(Download the newsletter here)

While 5G is a reality and has already been commercially launched in several parts of the world, there exist already numerous efforts and initiatives from industry and academia to look beyond 5G and conceptualize 6G by describing its roadmap along with the emerging trends and requirements, as well as several enabling techniques and architectures. Future wireless systems should effectively support a universal and ubiquitous cyber physical structure, new spectrum access schemes, and new forms of communications, while taking into account the energy efficiency and security/privacy considerations.

Two promising technologies for enabling the 6G ecosystem are full-duplex (FD) communications and integrated space-air-terrestrial communication (ISATC) systems. In this regard, this Newsletter will delve on these two key technologies for 6G wireless networks. In the FD communications area, we have interviewed Mr. Kenneth Kolodziej, from MIT Lincoln Laboratory, USA, Prof. Ioannis Krikidis, from University of Cyprus, Cyprus, Prof. Özgür Gürbüz, from Sabanci University, Turkey, and Prof. Chan-Byoung Chae, from Yonsei University, South Korea. We have also had the pleasure to get two position papers written by Prof. Alexios Balatsoukas-Stimming, from Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands, and by Prof. Jeyanandh Paramesh, from Carnegie Mellon University, USA, Susnata Mondal, from Intel Inc., and Ahmed Alkhateeb, from Arizona State University, USA. Within the context of ISATC systems, we have interviewed Prof. Pei Xiao, from the University of Surrey, UK, Prof. Mohamed-Slim Alouini from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, and Prof. Jianping An, from Beijing Institute of Technology, China, who provided us with their outlook on the opportunities and challenges on the theme.

I would like to thank our two feature topic editors: Prof. Himal A. Suraweera, from University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, and Prof. Gaofeng Pang, from Beijing Institute of Technology, China, for their hard efforts in arranging the content of this Newsletter. Moreover, we want to thank all authors and interviewees for sharing with us their experience and time. I would finally like to acknowledge the gracious support from the previous TCCN Chair, Dr. Yue Gao, from the current TCCN Chair, Prof. Lingyang Song, and from all TCCN officers. If you have any suggestion, feel free to contact me at: danielbcosta@ieee.org. We hope that you enjoy the material of this Newsletter!

Daniel Benevides da Costa
Director, IEEE ComSoc TCCN Newsletter
Federal University of Ceará, Brazil

(Download the newsletter here)

While 5G is a reality and has already been commercially launched in several parts of the world, there exist already numerous efforts and initiatives from industry and academia to look beyond 5G and conceptualize 6G by describing its roadmap along with the emerging trends and requirements, as well as several enabling techniques and architectures. Future wireless systems should effectively support a universal and ubiquitous cyber physical structure, new spectrum access schemes, and new forms of communications, while taking into account the energy efficiency and security/privacy considerations.

Two promising technologies for enabling the 6G ecosystem are quantum communications and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS). In this regard, this Newsletter will delve on these two key technologies envisioned for 6G wireless networks. In the quantum communications area, we have interviewed Prof. Robert Malanev, from The University of New South Wales, Australia, Dr. Angela Sara Cacciapouti, from University of Naples Federico II, Italy, and Prof. Mohsen Razavi, from University of Leeds, UK. We have also had the pleasure to get a position paper from Profs. Soon Xin Ng and Lajos Hanzo. Within the context of RIS, we have interviewed Prof. David Smith and Dr. Mohammadreza F. Imani, from Duke University, USA, Prof. Chau Yuen and Dr. Chongwen Huang, from Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore, and Prof. H. Vincent Poor, from Princeton University, USA, who provided us with their outlook on the opportunities and challenges on RIS. Furthermore, we are delighted to have two position papers on RIS, one written by Prof. George C. Alexandropoulos in conjunction with several collaborators, and another written by Prof. Ian F. Akyildiz, from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.

I would like to thank our two feature topic editors: Dr. Daryus Chandra, from University of Naples Federico II, Italy, and Prof. George C. Alexandropoulos, from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, for their hard efforts in arranging the content of this Newsletter. Moreover, we want to thank all authors and interviewees for sharing with us their experience and time. I would finally like to acknowledge the gracious support from the TCCN Chair, Dr. Yue Gao and all TCCN officers. If you have any suggestion, feel free to contact me at: danielbcosta@ieee.org. We hope that you enjoy the material of this Newsletter!

Daniel Benevides da Costa
Director, IEEE ComSoc TCCN Newsletter
Federal University of Ceará, Brazil

(Download the newsletter here)

While 5G has been deployed around the world, there exist already numerous efforts and initiatives from industry and academia to look beyond 5G and conceptualize 6G by describing its roadmap along with the emerging trends and requirements, as well as several enabling techniques and architectures. The drivers of 6G will be a confluence of past trends (i.e., densification, higher rates, and massive antennas) and of new trends that include new services and applications, such as smart wearables, implants, extended reality devices, etc. Moreover, it is expected that 6G will be able to meet strict requirements for multiterabyte per second (Tb/s) and intelligent networks.

Two promising technologies for enabling the 6G ecosystem are terahertz (THz) communications and artificial intelligence (AI). In this regard, this Newsletter will delve on these two key technologies envisioned for 6G wireless networks. In the AI area, we have interviewed Prof. Tim O’Shea, from Virginia Tech, USA, Dr. Jakon Hoydis, from Nokia Bell Labs, France, Prof. Mérouane Debbah, from Huawei, France, and Prof. Deniz Gündüz, from Imperial College London, UK, who are leading experts in this area. We have also had the pleasure to get a position paper from Prof. Deniz Gündüz. Within the context of THz communications, we have interviewed Prof. Daniel Mittleman, from Brown University, Rhode Island, Prof. Josep M. Jornet, from Northeastern University, Boston, and Dr. Onur Sahin, from InterDigital Inc., London, who provided us with their outlook on the opportunities and challenges on AI. Finally, Prof. Cyril C. Renaud, from University College London, UK, provided a position paper that discusses the advancements in demonstration of wireless bridges at THz carrier frequencies over a fiber network as an argument to the advantages of using photonic solutions compared to electronics ones. It is also discussed the potential for photonic integration to create a viable THz photonics wireless technology.

I would like to thank our two feature topic editors: Prof. F. Rafael Marques Lima, from Federal University of Ceará, Brazil, and Dr. Hadi Sarieddeen, from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, for their efforts in arranging the content of this Newsletter. Moreover, we want to thank all authors and interviewees for sharing with us their experience and time. I would finally like to acknowledge the gracious support from the TCCN Chair, Dr. Yue Gao and all TCCN officers. If you have any suggestion, feel free to contact me at:
danielbcosta@ieee.org. We hope that you enjoy the material of this Newsletter!

Daniel Benevides da Costa
Director, IEEE ComSoc TCCN Newsletter
Federal University of Ceará, Brazil

(Download the newsletter here)

Since December 2015, this Newsletter has presented and discussed some emerging topics related to the TCCN areas of interest. More specifically, it has covered a broad range of applications and techniques, for instance, non-orthogonal multiple access, ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), millimeter wave communications, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications, and massive machine-type communications (mMTC). We have interviewed over a dozen experts in these fields, included several interesting position papers, and provided state-of-the-art reviews. My sincere thanks to all the previous directors for their
contributions and help which have made this Newsletter a great success.

From my side, I have contributed in two previous TCCN Newsletter editions as Feature Editor, and this TCCN Newsletter issue is the first one that I am acting as Director. It has been a great pleasure and honor for me, and I am excited to cover two areas that will likely have impact in 5G and beyond: a) Blockchain and b) Internet of Things (IoT). In the Blockchain area, we have interviewed Prof. Dusit Niyato, from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Dr. Bhaskar Krichnamachari, from USC, who are leading experts in this area. We have also had the pleasure to get a position paper from Dr. BhaskarKrichnamachari. Within the context of IoT, we have interviewed Prof. Luiz A. da Silva, from Trinity College Dublin, Dr. Samir Perlaza, from INRIA, France, and Prof. Sergey Andreev, fromTampere University, Finland, who provided uswith their outlook on the opportunities and challenges of IoT. Finally, Prof. Giancarlo Fortino and Dr. Claudio Savaglio, from Università della Calabria, Italy, provided a position paper that presents ACOSO-Meth (Agent-based Cooperating Smart Objects Methodology), the first agent-based methodology that specifically and seamlessly supports the main phases of engineering of IoT ecosystems and related services.

Finally, I would like to thank our two feature topic editors: Prof. Walid Saad, from Virginia Tech – USA, and Prof. Pedro H. J. Nardelli, from Lappeenranta University of Technology – Finland, for their efforts in arranging the content of this Newsletter. Moreover, we want to thank all authors and interviewees for sharing with us their experience and time. I would finally like to acknowledge the gracious support from the TCCN chair, Dr. Yue Gao and all TCCN officers. If you have any suggestion, feel free to contact me at: danielbcosta@ieee.org. We hope that you enjoy the material of this Newsletter!

Daniel Benevides da Costa
Director, IEEE ComSoc TCCN Newsletter
Federal University of Ceará, Brazil

(Download the newsletter here)

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

(Download the newsletter here)

For decades, the wireless network evolution has been driven by a strive for higher data rates. Indeed, the whole premise of 4G networks had been on delivering higher rate and high network capacity. However, the advent of the Internet of Things and associated services, such as autonomous vehicles and virtual reality, has radically changed the wireless landscape. In particular, we are witnessing a major shift from data rate-centric wireless networks, to networks that require very low latency and high reliability. In this new latency-centric landscape, cognitive networking approaches will inevitably play a key role. In this regard, this TCCN Newsletter will delve into two key emerging technologies that pertain to the paradigm of highly reliable, low latency communications: a) ultra reliable low latency communication (URLLC) and b) mobile edge computing (MEC). Both URLLC and MEC will be critical components of emerging 5G networks and major contributors for the shift from rate-centric systems to latency-centric systems. Consequently, exposing their challenges and opportunities is essential. In order to do so, this first issue of the TCCN Newsletter of 2018 will bring together two feature topics on URLLC and MEC. Within each feature topic, we review the state of the art and provide an in-depth exposition of some of the recent research contributions. For URLLC, we also provide two expert interviews with Drs. Mehdi Bennis and Marios Kountouris, that provide the academic and industrial perspectives on URLLC. In the context of MEC, beyond also reviewing key papers, we provide two expert interviews with Drs. Kaibin Huang and Yang Yang.

That said, we would like to thank our two feature topic editors: Dr. Daniel Benevides da Costa from UFC – Brazil and Dr. Jie Xu, from Guangdong University of Technology, for their efforts in arranging the paper reviews and expert opinion. Moreover, we want to thank all interviewees for sharing with us their useful experience and future outlook on the discussed areas. I would finally like to acknowledge the gracious support from the TCCN chair, Dr. Jianwei Huang and all TCCN officers. As always, if you have any suggestions, feel free to contact me at: walids@vt.edu. We hope that you enjoy the material provided here!

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

(Download the newsletter here)

Dynamic spectrum access and spectrum sharing lie at the heart of cognitive radio networks. As such, developing new multiple access techniques along with exploiting unconventional frequency bands are necessary steps needed to ensure the wide-scale deployment of cognitive radio networks. In this regard, this TCCN Newsletter will delve into two key emerging technologies in this regard: a) non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and b) Millimeter wave communications (mmWave). Both NOMA and mmWave are considered as major components of emerging 5G networks and, as such, exposing their challenges and opportunities is essential. In order to do so, this second issue of the TCCN Newsletter of 2017 will bring together two feature topics on NOMA and mmWave. Within each feature topic, we review the state of the art and provide an in-depth exposition of some of the recent research contributions. For NOMA, we also provide a position paper from Dr. Zhiguo Ding’s group who has been the driving force behind many of the key contributions in NOMA. In addition to these two feature topics, we discuss the theme of “Spectrum Scarcity”, which has been driving much of the research in wireless networks, in general, and cognitive radio networking, in particular, over the past few years. Within the context of this theme, we get expert opinions from Drs. Akbar Sayeed and Mérouane Debbah along with two position papers from the groups of Dr. Danijela Cabric and Dr. George K. Karagiannidis, that expose various research challenges within this theme.

That said, we 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, for their efforts in arranging the paper reviews, positions papers, and expert opinion. Moreover, we want to thank all authors and interviewees for contributing their significant research works to the two feature topics and sharing with us their useful experience and future outlook on the area. I would finally like to acknowledge the gracious support from the TCCN chair, Dr. Jianwei Huang and all TCCN officers.  As always, if you have any suggestions, feel free to contact me at: walids@vt.edu. We hope that you enjoy the material provided here!

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

Cognitive radio networks are at the cusp of a major revolution. What started as a paradigm for spectrum sharing and dynamic spectrum access, grew into a major wireless communications field that weaves together multiple disciplines ranging from communication theory to machine learning, network science, and network science. As such, the concept of a cognitive network is rapidly evolving from a traditional, spectrum-centric perspective to a broader, network-wide perspective, in which cognition should no longer be restricted to spectrum access but must instead span the entire panoply of network functions.

This need for large-scale, intelligent cognition in wireless networks coupled with the ongoing 5G revolution, is also ushering in numerous innovative applications for cognitive radio networks that range from smart transportation to broad Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems. In order to accompany this major change in cognitive networking paradigm, this first issue of the TCCN Newsletter of 2017 will primarily focus on new analytics and wireless applications which are expected to be central to tomorrow’s cognitive radio networks. In particular, this newsletter will feature two key cognitive radio networking topic: a) The Internet of Things and b) Machine Learning. For each topic, we have gathered a review on innovative new results that have appeared in the recent literature. Then, we had some stimulating discussions with leaders in the fields, in order to provide an in-depth discussion on the major technical challenges and opportunities in these two central areas of cognitive radio networking.

That said, we would like to thank our two feature topic editors: Dr. Nguyen Tran from Kyung Hee University and Dr. Muhammad Zeeshan Shakir from the University of West Scotland, for their efforts in arranging the paper reviews and expert interviews. Moreover, we want to thank all interviewees for contributing their significant research works to the two feature topics and sharing with us their useful experience and future outlook on the area. I would finally like to acknowledge the gracious support from the TCCN chair, Dr. Jianwei Huang and all TCCN officers. As always, if you have any suggestions, feel free to contact me. We hope that you enjoy the material provided here!

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

Dear Fellow TCCN Members,

I am very happy to introduce to you the second issue of TCCN Newsletter (previously called TCCN Communications). I would like to express my sincere thanks to TCCN Chair, Prof. Ying-Chang Liang, and other TCCN officers for their enthusiastic support for this initiative to serve the community. The issue can be downloaded here.

TCCN Newsletter is an electronic platform dedicated to excel in the following aspects:

• Introducing forward-looking research ideas,
• Updating members on new industry, standard, and policy initiatives,
• Promoting top-quality publications with high potential impacts,
• Increasing the visibility of TCCN within ComSoc and beyond.

In this issue, we introduce a new series of “virtual interviews”, with some of the influential researchers in the TCCN community. We asked each interviewee to share with TCCN members regarding his/her most significant recent work in cognitive networks, the most unique and impressive aspects of the work, the challenges and lessons encountered during the research, and the plans for the next few years.

I would like to thank Prof. Lingjie Duan from Singapore University of Technology and Design, who serves as the editor of this virtual interviews series. After sending out the interview invitations early 2016, we have received enthusiastic responses from the community. The interview results published in this issue only represent a subset of interviews that we have been working on. In the future, we will regularly publish virtual interviews with researchers of diverse research and geographical backgrounds.
As always, I would like to welcome any suggestions from TCCN members regarding how to make TCCN Newsletter more interesting and informative to the community. Please feel free to contact me at jwhuang@ie.cuhk.edu.hk if you have any suggestions.

Thanks and best regards,

Jianwei Huang
Vice Chair, IEEE ComSoc TCCN
IEEE Fellow
IEEE ComSoc Distinguished Lecturer
Department of Information Engineering
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
http://jianwei.ie.cuhk.edu.hk/, http://ncel.ie.cuhk.edu.hk/

I am very happy to introduce to you the inaugural issue of TCCN Communications. I would like to express my sincere thanks to TCCN Chair, Dr. Ying-Chang Liang, and other TCCN officers for their enthusiastic support for starting this initiative to serve the community.

This inaugural December 2015 issue (can be downloaded here) includes two special issues on some very hot topics of cognitive communications and networking:

A special issue on “Cognitive Radio for Heterogeneous Networks” edited by Prof. Walid Saad from Virginia Tech,
A special issue on “TV White Space Communications and Networking” edited by Prof. Yue Gao from Queen Mary University of London.

These two special issues contain a total of 13 contributions from leading experts in the field, and cover both recent progress and forward-looking insights regarding technology, economics, and regulations of cognitive radio networks. I would like to congratulate Walid and Yue for the excellent work. I also want to thank Prof. Lingjie Duan from Singapore University of Technology and Design for taking care of the formatting and final editing details as the Publication Editor.

Besides publishing the special issues, we plan to further recommend selected top papers and PhD Dissertations in future TCCN Communication issues. We also welcome any suggestions from TCCN members regarding how to make this platform most interesting and useful to the community. Please feel free to contact me at jwhuang@ie.cuhk.edu.hk if you have any suggestions.

Thanks and best regards,

Jianwei Huang

IEEE Fellow (Class of 2016)
Vice Chair, IEEE ComSoc Cognitive Network Technical Committee (TCCN)
Director, IEEE TCCN Communications
IEEE ComSoc Distinguished Lecturer
http://jianwei.ie.cuhk.edu.hk