IEEE Wireless Communications is designed for audience working in the wireless communications and networking communities. It covers technical, policy and standard issues relating to wireless communications in all media (and combinations of media), and at all protocol layers. All wireless/mobile communications, networking, computing and services will be covered. Each issue of this interdisciplinary magazine provides tutorial articles of high quality and depth concerning the revolutionary technological advances in wireless/mobile communications, networking and computing.

Special Issue on Wireless Innovations: Leveraging Semantic Communication Technologies
Submission Date: 2025-02-01

The exploration of semantic communication holds significant timeliness and relevance within the landscape of wireless communications. The use of semantic communication is emphasized due to the ongoing transition from beyond 5G to 6G and the imminent transformation from a traditional system to future next-generation networks. Hence, semantic communication aligns with the mission of wireless communications by presenting an innovative and artificial intelligence-centric approach to address the evolving challenges in wireless communication.

The innovations of semantic communication reflected in wireless communication technologies, enabling more intelligent and context-aware interactions, involves semantic communication in creating context-aware wireless networks where devices exchange not only raw data but also the semantic meaning behind the data. Additionally, a more detailed insight into the theoretical communication frameworks can be modeled underpinning semantic understanding. The practical industry developments, implementations, standardization, and testbeds for semantic communication are yet to be explored, and the challenges and opportunities associated with them considering wide range of applications, is an innovative field for researchers. Hence, there is a pressing need for more in-depth investigations explicating the mechanisms through which semantics are encoded, transmitted, and decoded in wireless communication systems, as well as categorizing the key features that influence the performance and efficiency of semantic communication. This Special Issue (SI) aims to leverage semantic communications to tackle the most recent challenges within the future next-generation networks. The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

    Standardization frameworks for semantic communication: ensuring interoperability and efficiency.
    Testbed environments for evaluating semantic communication.
    The role of semantic communication in industry 4.0.
    Building semantic communication systems for large-scale industrial applications.
    Semantic communication implementation in various industries.
    Emerging trends in semantic communication technologies: opportunities for industry development.
    Design and optimization of network protocols that leverage semantic information for efficient routing, resource allocation, and quality-of-service management.
    Integration of ML and AI techniques with semantic communication technologies to enhance network intelligence, adaptability, and autonomy.
    Semantic-based approaches for dynamic spectrum access, cognitive radio, and spectrum sharing in wireless networks.
    Integration of semantic communication for smart antennas and beamforming optimization.
    Security challenges in semantic communication-enabled wireless communication systems.
    Semantic communication and D2D/V2V/UAV cooperative applications based on AI algorithms.
    AI-enabled semantic communication for autonomous vehicular communication.
    Semantic communication in real-world scenarios (IoT, smart cities, and autonomous systems).
    Semantic Information Synthesis using generative AI (and LLM) for wireless communication.

Submission Guidelines

Prospective authors should prepare their submissions in accordance with the rules specified in the "Information for Authors" of the IEEE Wireless Communications Authors Guidelines. Authors should submit a PDF version of their complete manuscript to Manuscript Central. The timetable is as follows:

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 1 February 2025
Initial Decision Date: 1 April 2025
Revised Manuscript Due: 1 May 2025
Final Decision Date: 1 June 2025
Final Manuscript Due: 1 August 2025
Publication Date: October 2025

Guest Editors

Ishtiaq Ahmad
Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic

Vincenzo Sciancalepore
NEC Laboratories Europe GmbH, Germany

Zhiguo Ding
The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

Chau Yuen
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Special Issue on 6G Local Area Networks
Submission Date: 2025-02-01

The Sixth Generation (6G) radio technology is expected to integrate subnetworks of diverse characteristics in terms of spectrum, operational range, and services to be supported. In particular, local area 6G networks, including the new paradigm of in-X subnetworks, are expected to extend the capabilities of 5G networks towards more demanding requirements in terms of cycle time, latency, determinism, and data rates. The densification of 6G local networks may pose significant challenges to radio resource management, calling for novel spectrum sharing solutions or new dedicated bands, including sub-THz and THz regions, besides, 6G local area networks may coexist with public/wide area networks, potentially calling for new regulations. The wireless pervasiveness enabled by 6G local area can make data transfer more vulnerable to eavesdropper and malicious attacks; different security challenges and their solutions will need to be considered given the specific usage scenarios (e.g., potential proprietary use), along with enhanced authentication and authorization mechanisms. Short-range communication in 6G local area networks can ease a combination with sensing technologies to support situation and context aware services and operations, using modern AI-based techniques. AI approaches can also be used for efficiently managing the communication resources and computational load for demanding services, e.g. XR, leveraging the presence of edge servers, and counteracting the potentially high interference due to deployment density. 

This Special Issue (SI) aims to contribute to the discussion on the opportunities of local network deployments in the 6G era. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

    Use cases and techno-economic analysis for 6G local area networks, covering e.g., consumer, industrial, office, and in-vehicle categories.
    6G local area networks vs. WiFi evolution, and their coexistence.
    Architectural enhancements for 6G special purpose networks.
    Enhancements for security and privacy for local dense 6G networks.
    Challenges/opportunities of sub-THz and THz communications in short-range deployments.
    Spectrum options for local 6G deployments.
    Spectrum sharing techniques and regulatory challenges for 6G dense deployments.
    Situation-aware solutions for 6G local applications, including AI-based approaches.
    Edge processing and computational offloading for 6G local traffic.
    AI solutions for managing radio and computational resources for demanding 6G local applications.
    Joint optimization of computation, communication, and storage for local dense networks.
    Sustainable 6G local area network design and integration with power grids.
    Early standardization efforts on 6G local area networks and alternative solutions (3GPP NPN, IEEE 802.11, ETSI, etc.) .
    Simulation and ray tracing tools for 6G local scenarios.
    Digital twins for local 6G networks.
    Early testbed and trial results for 6G local area networks.

Submission Guidelines

Prospective authors should prepare their submissions in accordance with the rules specified in the "Information for Authors" of the IEEE Wireless Communications Authors Guidelines. Authors should submit a PDF version of their complete manuscript to Manuscript Central. The timetable is as follows:

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 1 February, 2025
Initial Decision Date: 1 April, 2025
Revised Manuscript Due: 1 May, 2025
Final Decision Date: 1 June 2025
Final Manuscript Due: 15 August, 2025
Publication Date: October 2025

Guest Editors

Gilberto Berardinelli
Aalborg University, Denmark

Nurul Huda Mahmood
University of Oulu, Finland

Melike Erol-Kantarci
Ericsson and University of Ottawa, Canada.

Sheng Zhou 
Tsinghua University, China

Martin Schubert
Huawei, Germany

Special Issue on Toward Practical Low-Altitude Economy Networking: Standardization, Testbeds, and Real-world Deployments
Submission Date: 2025-06-01

The increasing shortage of ground transportation resources has prompted the exploration of low-altitude airspace, leading to the emergence of the low-altitude economy (LAE). LAE involves carry out various activities, such as cargo transportation and low-altitude inspections, in the airspace extending up to 3,000 meters above the ground, by using manned and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV), such as drones and electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL). Unlike traditional UAV and non-terrestrial networks, the LAE involves deploying a large number of flying vehicles that not only act as base stations but also function as service-providing devices, such as air taxis. Due to the high mobility of aerial vehicles and weather challenges, constructing the low-altitude wireless network presents significant challenges in standardization, technological innovation, testbeds, and practical deployments.

For developing standardized communication protocols and regulations, it is vital to consider physical obstacles in airspace, mechanical operation restrictions, and compatibility with existing aerial communication networks. From a technological perspective, providing reliable communication services to massive aerial vehicles requires addressing issues, such as electromagnetic interference and the cooperation with terrestrial communication networks. Besides, integrating communications with sensing and computing is also important due to the dynamic features of the airspace and the limited endurance of aerial vehicles. Such integration requires more advanced methods to manage and optimize spectrum, computing, and storage resources, due to the increased dimensionality and dynamics of the constraints. Moreover, the deployment, testing, and optimization of the low-altitude wireless network in real-world scenarios, along with the development of relevant testing platforms, are also crucial to ensure the safety of LAE applications. Given the challenges mentioned above, this Special Issue (SI) aims to explore the relevant solutions within the context of LAE, covering aspects of standards, technologies, testbeds, and practical deployments of low-altitude wireless networks. The scope includes but not limited to:

    Design, simulation, practical trials, and standardization of communications architectures and protocols for LAE.
    Sustainable real-world deployment strategies and use case for low-altitude wireless networks.
    Practical dynamic spectrum access and management for LAE applications.
    Scalable framework design, practical evaluation, and standardization for integrating low-altitude wireless network with existing aerial network.
    Privacy and data security protocol design and standardization in wireless communications for LAE.
    Design, evaluation, and analysis of the metrics in practical environment for LAE.
    Interference management and integration among satellite, low-altitude, and terrestrial networks in LAE.
    Integrating communication, sensing, and computing for real-world LAE applications.
    Resource management and optimization for communications, computation, and storage in LAE.
    Airspace sensing, reconstruction, and analysis technologies for LAE applications.
    Testbed design, implementation, analysis, and standardization for LAE Applications.

Evidence of real testbeds and demos, such as figures, videos, and datasets, is strongly preferred.

Submission Guidelines

Prospective authors should prepare their submissions in accordance with the rules specified in the "Information for Authors" of the IEEE Wireless Communications Authors Guidelines. Authors should submit a PDF version of their complete manuscript to Manuscript Central. The timetable is as follows:

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 1 June 2025
Initial Decision Date: 1 August 2025
Revised Manuscript Due: 1 September 2025
Final Decision Date: 1 October 2025
Final Manuscript Due: 15 December 2025
Publication Date: February 2026

Guest Editors

Jiacheng Wang
Technological University, Singapore, Singapore 

Jiming Chen
Zhejiang University/Hangzhou Dianzi University, China

Lin Cai
University of Victoria, Canada

Dominic Schupke
Airbus, Germany

Dusit (Tao) Niyato
Technological University, Singapore, Singapore  

Special Issue on Movable and Reconfigurable Antennas-Empowered Wireless Networks
Submission Date: 2025-06-01

Mechanically movable antennas (MAs) and electronically reconfigurable antennas (RAs) have been recognized as promising technologies for wireless systems enabling dynamic movement/reconfiguration of antennas at the transmitter (Tx)/receiver (Rx). Due to the flexibility of their positions, orientations, radiations, polarizations, and frequency responses, MAs and RAs can fully exploit the degrees of freedom (DoFs) in the time/frequency/space domain for improving wireless communication/sensing performance. Thus, with flexible antenna movement/configuration, MAs/RAs can adaptively reconfigure wireless channels between transceivers in dynamic environments to achieve substantial improvements in spatial diversity, multiplexing, and beamforming gains, paving a new way for realizing ultra-high reliability and capacity. On the other hand, the new flexibility of MAs/RAs in position/orientation/radiation/polarization adjustment also enhances the sensing accuracy and coverage of wireless systems. Moreover, the reconfigurability of MAs/RAs enables flexible functionality sharing/switching between sensing and communications, thus providing a promising solution for the implementation of integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) in future wireless networks.

However, despite the above advantages, the research on MAs/RAs is still in an early stage from both the wireless communication and sensing perspectives. Substantial knowledge gaps exist in various aspects, e.g., channel modeling and estimation, performance limit characterization, antenna movement/configuration optimization, and low-cost implementation of MAs/RAs and their integration into existing and future wireless networks. Addressing these technical issues is crucial for harnessing the full potential of MAs/RAs and realizing their envisioned benefits in wireless networks.

This Special Issue (SI) aims to focus on the theoretical analysis and practical design of MAs and RAs as well as other relevant technologies, such as fluid antennas and flexible antennas in wireless communications/sensing applications. Prospective authors are invited to submit original manuscripts on topics including but not limited to:

    Energy-efficient design and implementation of MAs/RAs.
    Channel measurement and modeling for MA/RA systems.
    Performance analysis for MA/RA wireless systems.
    Characterizing fundamental limits of MA/RA systems.
    Channel estimation for MA/RA wireless systems.
    Antenna movement/configuration optimization for MA/RA systems.
    Physical-layer secure and covert communication aided by MAs/RAs.
    MA/RA-aided over-the-air and mobile edge computing.
    Advanced localization, sensing, and imaging aided by MAs/RAs.
    MAs/RAs for integrated sensing and communications (ISAC).
    AI-enabled designs for MA/RA systems.
    Six-dimensional movable antenna (6DMA)-aided communication and/or sensing.
    Protocol design for MA/RA-aided wireless networks.
    Experimental demonstrations, prototyping, and field-tests of MA/RA systems.
    Standardization activities for MA/RA systems.
    MAs/RAs meet other advanced technologies, e.g., IRS, UAV, satellite, mmWave/THz, near-field, cell-free, semantic communications, etc.

Submission Guidelines

Prospective authors should prepare their submissions in accordance with the rules specified in the "Information for Authors" of the IEEE Wireless Communications Authors Guidelines. Authors should submit a PDF version of their complete manuscript to Manuscript Central. The timetable is as follows:

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 1 June 2025
Initial Decision Date: 1 August 2025
Revised Manuscript Due: 1 September 2025
Final Decision Date: 1 October 2025
Final Manuscript Due: 15 December 2025
Publication Date: February 2026

Guest Editors

Lipeng Zhu
National University of Singapore, Singapore

Robert Schober
Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany

Harish Viswanathan
Nokia Bell Labs, USA

Rui Zhang
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China