications of Internet-of-things (IoT) and Smart Grids.

PLC has a number of advantages that make it an appealing complement, as well as a competitor, to other wireless technologies. For example, PLC does not require any new wiring installations which can significantly reduce the deployment costs. Another advantage of PLC is that it can enable communication with hard-to-reach nodes where the RF wireless signal suffers from high levels of attenuation, as in underground structures, buildings with obstructions and metal walls, or simply when the wireless signal is undesirable for EMI issues such as in hospitals. Furthermore, PLC can provide a low-cost solution to complement other existing technologies such as RF wireless or visible light communication (VLC) systems. In particular, integrating PLC and VLC systems has recently received a considerable amount of research attention, enabling new generation of high-speed indoor communications with numerous applications.

With this in mind, the smart grid (SG) is one of the most important applications of PLCs. Although the realization of SG can be achieved using several communication solutions including, but not limited to, ZigBee, WiMAX, long range wireless and cellular (3-5G), PLC remains the most popular and attractive candidate to SG developers because of the widely available infrastructure and because PLC is a through-the-grid technology. This is an important feature because it reduces the reliance of utility companies on third party connectivity which of course can diminish security and privacy issues. Other applications that can also benefit from the fact that new cables are not required include smart city, telemetry, in-home automation, etc. Furthermore, PLC for in-vehicle data buses is also an interesting research area which has received a substantial attention over the past years. In this respect, many PLC networks have been explored in cars, trains, ships and aircraft systems.

Motivated by the above, this Special Section in IEEE Access aims to capture the state-of-the-art advances in power line communication and its applications, and outline the possible future research directions.

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

  • Channel measurement, modeling and interoperability (EMC)
  • Advanced PLC technologies (PHY, MAC and networking including routing, QoS, QoE, security and privacy)
  • PLC networks (heterogeneous networks including PLC-VLC; and PLC-radio, interoperability, cognitive approaches)
  • PLC for smart grids, smart metering and grid control
  • Other PLC applications (IoT, Vehicular, etc)
  • Open challenges, results and the role of PLC in new standards

 

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

 

Associate Editor:  Khaled Rabie, Manchester Met University, UK

Guest Editors:

  1. Andrea M. Tonello, University of Klagenfurt, Austria
  2. Naofal Al-Dhahir, University of Texas at Dallas, USA
  3. Jian Song, Tsinghua University, China
  4. Alberto Sendin, Iberdrola, Spain

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. Software Defined Networks for Energy Internet and Smart Grid Communications
  2. Smart Caching, Communications, Computing and Cybersecurity for Information-Centric IoT
  3. Urban Computing & Well-being in Smart Cities: Services, Applications, Policymaking Considerations


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: k.rabie@mmu.ac.uk

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

Artificial Intelligence for Physical-Layer Wireless Communications

Submission Deadline: 31 December 2019

IEEE Access invites manuscript submissions in the area of Artificial Intelligence for Physical-Layer Wireless Communications.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), including Deep Learning (DL) and deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approaches, well known from computer science (CS) disciplines, are beginning to emerge in wireless communications. These AI approaches were first widely applied to the upper layers of wireless communication systems for various purposes, such as routing establishment/optimization, and deployment of cognitive radio and communication network. These system models and algorithms designed with DL technology greatly improve the performance of communication systems based on traditional methods.

New features of future communications, such as complex scenarios with unknown channel models, high speed and accurate processing requirements, make traditional methods no longer suitable,  and provides many more potential applications of DL. DL technology has become a new hotspot in the research of physical-layer wireless communications and challenges conventional communication theories. Currently, DL-based ‘black-box’ methods show promising performance improvements but have certain limitations, such as the lack of solid analytical tools and the use of architectures specifically designed for communication and implementation research. With the development of DL technology, in addition to the traditional neural network-based data-driven model, the model-driven deep network model and the DRL model (i.e. DQN) which combined DL with reinforcement learning, are more suitable for dealing with future complex communication systems. As in most cases of wireless resource allocation, there are no definite samples to train the model, hence DRL, which trains the model by maximizing the reward associated with different actions, can be adopted.

This Special Section in IEEE Access focuses on the application of DL/DRL methods to physical-layer wireless communications to make future communications more intelligent. We  invite submissions of high-quality original technical and survey articles, which have not been published previously, on DL/DRL techniques and their applications for wireless communication and signal processing.

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

  • DL/DRL based 5G wireless technologies
  • DL/DRL based beamforming in mmWave massive MIMO
  • DL/DRL based hybrid precoding in massive MIMO system, mmWave system
  • DL/DRL based non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) techniques
  • DL/DRL based MIMO-NOMA frameworks
  • DL/DRL based sparse channel estimation
  • DL/DRL based communication frameworks
  • DL/DRL based multiuser detection
  • DL/DRL based modulation and coding
  • DL/DRL based direction-of-arrival estimation
  • DL/DRL based channel modeling
  • DL/DRL based signal classification
  • DL/DRL based unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) techniques
  • DL/DRL based energy-efficient network operations
  • DL/DRL based ultra-dense cell communication
  • DL/DRL based testbeds and experimental evaluations

 

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

 

Associate Editor:  Guan Gui, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China

Guest Editors:

  1. Tomohiko Taniguchi, Fujitsu Laboratories Limited, Japan
  2. Haris Gacanin, Nokia Bell Labs, Belgium
  3. Ning Zhang, Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi, USA
  4. Yue Cao, Northumbria University, UK
  5. Kezhi Wang, Northumbria University, UK

 

Relevant IEEE Access Special Sections:

  1. AI-Driven Big Data Processing: Theory, Methodology, and Applications
  2. Applications of Big Data in Social Sciences
  3. Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Computing for Communications and 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: guiguan@njupt.edu.cn