Trends and Prospects in Green Communications and Networking

Dear Colleagues,

The key enabler of transition from 5G to 6G is providing human-centric network services by constructing an integrated network that supports a variety of users/devices with ubiquitous and seamless connectivity. To complete such a network evolution, 6G has to face the challenges in complex heterogeneous topology, diverse quality of service requirements, and massive connected terminals. Most research efforts have been made for the improvement of network performance, including transmission rate, latency, network complexity, etc., from a communication and computing perspective. However, there is no doubt that the huge energy overhead caused by communication and computing will bring significant unprecedented pressure to 6G. Owing to the demand for sustainable and energy-efficient networks, green communication and computing for 6G are drawing increasing attention.

Green communication and computing are essential to sustainable development in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. In terms of 6G, green communication and computing aim at avoiding resource waste to reduce energy consumption with the help of advanced communicating techniques and promising networking combined with artificial intelligence (AI). The advanced communicating techniques, e.g., energy harvesting and intelligent reflecting surface, can be explored to maintain power consumption by improving energy efficiency in proportion to the escalating network performance. In addition, the promising networking, e.g., edge-cloud orchestration, can be investigated to optimize resource offloading with energy efficiency. Moreover, AI methods, such as federated learning and reinforcement learning, can be exploited for improving intelligence and reducing energy costs for 6G. However, few studies concentrate on investigation of communication and computing for 6G from an energy-efficiency perspective. Thus, how to build green communication and computing for 6G still remains to be explored.

This Special Issue welcomes all submissions that discuss the recent advances and future trends of green communication and computing for 6G. We expect high-quality and original research papers offering emerging theories, promising techniques, potential applications, and comprehensive surveys regarding green communication and computing for 6G.

Topics covered in this Special Issue include the following:

• Advanced network architecture design for resource-efficient 6G networks.
• Artificial intelligence-driven green communication and computing for 6G.
• Physical layer enhancement network for supporting resource-constrained devices.
• Passive reflecting communications, e.g., backscatter and intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs), aiding green 6G networks.
• QoS/QoE improvement for green 6G networks.

Dr. Qubeijian Wang
Dr. Yalin Liu
Dr. Xuran Li
Dr. Qiu Wang
Guest Editors

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• green communications
• advanced network architecture
• QoS/QoE
• AI
• green computing