Advances in 5G and Beyond Mobile Communication

Dear Colleagues,

The advent of Fifth-Generation (5G) mobile networks has revolutionized the landscape of telecommunications by enabling ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLCs), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), and massive machine-type communications (mMTCs). As the global deployment of 5G networks accelerates, research is already advancing into the Beyond-5G (B5G) and Sixth-Generation (6G) domains, where the emphasis lies on ultra-intelligent, pervasive, and adaptive wireless ecosystems that support emerging applications such as the metaverse, autonomous mobility, smart factories, and remote medical interventions.

This Special Issue, hosted by the journal Electronics, aims to collect high-quality and original contributions that explore breakthroughs in mobile communication technologies spanning across theoretical models, simulation studies, experimental platforms, and system-level evaluations. We particularly welcome contributions that address challenges in spectrum efficiency, massive connectivity, end-to-end latency reduction, and physical layer security through the integration of intelligent and software-defined technologies.

In this context, we encourage submissions that focus on Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) and Stacked RIS architectures for dynamic wireless environment reconfiguration, Orthogonal Time Frequency Space (OTFS) modulation for high-mobility and delay-Doppler channels, and Cell-Free Massive MIMO deployments to enhance uniform coverage and scalability. Furthermore, we seek novel research at the intersection of wireless sensing and communication, the development of AI/ML-aided solutions for Radio Resource Management (RRM), and the realization of edge-native intelligence through Federated Learning frameworks.

The Special Issue serves as a multidisciplinary platform uniting researchers from academia, industry, and defense, who aim to contribute to the progression of wireless communications. Survey articles that consolidate state-of-the-art technologies and outline future challenges are also welcome.

Topics of interest for this Special Issue include:

• AI/ML and Deep Reinforcement Learning for B5G resource optimization;
• Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) and Stacked RIS-assisted communications;
• Cell-Free Massive MIMO and user-centric topologies;
• OTFS modulation for high-mobility and high-Doppler environments;
• Federated Learning for decentralized and privacy-preserving communication;
• Physical Layer Security for mission-critical wireless systems;
• Wireless Sensing and Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISACs);
• Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Virtualized RAN in 5G/B5G;
• Maritime, aerial, and satellite-integrated non-terrestrial networks (NTNs);
• Energy-efficient MAC and PHY layer designs for future networks;
• Beamforming and AI-aided beam selection in mmWave and THz bands;
• Semantic and Goal-Oriented Communications;
• Joint Communication and Radar Sensing (JCRS);
• UAV-assisted, RIS-aided, and hybrid intelligent wireless topologies;
• Quantum Communication-enabled protocols in 6G;
• Blockchain for secure and decentralized wireless systems;
• 6G-native spectrum access schemes and intelligent reflecting MIMO (IR-MIMO);
• Large Intelligent Surfaces (LIS) and Near-field MIMO;
• AI-based digital twin modeling of wireless networks;
• Joint Source-Channel Coding for real-time video over B5G links;
• Neuromorphic and Spiking Neural Network models in PHY-layer design;
• Intelligent MAC protocols for ultra-dense and delay-sensitive environments;
• Multi-agent learning for cooperative wireless networks;
• End-to-end ML pipelines for real-time adaptation in mobile networks.

Dr. Ioannis Bartsiokas
Dr. Panagiotis K. Gkonis
Dr. George Vardoulias
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Electronics is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• 5G and beyond (B5G) networks
• 6G communications
• reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (riss)
• stacked RISs
• cell-free massive MIMO
• orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS)
• AI/ML for wireless communications
• deep reinforcement learning (DRL)
• federated learning
• radio resource management (RRM)
• integrated sensing and communication (ISAC)
• beamforming and beam selection
• semantic communications
• physical layer security
• software-defined networking (SDN)
• edge intelligence
• digital twin for networks
• wireless sensing
• non-terrestrial networks (NTNs)
• UAV-assisted communications
• THz and mmWave systems
• quantum communications in 6G
• neuromorphic wireless systems
• intelligent MAC and cross-layer design
• blockchain for wireless security