IEEE Communications Magazine provides timely information on all aspects of (electrical/electronic) communications. The magazine covers services (telecommunications, multimedia, Internet and digital), network (including its softwarization, as well as underlying infrastructure) and device technology, support systems, transversal topics like artificial intelligence applied to telecommunications, market trends, strategy and regulatory issues. Articles are tutorial in nature and written in a style comprehensible to readers outside the specialty of the article. These articles are complemented with non-indexed columns.

Special Issue on Advanced Artificial Intelligence for Zero Touch Service Management Networks
Submission Date: 2025-02-28

Zero Touch Network and Service Management (ZSM) refers to the concept of automating network and service management tasks without requiring manual intervention. It aims to minimize human involvement in network operations, configuration, provisioning, and troubleshooting, thereby increasing operational efficiency, reducing costs, and improving service quality. ZSM relies on various technologies and approaches to achieve these goals. Some key components and techniques involved in ZSM include Orchestration and Automation, Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV), etc.

On the other side, Advanced Artificial Intelligence (AAI) algorithms, including Generative AI, Large Language Models, Attention mechanisms, transformers, are expected to play a crucial role in enabling ZSM by automating and optimizing various aspects of network and service operations. AAI can be applied for:

    Network Monitoring and Management: AAI-powered algorithms can analyze network telemetry data in real-time to detect anomalies, predict issues, and identify performance bottlenecks. This enables proactive monitoring, fault detection, and automated network management without human intervention.
    Intelligent Service Orchestration: AAI can optimize service provisioning and orchestration processes by considering factors like service requirements, network conditions, and resource availability. AAI algorithms can facilitate automatic allocate resources, optimize routing, and dynamically adjust service configurations to meet service-level objectives.
    Security and Threat Detection: AAI techniques can enhance network security by analyzing network traffic patterns, identifying anomalies, and detecting potential security threats in real-time. This helps in automated threat detection, response, and mitigation, ensuring the integrity and security of network and service operations.
    Network Optimization and Planning: AAI techniques can optimize network infrastructure design and planning by considering factors like traffic patterns, service requirements, and resource availability. AAI algorithms can generate optimal network designs, recommend network upgrades, and optimize resource allocation to meet evolving service demands.

Although AAI can help in reducing manual intervention, improving service quality, enhancing network performance, and enabling seamless operations. AAI-based models are becoming complex that is difficult to understand the inner working of such models, especially by non-expert users. Consequently, AAI models are deployed as black-boxes. In addition, decisions made by such models are provided to user, without any explanations or interpretations of how and why these decisions are made. Therefore, the corresponding users can neither understand and trust these decisions, nor optimize them, based on AAI outputs. To overcome these limits, Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) is also an emerging paradigm that opts to overcome these limitations.

This Special Issue (SI) intends to report on recent advances and on-going studies on the use of ZSM networks and AAI techniques for network monitoring and management, intelligent service orchestration, security and threat detection, network optimization and planning. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

    AAI and XAI for transparency and interpretability of AI-empowered models in ZSM networks.
    AAI and XAI for anomaly detection in ZSM networks.
    AAI and XAI for predictive maintenance in ZSM networks.
    AAI and XAI for root cause analysis in ZSM networks.
    AAI and XAI for incident resolution in ZSM networks.
    AAI and XAI for continuous learning in ZSM networks.
    AAI and XAI for human-AI collaboration in ZSM networks.
    AAI and XAI for open-RAN in ZSM networks.
    AAI and XAI for network optimization and planning in ZSM networks.
    AAI and XAI for intelligent service orchestration in ZSM networks.
    Security of AAI and XAI in ZSM networks.
    AAI and XAI for intelligent network adaptation and recovery in ZSM network.
    AAI and XAI for resource allocation in ZSM network.
    AAI for Network Monitoring, Management and Optimization.
    AAI for Intelligent Service Orchestration.
    AAI for Security and Threat Detection.

Submission Guidelines

Manuscripts should conform to the standard format as indicated in the Information for Authors section of the Manuscript Submission Guidelines. Please, check these guidelines carefully before submitting since submissions not complying with them will be administratively rejected without review.

Solicited and invited papers shall undergo the standard IEEE peer review process. After initial screening, the paper will immediately go to the review process. Prospective authors should submit their manuscripts following the IEEE Communication Magazine guidelines. Authors should submit a PDF version of their complete manuscript to IEEE Submission Portal.

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 28 February 2025
Initial Decision Date: 5 May 2025
Revised Manuscript Due: 20 June 2025
Final Decision Date: 30 July 2025
Final Manuscript Due: 30 August 2025
Publication Date: December 2025

Guest Editors

Bouziane Brik (Lead Guest Editor)
Sharjah University, UAE

Miloud Begaa
Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Canada

Mohamed Younis
University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA

Marco Di Renzo
Paris-Saclay University, France

Special Issue on Direct Satellite-to-Device Communications: Technologies, Connectivity, and Spectrum Management
Submission Date: 2025-03-01

This Special Issue (SI) investigates the burgeoning field of direct satellite-to-device (DS2D) communications with an emphasis on the transformative role of advanced technologies, innovative connectivity solutions, and spectrum management/regulation strategies. As DS2D communications become increasingly important in providing global connectivity, especially in remote and underserved regions, the integration of cutting-edge technologies and novel approaches offers unprecedented opportunities to enhance efficiency, reliability, and functionality of DS2D communications.

This SI endeavors to explore the foundational concepts of this emerging technology, emphasizing its great potential to bridge the digital divide and extend connectivity to underserved areas. The contributions to this SI delve into various aspects of DS2D communications, including network optimization, resource allocation, signal processing, connectivity enhancement, spectrum efficiency, and robust solution development. By combining cutting-edge research with experts' insights, this SI offers a venue for reporting comprehensive studies on the advancements in DS2D communications across multiple dimensions, paving the way for innovations that can revolutionize wireless connectivity worldwide.

Furthermore, we aim to address the challenges inherent in this topic, such as highdimensionality of satellite networks, the need for efficient spectrum utilization, seamless connectivity, and the complexities of implementing advanced technologies in space environments. This SI also examines case studies, where innovative DS2D communication solutions have been successfully implemented, illustrating tangible benefits and lessons learned.

Finally, this SI presents expert opinions on future trends and potential research directions to provide valuable insights for academia, industry professionals, and policymakers. The goal is to foster a deeper understanding of the multifaceted advancements in DS2D communications, spurring further innovation and research in this vital area. The specific topics that fit into the scope of this SI include, but are not limited to:

    Novel architectural designs for DS2D communications
    Optimized DS2D networks with machine learning models
    Innovative resource allocation strategies in DS2D networks
    Antenna/modem designs for low power consumption, minimal latency, and high reliability DS2D communications
    Signal processing techniques for DS2D communications
    Real-time applications and adaptive algorithms in DS2D systems
    Case studies in DS2D communications
    Security and privacy enhancements in DS2D networks
    Maintenance and management in DS2D systems
    Energy efficiency enhancement in DS2D networks
    Scalable DS2D systems with artificial intelligence
    DS2D communication protocols
    Future trends and enabling technologies in DS2D communications
    Policy and regulation issues in DS2D communications
    Spectrum management and utilization strategies in DS2D systems
    Integration approaches for DS2D and terrestrial networks

The manuscripts that report the results based exclusively on simulations or analysis and small scale experimental evaluations such as bench-testing and lab-testing are outside the scope of this SI. Note that the submissions dealing with traditional satellite communications without explicitly considering direct satellite-to-device (DS2D) communications will be rejected without review.

Submission Guidelines

Manuscripts should conform to the standard format as indicated in the Information for Authors section of the Manuscript Submission Guidelines. Please, check these guidelines carefully before submitting since submissions not complying with them will be administratively rejected without review.

All manuscripts to be considered for publication must be submitted by the deadline through Author Portal. Select the topic of “Direct Satellite-to-Device Communications: Technologies, Connectivity, and Spectrum Management” from the drop-down menu of Topic/Series titles. Please observe the important dates specified below.

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 1 March 2025
Decision Notification: 1 June 2025
Final Manuscript Due: 1 August 2025
Publication Date: December 2025

Guest Editors

Zheng Chang
University of Jyvaskyla, Finland

Ning Zhang
University of Windsor, Canada

Jon Montalban
University of the Basque Country, Spain

Tianyang Bai
Google, USA

Hsiao-Hwa Chen
National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan