Upcoming special issues of the ITU Journal look towards 6G

The ITU Journal is inviting contributions to three upcoming special issues on innovation towards 6G in vehicular networks, autonomous network management and control, and future services from Augmented and Virtual Reality to holographic telepresence.

The ITU Journal on Future and Evolving Technologies provides complete coverage of all communications and networking paradigms, free of charge for both readers and authors. The journal publishes online all year round, welcoming papers at any time, on all topics within its scope.

The three upcoming special issues will be published in 2022. Soon-to-be-published special issues in 2021 will address Bio-NanoThings for healthcare (articles), AI and Machine Learning in networking (articles), Internet of Everything (articles), wireless communication systems beyond 5G (articles), and Terahertz communications (articles).

Towards vehicular networks in the 6G era

Call for papers by 30 November 2021 (extended from 30 September) >

The 6G era will call for novel technological scenarios to meet challenging requirements associated with goals such as ultra-high reliability, ultra-low latency, and energy efficiency. This motivates the evolution towards vehicular-network nodes able to perform computational and control tasks, develop self-organizing and self-sustaining capabilities, and maintain connectivity availability. 

This evolution is supported by Reprogrammable Intelligent Metasurfaces, Optical Wireless Communications and Visible Light Communications, Information Centric Networking, Social-based Networking, and enhanced connectivity with heterogenous ground and aerial devices.

This special issue will explore innovation towards characteristics including:

• Effective data transmission in highly dynamic contexts
• Energy-efficient communications at high data rates
• Network programmability, flexibility and scalability
• Distributed caching and computing
• Reliable connectivity matched with a guarantee of high performance 

Integrated and autonomous network management and control for 6G time-critical applications

Call for papers by 13 December 2021 (extended from 11 October) >

5G and the beginning of the evolution beyond 5G (B5G) towards 6G are evidencing the growing integration of the wireless segment and access/metro/core portions of the network. Communications and computation have become more entangled and computing power more distributed, from remote cloud datacentres down to micro-datacentres at the network edge.

This evolution is supported by cloud-native applications based on micro-services, Mobile Edge Computing, Software Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualization, and the increasing presence of AI and Machine Learning – with profound impacts on both the data plane and management-control plane of the network.

This special issue will explore innovation towards characteristics including:

• Automated service decomposition and orchestration, along with “self-driving” networks
• Machines becoming the main users in B5G environments
• Network management, control and orchestration to meet the challenges introduced by an increasingly powerful, efficient and dynamic wireless segment
• Fast scalability in the allocation of network resources without neglecting energy efficiency
• Industrial Internet of Things environments capable of meeting very stringent Key Performance Indicators 

Innovative network solutions for future services

Call for papers by 15 November 2021 >

Future networks will support emerging services including Ultra-HD 4K and 8K video, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, and interactive and holographic telepresence for near-real-time communication experiences. They will also provide the basis for innovation in fields such as digital health, autonomous industrial processes, and self-driving vehicles. But this can only be achieved with future networks versatile and flexible enough to support this wide array of envisioned services.

This special issue will explore innovation towards characteristics including:

• Dynamism to serve constantly changing access points
• Ability to guarantee multiple services’ interactivity with physical systems
• Ability to provide precision time in packet delivery
• Flexible and adaptive control and management planes
• Ability to serve different parts of the network with characteristics that will differ considerably in line with the requirements of different applications

ITU opportunities for research communities

The ITU Journal, ITU Academia membership and ITU Kaleidoscope conferences are key avenues for the academic profession to engage in ITU’s work.

ITU Academia members contribute to ITU expert groups responsible for radiocommunication, standardization and development, contributions that bring greater strength to the work of ITU and greater impact to research.

ITU Kaleidoscope conferences share research into topics of growing strategic relevance to ITU standardization. ITU Kaleidoscope 2021: Connecting physical and virtual worlds is scheduled for 6-10 December online.