Call for Papers

Since the start of 5G NR (New Radio) work in 3GPP in early 2016, tremendous progress has been made in both standardization and commercial deployments. The first 5G NR release (Release 15) laid out a solid foundation in accommodating a diverse set of services, a wide range of spectrum and a variety of deployment scenarios, while being forward compatible. Expansion to vertical domain services (e.g., Vehicle to everything (V2X), Non-terrestrial networks (NTN), etc.) was introduced in Release 16. Such an expansion was further accelerated in Release 17, with the standardization work being completed despite the extreme challenges due to COVID-19.

3GPP is now entering the second phase of 5G NR standardization. This is also known as 5G-Advanced, which was unanimously approved by 3GPP members in April 2021. The first 5G NR release for 5G-Advanced is Release 18. The first Release 18 discussion focusing on RAN (Radio Access Network) aspects was carried out in June 2021, drawing more than 500 submissions and 1,200 participants from about 80 different companies/organizations. After 6-month of involved discussion, the package of Release 18 projects was approved in December 2021, providing a good balance in terms of:

• Balanced mobile broadband evolution vs. further vertical domain expansion,
• Balanced immediate vs. longer term commercial needs, and,
• Balanced device evolution vs. network evolution.

In particular, in addition to immediate commercial needs, Release 18 package also contains longer-term projects, e.g., study on Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) for NR air interface, study on evolution of NR duplex operation, etc. These projects would provide not only a deeper understanding of the new directions and their interaction with 5G NR, paving the way for future commercialization, but also a better foundation for future standard evolution towards 6G.

In addition to the advances in 3GPP, evolutions are also continuing in other wireless standards, e.g., IEEE 802.11be.

This Special Issue will provide a comprehensive presentation of the state-of-the-art findings including technology, theory, design, optimization, and applications of 5G-Advanced, potentially shaping future evolutions of 5G NR in 3GPP and beyond. Original technical contributions are solicited in the relevant areas including, but not limited to, the following:

• MIMO evolution (including both downlink and uplink)
• UE (User Equipment) power savings
• Network power savings
• Coverage enhancements
• Topological enhancements (e.g., relays, repeaters, Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles or UAVs, etc.)
• Mobility enhancements
• eXtended Reality (XR) enhancements
• Sidelink enhancements including V2X
• Multicast and broadcast services (MBS)
• NTN enhancements
• Positioning and ranging enhancements
• AI/ML for 5G-Advanced
• Evolution of duplex operation
• Relation/comparison to other standards

Submission Guidelines

Prospective authors should submit their manuscripts following the IEEE JSAC guidelines. Authors should submit a PDF version of their complete manuscript to EDAS.

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission: 25 October 2022 (Deadline Extended)
First Notification: 1 January 2023
Acceptance Notification: 15 February 2023
Final Manuscript Submission: 28 February 2023
Publication Date: Third Quarter 2023

Guest Editors