Call for Papers

The IEEE Open Journal of Communications Society (OJ-COMS) invites manuscript submissions in the area of Blockchain-enabled Collaborative Cognitive Communication Systems.

The 5G, beyond 5G and 6G systems are expected to connect a massive number of smart devices to the Internet. This opening new research dimensions involving human psychology patterns and the systemic-linking method to AI, Data Science, Social Collective Intelligence for applications such as holographic communication, self-driving vehicles, context-aware infrastructure and personalized interfaces to support industry 5.0 applications. Industry 5.0  go beyond Industry 4.0 approach by achieving sustainable, human-centric and resilient industry. The existing centralized architecture for handling the huge volume of data created in the IoT is facing many research challenges, including security and privacy, trustworthiness, operational challenges, business models and the practical aspects, legal and compliance issues. These challenges ask for new approaches to online identity, trustworthy transactions, and resilient networks.

Blockchain technology shows great potentials in collaborative cognitive communication systems and has attracted a considerable amount of research attention in solving the above challenges. Blockchain is a key enabler that can provide users, partners, applications with secure access and supply data without the need for central control and management, in which all partners can verify each transaction, preventing disputes and ensuring each partner is held accountable for the individual roles in the overall transactions.

This special issue aims to bring together researchers from both academia and industry to discuss the most recent advances towards blockchain applications in 5G, 5G beyond and 6G systems to support industrial IoT, security and privacy in edge computing environments and enabling applications for industry 5.0. The topics of interest to this special issue include, but not limited to

Collaborative Communication Systems enabled by Blockchain

• Blockchain-enabled Network Orchestration and Automation
• Blockchain-enabled Context-aware Communication Systems
• Blockchain-enabled Energy-Efficient Communication Systems
• Blockchain-enabled Intent-based Networking
• Testbeds and Experimentation

Blockchain-enabled Social and Collaborative Computing

• Blockchain-enabled Social and Collaborative Computing Systems
• Blockchain-enabled Recommendation Systems
• Blockchain-enabled Virtual Assistant and Chatbots

Edge Computing Paradigm enabled by Blockchain

• Scalable Blockchain for Edge Computing
• Blockchain-enabled Edge Intelligence in IoT and Edge Computing
• Blockchain Technology-enabled Artificial Intelligence Application in Edge Computing
• Enabling Technologies, e.g., SDN, NFV, CRAN, D2D, in Edge Computing

Blockchain Infrastructure for Collaborative Communication Systems

• Blockchain Consensus Model for Collaborative Communication Systems
• Theories of Zero Trust and Blockchain
• Strong Authentication in Zero Trust
• Anonymity in the Blockchain and IoT
• Blockchain-enabled 5G, 5G beyond, and 6G 
• Blockchain-enabled Zero Trust Networks

Applications of Blockchain-enabled Communication Systems

• Blockchain-enhanced Strong Authentication
• Blockchain-enabled Identity Management
• Blockchain-enabled Legal and Regulation Issues in Blockchain and IoT
• Blockchain-enabled IoT Architecture and Security Framework

This SI will host contributed papers and one invited paper. All papers have to be novel and present unpublished results. Extended papers derived from previously-published conference papers will be accepted. A limited number of survey-type papers will be accepted.

Submission Guidelines

Prospective authors should submit their manuscripts following the IEEE OJ-COMMS guidelines. Authors should submit a manuscript to Manuscript Central.

Lead Guest Editor

Muddesar Iqbal London South Bank University, UK

Guest Editors

Shancang Li, Cardiff University, UK
Xinheng Wang,  Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool Univesity, China
Ashutosh Dutta, Johns Hopkins University, USA
Wei Cai, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China
Xavier Costa-Pérez, ICREA, i2cat, NEC Labs Europe

For inquiries regarding this Special Issue, please contact the Lead Guest Editor.