Call for Papers

Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) were considered as one of the new application scenarios in the fifth generation (5G) mobile communication systems. Researchers and engineers have made great efforts to achieve the required latency and reliability (around 1 ms latency and up to 99.99999% reliability) in 5G New Radio. Nevertheless, 5G URLLC does not fulfill all the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of diverse mission-critical applications like industrial automation, intelligent transportation, telemedicine, Tactile Internet, Virtual/Augmented Reality (VR/AR), and Meta-Universe. To provide satisfactory services to these applications, the 6th generation (6G) communication systems need to meet additional requirements on some of the following KPIs in combination with URLLC: high spectrum efficiency /throughput/energy efficiency/network availability/security as well as low Age of Information (AoI)/jitter/round-trip delay. These new requirements pose unprecedented challenges in terms of design methodologies and enabling technologies in 6G. To fill the gap between 5G URLLC and the diverse KPI requirements of the neXt generation URLLC (xURLLC), we need novel design methodologies and innovative technologies.

Considering the diverse application scenarios and KPIs of xURLLC in 6G, the design of future communication systems requires considerable additional research efforts beyond what the community has done so far. This Special Issue aims to 1) clarify use cases of xURLLC and the research challenges in emerging use cases, 2) investigate new design methodologies to address these research challenges, 3) identify the potential issues and benefits of using promising 6G communication technologies for xURLLC. To achieve these goals, we seek original and high-quality submissions related to the core area of this Special Issue. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following subjects, all in the context of xURLLC:

• Cross-layer design for high data rate, massive, secure, or high mobility URLLC
• Fundamental trade-offs, performance limits, and theoretical bounds for xURLLC KPIs
• Novel network architectures for seamless xURLLC services
• Constrained deep learning for ensuring diverse KPI requirements of xURLLC
• Distributed learning/graph neural networks for network management of xURLLC
• Few-shot learning for xURLLC in dynamic network environments
• Anticipatory 5G non-terrestrial networks for global xURLLC coverage
• Prediction and communication co-design for long-distance xURLLC
• Mobile edge computing for intelligent and fast responses in xURLLC
• Location-aware mmWave/THz band communications for xURLLC
• Beam management with limited channel estimation overhead for xURLLC
• Low-complexity phase shift design for Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) assisted xURLLC
• Integrated sensing and communication for xURLLC
• Real-world deployments, experiments, prototypes, and testbeds for xURLLC

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

Guest Editors