Call for Papers

While 5G is still at an initial commercialization stage, to maintain the sustainability and competitiveness of wireless communication systems, it is time for both the industry and academia to think about what 6G will be. In contrast to previous generations, 6G will be transformative and will revolutionize the wireless evolution from “connected things” to “connected intelligence.” Specifically, 6G is expected to evolve towards an intelligent and software-based functionality paradigm, where wireless networks are not only allowing people, mobile devices, and objects to communicate with each other, but also capable of sensing, controlling, and optimizing the environment to realize the vision of low powered, high throughput and low latency communications. Achieving this intelligent and software-based functionality paradigm, wireless communication with ultra-low latency as well as spectral and energy efficiency represent the most demanding challenges 6G networks are facing.

Following the recent breakthrough on the fabrication of programmable metamaterials, reconfigurable intelligent meta-surfaces have the potential to materialize the intelligent software-based control of the environment in wireless communication systems when coated on the otherwise passive surfaces of various objects. Being a newly proposed concept going beyond massive MIMO, Intelligent Surfaces (including Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface, Intelligent Reflecting Surface, Holographic MIMO Surfaces, etc.) are low cost, ultra-thin size, light weight, and low power consumption hardware structures that provide a transformative means of the wireless environment into a programmable smart entity. 

This special issue aims at reporting the latest most promising research advances in modeling, analysis, fabrication design, algorithms, and communication protocols of intelligent surfaces-based future wireless networks, and to envision new research directions in this emerging field of research. The topics of interest include, but are not limited:

• Physics- and electromagnetic-compliant modeling of intelligent surfaces
• Communication-theoretic foundation of intelligent surfaces-based wireless networks
• Fundamental performance limits of intelligent surfaces-based wireless networks
• AI-inspired control and orchestration of intelligent surfaces-empowered wireless networks
• Optimal configuration and resource allocation for distributed intelligent surfaces networks
• Spectrum sharing in intelligent surfaces networks
• Algorithms and protocols design for intelligent surfaces-based wireless networks
• Massive access for intelligent surfaces-based wireless networks
• Hardware architectures and designs of intelligent surfaces
• The impact of optical design/feeders/processing with respect to electronic feeders
• Experimental results, measurements, and testbed implementations of intelligent surfaces
• Software-defined design and implementation of intelligent surfaces-based wireless networks
• Definition of uses cases, application scenarios, and techno-economic analysis
• Integration of intelligent surfaces with state-of-the-art wireless technologies (e.g., free cells, millimeter-wave communications, visible light communications, Internet of Things)

Submission Guidelines

Authors must adhere to the IEEE TCCN guidelines regarding the manuscript and its format. For details and templates, please refer to the IEEE TCCN guidelines. All papers are to be submitted via Manuscript Central according to this schedule:

Important Dates

Submission Deadline: 1 September 2020 15 September 2020
First Reviews Complete: 1 December 2020
Revision Due: 15 January 2021
Final Review Decision: 15 March 2021
Final to Publisher: 1 April 2020
Publication: Second Quarter 2021

Guest Editors