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Over the past couple of years, we have strived to reshape this newsletter to expose some of the more emerging topics related to the TCCN areas of interest. In this regard, we have covered a broad range of applications and techniques, ranging from ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) to the Internet of Things. We have interviewed over a dozen experts in these fields, and included several interesting position papers and reviews of the state-of-the-art.

In this final TCCN Newsletter for which I will be the director, I am excited to cover two areas that will likely have impact in 5G and beyond: a) Communications with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and b) massive machine type communications (mMTC). In the UAVs area, we have reviewed two key papers from recent works. We have also had the pleasure to interview Dr. Christian Bettstetter from the University of Klagenfurt, Austria, is a leading expert in this area.

Moreover, Dr. Halim Yanikomeroglu from Carelton University, who initiated much of the research on UAV communications, has also provided us with an exciting position paper in this domain. Within the context of mMTC, we have interviewed Dr. Giuseppe Durisi from Chalmers University, Sweden, Dr. Zaher Dawy from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and Dr. Toktam Mahmoodi from King’s College, UK, who provided us with their outlook on the opportunities and challenges of mMTC. Finally, Dr. Ekram Hossain from the University of Manitoba, Canada, provided a position paper that outlines the role of NOMA in machine type communications.

Finally, I would like to thank our two feature topic editors: Dr. Daniel Benevides da Costa from UFC – Brazil and Dr. Omid Semiari from Georgia Southern University, USA, for their efforts in arranging the content of this Newsletter. Moreover, we want to thank all interviewees for sharing with us their experience and time. I would finally like to acknowledge the gracious support from the TCCN chair, Dr. Jianwei Huang and all TCCN officers over the past two years. I look forward to seeing future TCCN newsletters with more exciting research insights and discussions.

Dr. Walid Saad
Vice Chair, IEEE ComSoc TCCN
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Virginia Tech, USA
http://resume.walid-saad.com