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Digital twins (DTs) and artificial intelligence (AI) are two vital technologies that are anticipated to play a significant role in the development and deployment of the sixth generation (6G) communication systems. A digital twin is a virtual replica of a physical object, system, or process, including its components, behavior, and data. DTs can be used to model complex systems in real time, providing valuable insights into system behavior and performance. AI, on the other hand, can provide advanced analytics and decision-making capabilities, enabling communication systems to self-optimize, self-configure, and self-heal. The integration of DTs and AI offers a powerful approach for modeling, simulating, and optimizing 6G communication systems. It is expected to lead to the creation of a highly intelligent and dynamic network environment, where physical and virtual objects can interact seamlessly, and where decisions can be made and executed in real time. This will improve efficiency and performance, enable new use cases and services, enhance network management, optimization, and security, automate decision making and problem solving, and drive innovation and growth.

This Feature Topic (FT) aims to contribute to the development of a comprehensive understanding of the potential and challenges of the integration of DTs and AI in the context of 6G communication systems, and to provide guidance for future research and development in this field. This Feature Topic is intended to be interdisciplinary, and contributions from a variety of fields, including computer science, electrical engineering, and communications engineering, are welcome.

This Feature Topic of integration of DTs and AI in 6G covers both theoretical and practical aspects of this field. Its scope includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

• Modeling, simulation, and optimization of networks, devices, and applications
• Network planning and design
• Network management, performance evaluation, and optimization
• Network predictive maintenance, fault diagnosis, and decision-making
• Resource management
• Green communications & computing
• Edge computing
• Internet of Things
• Industrial and vertical applications such as health, transportation, manufacturing, smart cities, smart homes, and the energy sector
• Cross-disciplinary perspectives
• Security and privacy
• Standardization, interoperability, and testing
• Testbeds, proof of concepts, field trials, and commercial deployments

Submission Guidelines

Manuscripts should conform to the standard format as indicated in the Information for Authors section of the Manuscript Submission Guidelines. Please, check these guidelines carefully before submitting since submissions not complying with them will be administratively rejected without review.

All manuscripts to be considered for publication must be submitted by the deadline through Author Portal. Select the “FT-2306 / Digital Twins Meet Artificial Intelligence in 6G” topic from the drop-down menu of Topic/Series titles. Please observe the dates specified here below noting that there will be no extension of submission deadline.

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 31 March 2024
Decision Notification: 30 June 2024
Final Manuscript: 31 July 2024
Publication: October 2024

Guest Editors

Xingqin Lin (Lead Guest Editor)
NVIDIA, USA

Jun Zhang
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong

Hadis Karimipour
University of Calgary, Canada

Chao-Kai Wen
National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan