5G and Beyond Fiber-Wireless Network Communications

Dear Colleagues,

To unleash the full potential of 5G communications and to prepare the ground for beyond 5G (B5G) communications, the joint study and optimization of the optical and wireless network domains is expected to play a key role. New 5G service requirements, such as high network capacity and ultra-reliable and low-latency communications, supporting a massive number of connections and others, are shaping the evolution not only of the wireless radio component but, also, of the optical wired segments, spanning from access to core network. On a longer-term horizon pointing towards 5G and B5G, new challenging technical directions are arising that promise to revolutionize users’ network experience. While this is a vision and the exact service definitions are still to be provided, it is certain that next-generation service requirements will be further intensified across all fields of network specifications, i.e., capacity, latency, reconfigurability, reliability, and security, and as such simple upscaling of the present wireless and optical networks infrastructure is not a viable solution. A redesign that features sublinear service scaling costs, extreme bitrates, and low-latency guarantees, with in-built software and hardware security at the component and system level in addition to automated reconfigurability, will be needed. The latter will be facilitated by even greater network softwarization and virtualization of critical infrastructure enabling, among others, zero-touch network configuration, resource sharing among operators, and much higher economies of scale than is currently possible. To support the user-centric communication paradigm introduced with 5G, enhanced and computationally efficient artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) algorithms also need to be developed to predict user behavior and demands and, consequently, dynamically adapt the communication path, even proactively, in real-time. Hence, new and possibly disruptive solutions must be investigated across the optical and wireless domains, both for the data and the control planes.

For this Special Issue, we invite submissions exploring converged optical and wireless B5G network functionalities in a variety of topics. Contributions can focus on techniques and resource allocation algorithms, design, analysis, and management of virtualized networks, security and resilience, end-to-end network performance optimization, or cross-layer optimization strategies for B5G networks. Survey papers and reviews are also welcomed.

Dr. Agapi Mesodiakaki
Dr. George Kalfas
Dr. Marios Gatzianas
Guest Editors

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