New Trends in Mobile Networks and Wireless Sensor Networks for Smart City IoT

A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section "Microwave and Wireless Communications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2025) | Viewed by 521

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Computer Science, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
Interests: wireless and mobile networks; network security; IoT systems; AI for networking

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The aim of this Special Issue is to explore the crucial role that mobile networks and wireless sensor networks play in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT) for smart cities. It intends to bridge the gap between theoretical research and practical applications, promoting the development and integration of these technologies to enhance the efficiency, sustainability, and quality of life in urban areas.

The scope encompasses the entire spectrum of mobile networks and wireless sensor networks within the smart city IoT framework. It includes aspects such as network architectures, communication protocols, data acquisition and processing, and energy-efficient solutions. It also considers the optimization of these networks to handle large-scale data generated by IoT devices in urban environments.

This Special Issue will focus on (but is not limited to) the following topics:

  • Design and implementation of advanced mobile network architectures for seamless IoT connectivity in smart cities;
  • Wireless sensor network deployment strategies for effective data collection from urban environments;
  • Energy-efficient techniques for sustainable sensor and mobile network operation;
  • Integration of 5G and future mobile networks in smart city IoT;
  • Scalable data handling and smart application enablement for urban services.

Dr. Vasos Vassiliou
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • mobile networks
  • wireless sensor networks
  • smart city
  • Internet of Things (IoT)
  • data collection
  • urban computing
  • smart applications
  • 5G networks
  • network architectures
  • energy efficiency

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 3153 KB  
Article
Decentralized Q-Learning for Multi-UAV Post-Disaster Communication: A Robotarium-Based Evaluation Across Urban Environments
by Udhaya Mugil Damodarin, Cristian Valenti, Sergio Spanò, Riccardo La Cesa, Luca Di Nunzio and Gian Carlo Cardarilli
Electronics 2026, 15(1), 242; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics15010242 - 5 Jan 2026
Viewed by 284
Abstract
Large-scale disasters such as earthquakes and floods often cause the collapse of terrestrial communication networks, isolating affected communities and disrupting rescue coordination. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can serve as rapid-deployment aerial relays to restore connectivity in such emergencies. This work presents a decentralized [...] Read more.
Large-scale disasters such as earthquakes and floods often cause the collapse of terrestrial communication networks, isolating affected communities and disrupting rescue coordination. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can serve as rapid-deployment aerial relays to restore connectivity in such emergencies. This work presents a decentralized Q-learning framework in which each UAV operates as an independent agent that learns to maintain reliable two-hop links between mobile ground users. The framework integrates user mobility, UAV–user assignment, multi-UAV coordination, and failure tracking to enhance adaptability under dynamic conditions. The system is implemented and evaluated on the Robotarium platform, with propagation modeled using the Al-Hourani air-to-ground path loss formulation. Experiments conducted across Suburban, Dense Urban, and Highrise Urban environments show throughput gains of up to 20% compared with random placement baselines while maintaining failure rates below 5%. These results demonstrate that decentralized learning offers a scalable and resilient foundation for UAV-assisted emergency communication in environments where conventional infrastructure is unavailable. Full article
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