Call for Papers

A new generation of optical networks is needed to unleash the full potential of 5G communications and to prepare the network infrastructure for beyond-5G communications. In 5G, the requirements of a new class of advanced high capacity, ultra-reliable and low-latency services (as autonomous driving, or augmented reality) are shaping the evolution not only of the wireless/radio segment, but also of the higher-tier optical wired segments, spanning from access to core.  On a longer-term horizon, pointing towards beyond-5G (or 6G), new challenging technical directions are arising that promise to revolutionize users’ network experience (to name a few, multi-sensorial and holographic communication, pervasive machine learning, coordination of heterogeneous access technologies, quantum communication). While this is a vision and the exact definitions of the new services have yet to be clearly identified, future service requirements will be further exacerbated in terms of capacity, latency, reconfigurability, reliability and security, and simply scaling up the present mode of operation in optical networks is not an option.  A redesign that feature in-built physical security, sub-linear bandwidth scaling costs, extreme low-latency, and reconfigurability will be needed. New, possibly disruptive, solutions must be investigated, both at data and control plane. This SI targets novel research contributions on topics that include (but are not limited to):

• Optical Spatial Division Multiplexed (SDM) Networks
• Quantum-key secure optical networks and physical layer security issues in 5G transport networks
• Tera-scale optical networks for beyond 5G application holographic and sensual communications
• Beyond-5G Passive Optical Networks (PON)
• Time-sensitive and time-deterministic optical networks   
• Optical network control, management and orchestration including SDN and NFV solutions
• Multi-layer and –domain optical networks, including network disaggregation and white-boxes
• Slicing, service chaining, virtualization and multi-tenancy techniques for optical networks
• Optical and wireless network convergence, including radio-over-fiber access networks
• Machine Learning and data analytics techniques for optical networks
• Optical network availability, resilience, survivability, security
• Filterless architectures for optical core, regional and urban aggregation networks

Submission Guidelines

Authors must adhere to the IEEE JSAC guidelines regarding the manuscript format. For details and templates, please refer to the guidelines. Papers are to be submitted via EDAS according to this schedule:

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 15 July 2020
First Notification: 10 October 2020
Final Decision Notification: 5 January 2021
Final Manuscript Due: 20 January 2021
Publication Date: Third Quarter 2021

Guest Editors