Future Aerial Communication—Multi-tiered/ Hierarchical Aerial-Ground Integrated Networks

Dear Colleagues,

Aerial access networks and aerial-ground integrated networks are considered key enablers of future networks. Electrification has turned over a new leaf in aviation by introducing new types of aerial vehicles along with new means of transportation. Addressing a plethora of use cases, drones are gaining attention in the industry and are increasingly appearing in the sky. Emerging concepts of flying taxis enable passengers to be transported over several tens of kilometers. In addition, for the Internet of Things (IoT), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and high-altitude platforms (HAPs) are available to provide aerial computing services. Particularly after the proliferation of smart devices and diverse IoT requirements, we observe the dominance of cutting-edge applications with ever-increasing user expectations in terms of mobility, pervasiveness, and real-time response. Therefore, the deployment of low-altitude platforms (LAPs) and high-altitude platforms (HAPs) as legitimate candidates for future networks can satisfy the requirements of different applications because they can provide low latency, high computational capability, reliability, and availability. HAPSs make it easy to extend communication service coverage to a wider area, thus making it possible to provide highly reliable communication in times of disaster, high-capacity communication for ships and aircraft, and communication services for distant islands and remote areas. This Special Issue will provide a comprehensive collection of state-of-the-art theories, designs, optimizations, and applications of 3D networks for communication and computing. Original technical contributions are solicited in the relevant areas, including, but not limited to, the following:

• Space–air–ground integrated communications;
• Hybrid/integrated satellite and aerial communications;
• Space–air–ground integrated IoT networks;
• Energy-efficient space–air–ground integrated IoT networks;
• Deep/reinforcement learning-enabled intelligent IoT;
• Prototypes and test beds for space–air–ground integrated IoT networks;
• Developing seamless integration mechanisms for satellite, UAV, and terrestrial networks;
• Addressing challenges related to mobility management in heterogeneous environments;
• Designing energy-efficient communication protocols: routing, swarm management, and clustering;
• Optimized resource allocation, scheduling of communication and computation, network optimization and routing design.

Dr. Muahmmad Yeasir Arafat
Guest Editor

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.

• unmanned aerial vehicles networks
• UAV networks
• flying ad hoc networks
• FANET
• drone communication
• UAV-aided Wireless sensor networks
• multi-tiered UAV networks
• high-altitude platform (HAPs)
• aerial computing
• future aerial communication
• urban air mobility (UAM)
• advanced air mobility (AAM)
• UAV swarm
• aerial networks