O-RAN-Enabled Future-Generation Terrestrial Networks and Non-Terrestrial Network
A special issue of Entropy (ISSN 1099-4300). This special issue belongs to the section "Information Theory, Probability and Statistics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026 | Viewed by 121
Special Issue Editors
Interests: 5G/6G communications; AI-enabled wireless communication and networking; AI-enabled O-RAN; V2X communications; next-generation wireless network; wireless communications and networks
Interests: cyber-physical systems (e.g., wireless networks, underwater/ground autonomous vehicles, and power systems); bio-inspired artificial intelligence (AI); AI security; machine learning; cloud computing; edge AI; their applications
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) is reshaping future-generation cellular communications by enabling openness, flexibility, and intelligence through open interfaces, cloud-native softwarization and virtualization, disaggregated RAN functions, and deployable AI/ML control loops. By breaking the closed, rigid structure of traditional RANs, O-RAN lowers barriers to entry and accelerates innovation across academia and industry while improving interoperability and lifecycle agility.
In parallel, non-terrestrial networks (NTN)—including Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, High-Altitude Platforms (HAPs), and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)—are increasingly recognized as indispensable components of next-generation network infrastructure, enhancing global coverage, resilience, and operational autonomy. The deeper integration of NTN and terrestrial networks, often formalized as satellite–aerial–ground integrated networks (SAGINs), is particularly promising for enabling ubiquitous connectivity with differentiated latency, reliability, and capacity.
O-RAN-enabled NTN/SAGIN can enhance multi-vendor interoperability across heterogeneous space–air–ground segments, support cloud-native and virtualized deployment of RAN/control functions, and allow AI-native orchestration for fast-varying NTN dynamics.
This Special Issue (SI) seeks high-quality original research contributions on O-RAN networks, O-RAN-enabled NTN, and O-RAN-enabled SAGIN for next-generation wireless systems. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- RAN network architecture, applications, and the AI-native design;
- Communication and network security in O-RAN systems;
- RAN-enabled NTN architectures, protocols, and deployment strategies;
- RAN-enabled SAGIN architectures and cross-domain coordination;
- AI/ML-driven orchestration, slicing, and resource management for O-RAN-enabled NTN/SAGIN;
- Prototyping, testbeds, and digital twins for O-RAN-enabled NTN/SAGIN.
Dr. Minglong Zhang
Dr. Bo Tang
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- open RAN (O-RAN)
- non-terrestrial networks (NTN)
- satellite–aerial–ground integrated networks (SAGIN)
- AI/ML-driven orchestration
- 6G networks
- network slicing
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