Advances in Edge-Fog-Cloud Computing and Its Applications in a Smart Cities Context

Dear Colleagues,

An edge/fog network is essential for the real-time monitoring and intelligent control of critical smart city infrastructures, but is constrained by many practical deployment-related limitations. This leads to numerous research challenges relating to the optimal management of computing, communication, storage under the constraints/requirements of latency, bandwidth, availability, resilience, cost, energy, security/privacy, safety, diagnosability, configurability, and the harsh environment in which the edge/fog devices must operate. Furthermore, the mechanisms and methods must comprehend and be responsive to the needs of individual applications that may vary greatly in terms of performance, reliability, and safety needs. The purpose of this Special Issue is to advance the field with the latest research results in all areas relevant for fog/edge computing in the context of a broad class of smart city applications. This Special Issue is particularly interested in the application of emerging artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, including multimodal large language models. Papers are solicited that address not only the effectiveness/accuracy considerations of these techniques but also trustability, explainability, scalability,  configurability, diagnosability, robustness, security/privacy, and adaptability to evolving systems. Papers spanning the entire spectrum of the field, including mathematical modeling, novel architectures, practical solutions, and real-world deployment insights, are all welcome.

Prof. Dr. Krishna Kant
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Smart Cities 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 2000 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.