Call for Papers

It has been expected that space information networks (SIN), as an extension of the terrestrial network, would provide high-speed, high-capacity, global continuous communication and data transmission services anywhere for anyone at any time. With rapid advances in relevant technologies (e.g., satellite miniaturization technology, reusable rocket launch technology, and semiconductor technology), low-orbit satellites, drones, and airships can be integrated into the SIN to supply more comprehensive network connectivity. The standard development organizations, including 3GPP, ITU, and ETSI, have already started corresponding standardization activities to support non-terrestrial networks in SIN. It can be foreseen that SIN will be expanded to provide not only telephone services but also various kinds of Internet services, and it is thus able to serve many more users with different demands.

Though some progress has been made in related technologies, SIN still faces a variety of technological challenges and design issues which have delayed its practical implementation. First, since resources such as orbit, spectrum, and bandwidth are limited, how to allocate them efficiently and reasonably is a vital issue that needs to be addressed in SIN. In addition, with the increase of computing and storage resources in SIN, how to carry out the integrated design of computing, storage, and transmission capacity so as to optimize the overall network capacity is a new challenge that SIN researchers need to face. Second, the huge increase in the number of low-orbit satellites and various spacecraft, as well as the heterogeneous hybrid network formed by low, medium, and high-orbit satellites, bring a great challenge to networking. The high dynamics, long delay, and large variance of the connections make access and transmission hard to maintain effectively. Moreover, as an important step for B5G/6G networks, how to extend SIN with traditional terrestrial networks, such as 5G NR, also triggers many concerns in practical systems. Third, security protection still has not yet received sufficient attention though it is a key issue in SIN. The features of spectrum openness and the fact that satellites are far away from physical control pose a desperate need of a certain degree of security protection in SIN. In addition, some emerging technologies in communication, networking, and security, such as C-RAN, MEC, SDN, NFV, ICN, and Blockchain, play important roles in promoting the development of SIN, but also bring about a series of new theoretical and technical problems that must be studied and solved. Moreover, the construction of SIN requires the joint efforts of multiple countries and a large number of enterprises and research institutions around the world, and it will last for decades, which makes its standardization increasingly important.

This Special Issue (SI) aims to provide a forum for addressing communication, networking and security issues in SIN. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Communication and computing resource allocation and management in SIN
• Millimeter wave communications and networks in SIN
• Satellite communications and networks
• Satellite-assisted UAV/airship communications and networks
• Network architecture design and analysis in SIN
• Load balancing, traffic control, and data scheduling of SIN
• Mobility management in SIN
• Adaptive routing in multi-layers SIN
• Converged network orchestration for SIN
• Intent-based networking for SIN
• SDN/NFV-based architecture for multi-layer SIN
• Information-centric networking (ICN) in SIN
• Multi-access edge computing (MEC) for SIN
• In-network computation in SIN
• Advanced network slicing in SIN
• AI/ML concepts for autonomic networking and communication in SIN
• Security frameworks and policies for SIN
• Secure data communications in SIN
• Physical layer security in SIN
• Blockchain Technology for SIN Security
• Testbed design, implementation, and deployment for SIN
• Non-terrestrial networks in B5G/6G
• SIN extension with B5G/6G networks
• Standardization recommendation for SIN development

Submission Guidelines

Manuscripts should conform to the standard format as indicated in the "Information for Authors" section of the Paper Submission Guidelines.

All manuscripts to be considered for publication must be submitted by the deadline through Manuscript Central. Select "July 2021/Space Information Networks" from the drop-down menu of Topic titles.

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 8 February 2021
Initial Decision: 15 March 2021
Revised Manuscript Due: 15 April 2021
Final Decision: 30 April 2021
Final Manuscript Due: 15 May 2021
Publication Date: July 2021

Guest Editors

Kaiping Xue
University of Science and Technology of China, China

Tomaso de Cola
German Aerospace Center (DLR), Weßling, Germany

David S. L. Wei
Fordham University, USA

Ana Pérez-Neira
Centre Tecnològic de Telecommunications de Catalunya, Spain

Hossam S. Hassanein
Queen's University, Canada

Linling Kuang
Tsinghua Space Center, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Symeon Chatzinotas
University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg