Call for Papers

IEEE OJ-COMS invites manuscript submissions in the area of Large-Scale Wireless Powered Net-works with Backscatter Communications.

The rapid growth of connected devices has been a major driving force towards the development of low power wireless networks. However, the sustainability of such networks entails energy-aware devices that are capable of reaping energy from various sources. Accordingly, two common radio frequency energy harvesting (RF-EH) techniques, i.e., wireless-powered communications (WPC) and simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT), emerged as promising candidates to provide perpetual energy replenishment for low power energy-constrained devices.

In the same context, ambient backscatter communications (BackCom), where a transmitter sends data to a receiver by backscattering ambient signals, e.g., TV or Wi-Fi signals, has been introduced recently as an alternative energy efficient solution for low power networks. Compared to conventional systems, backscatter transceivers consume much less power (orders of magnitude), rendering them major candidates for such networks. Nonetheless, BackCom systems still suffer from several drawbacks, including low data rate, short-range communications and dependence on the dynamics of ambient signals. In this respect, the integration of wireless-powered transmission systems with backscatter communications (WP-BackCom) in a single network is a promising new paradigm, which is envisioned to address some of the aforementioned challenges.

A common challenge for these technologies, however, is that there are not optimized and/or designed for large-scale wireless networks and a massive number of IoT devices. Also, such systems are different from human centric communications with diverse and unique traffic characteristics and quality of service (QoS) requirements. Therefore, there is a call for effective strategies and protocols that can support a large number of connected devices with distinct QoS requirements.

The aim of this Special Issue is to solicit research papers with original contributions that address the latest advances and challenges in RF-EH and BackCom, with emphasis on large-scale networks.  Specifically, this Special Issue will bring together leading researchers from both academia and industry alike to discuss and present their views on all the aspects of RF-EH and BackCom in large-scale low power wireless networks.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Modulation and detection for BackCom
• Physical layer security for WPC, BackCom and WP- BackCom
• Simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) for large-scale networks
• Wireless-powered device-to-device (D2D) communications with BackCom
• Wireless-powered relaying with BackCom
• Fading effects in BackCom
• Receiver Design for BackCom
• Non-orthogonal multiple access for large-scale WP- BackCom
• RF impairments and compensation in WP-BackCom
• MIMO for large-scale WP- BackCom
• Spectrum sharing and interference management for large-scale WP- BackCom
• Prototyping and experimentation of energy harvesting and backscatter communications
• Cognitive radio networks with hybrid BackCom and RF-EH
• QoS provisioning and resource allocation strategies for large-scale WP- BackCom
• Network architecture, MAC, and routing protocols for large-scale WP- BackCom
• Signal processing techniques for WP-BackCom
• Machine Learning algorithms for WP-BackCom

Submission Guidelines

Submit manuscript to: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/oj-coms
For information regarding IEEE OJ-COMS including its publication policy and fees, please visit the website https://www.comsoc.org/publications/journals/ieee-ojcoms

Lead Guest Editor

Sami Muhaidat, Khalifa University, UAE   

Guest Editors

For inquiries regarding this Special Issue , please contact the Lead Guest Editor: muhaidat@ieee.org