Dear Colleagues,

Although the number of users and connected devices in contemporary wireless networks is very large and is expected to grow even larger in the future, incorporating the well-known concept of dense wireless networks in practice is still challenging. It is even envisaged that the number of deployed devices (including all smartphones, sensors and actuators, and other internet-of-things modules) will be so large that it can be referred to as ultra-dense wireless communications. In consequence, this will result in a considerable diversity of communication types observed in the heterogeneous networks, which vary from rare and bursty short-packet transmissions originating from wireless sensors to wireless broadband transmission between connected smartphones. This problem was initially addressed within 5G networks by considering the deployment of dedicated network slices. However, the recent trends in the development of communication systems and networking, both wired and wireless, indicate the need for tight and simultaneous cooperation between various kinds of devices in various contexts. For example, the widely deployed wireless sensors are becoming a crucial part of wireless broadband connectivity by monitoring various features of the communication environment, coordinating their operation, and exploiting their sensed information. Moreover, one can observe the continuously increasing impact of ubiquitous softwarization on the effective design of wireless systems and their underlying algorithms. The overall softwarization of the communication networks provides various benefits for network operators and changes the industry portfolio related to the communication networks. Thus, it is envisaged that future communication systems will have to face unprecedented challenges related to a high degree of diversity of prospective applications, types of devices, system requirements, types of environments, etc. Moreover, the foreseen increase in the number of active devices within the network, as well as in the volume of acquired and processed data, paves the way for novel implementation paradigms in the future. Finally, issues such as the scale of optimization problems, the presence of data with different levels of reliability and veracity, various types and sizes of data, and various requirements in processing delay entail the need for new algorithmic designs for future wireless networks.

This Special Issue covers topics related to recent advances in dense wireless communications and networking. We invite the authors to submit new research and review papers in the topics including (but not limited to) the ones listed below:

• Solutions in SDN, VNF, CR, and SDR tailored to dense wireless networks;
• Machine learning and application of artificial intelligence for 5G and beyond in the context of dense wireless networks;
• Big data processing for dense wireless communications and networking;
• Fuzzy logic schemes for dense wireless network;
• Novel network design paradigms for radio access networks—open RAN;
• Advances in massive communication (e.g., for massive machine-to-machine communications and for massive MIMO schemes);
• Advances in high mobility scenarios including V2X and U2X scenarios;
• Distributed, centralized, and hybrid architecture design for dense future wireless communications and networking;
• Advanced signal processing algorithms for dense wireless networks;
• Cooperation algorithms for dense wireless systems;
• Distributed computing (in edge, fog, cloud) and processing in dense wireless networks;
• Joint consideration of issues such as communications, computing, control, localization, and sensing in dense wireless networks.

Dr. Adrian Kliks
Dr. Paweł Sroka
Dr. Cynthia Hood
Dr. Nikos Dimitriou
Dr. Marcin Dryjanski
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• dense wireless networks
• wireless communications and networking
• 5G systems and beyond
• big data processing