Advances in Wireless Communications: Applications and Developments, 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

Wireless communications have drastically changed in the last 15 years from a user-centered service, primarily focused on voice services, to an internet-based service that allows things to connect and provides an entire ecosystem that supports the everyday lives of users. In the first edition of this Special Issue, researchers focused on important aspects of this technological revolution, such as advances in antennae, modulation and codification schemes, access schemes, mobility management, and packet-based transmission schemes. These advancements, and those in other areas related to wireless communications, have allowed modern and future communication systems to transmit massive data from users’ devices (ranging from smart watches and augmented reality glasses to medical devices like prosthetics and peacekeepers) to their smart phones, but also to their vehicles and home devices (such as surveillance cameras, smart appliances, and robot vacuums). In this second edition, we aim to explore the introduction of intelligence to devices using machine learning algorithms to give them the ability to scan the environment and learn users’ patterns, with the goal of distinguishing everyday-life situations from emergency events and even unusual activities such as vacations and social/sporting/cultural events. This intelligence will be necessary in order to prioritize data packets inside the user ecosystem, but also from other parties (primarily when the user is unable to communicate) like vehicles directly communicating with police during a robbery or with a hospital following an accident. In addition, in this second edition, we aim to investigate future communication systems that allow drones and swarms of drones to perform activities ranging from massive sky sculptures to surveillance, vehicular traffic management, and packet delivery services. In these cases, conventional communication systems may not be able to handle such a high amount of traffic efficiently, so new communication protocols must be developed with low latency to handle highly variable and bursty traffic. In the context of the IoT and machine communications, the environmental impact of the batteries of these technologies is of major importance. Hence, the establishment clean and sustainable options to power up these devices would have a considerable impact on wireless communication devices. This is because alternative means of providing electricity (such as solar, organic, and bio-based electricity) generate much less energy than common lithium-based batteries. As such, communication systems must now aim to create energy-harvesting modules that utilize a small amount of energy and require short charging times by deciding what information to transmit, and when to transmit it, while having the lowest possible impact on the personal ecosystem of the user. In addition, social media has become a predominant service for connecting users with their friends and families, with a strong bias toward video messages, and has almost completely replaced the phone call. With this in mind, new architectures such as peer-to-peer networks could provide an efficient solution to the high-bandwidth requirements of social networks.

Hence, the design of wireless communications will require the use of one or more of the following aspects in the near future:   

• Green communication systems;
• Security guarantees (robustness to attacks, privacy guarantees);
• Machine learning (optimization, pattern recognition);
• IoT and social media communications;
• Drone and drone swarm communications;
• Vehicular networks;
• Body area networks.

Prof. Dr. Mario E. Rivero-Angeles
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. Telecom is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1200 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.