Emerging Space Communication and Network Technologies for 6G Ubiquitous Connectivity

Scope

Seeing Apollo 11 land on the Moon, downloading Pluto’s pictures from New Horizon, receiving scientific data on 67-p/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet from Rosetta, commanding Voyager 1 to turn its camera and take a photograph of Earth from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers: all these and many other incredible achievements would have been impossible without increasingly advanced space communication and network technologies. Nowadays, these emerging space technologies have made their ambitious move towards commercialization and been anticipated as an indispensable enabling component of the sixth-generation (6G) space-air-ground-sea integrated networks. For instance, numerous enterprises including Starlink, OneWeb, and Telesat have envisaged massive deployment of low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations to complement the terrestrial networks and provide ubiquitous connectivity through their global footprint. Nevertheless, entangled by terrestrial and aerospace components, the sophisticated 6G networks will involve new challenges and paradigm shift in architectural, management, operational, and signal processing design.

This feature topic solicits papers focusing on the role emerging space communication and network technologies will play in advancing the ubiquitous connectivity in the 6G wireless networks, endeavoring to identify critical issues and provide feasible solutions among this field.

Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• The role of emerging space communication elements, e.g., LEO mega-constellation networks, near-space airship networks for hyper-connectivity
• Network architecture design and resource management
• Multiple access protocol and transmission control optimization
• Global spectrum harmonization efforts
• Efficient signal processing methods for physical layer interface
• The role of space networks for edge computing and caching
• The amalgamation with the aerial network elements, high altitude platform stations, and UAVs
• Trials and simulation platforms
• Other potential advances in space communication and network technologies

Guest Editors

Zhen Gao, Beijing Institute of Technology, China

Zhen Gao received the Ph.D. degree in communication and signal processing from the Tsinghua National Laboratory for Information Science and Technology, Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, China, in 2016. He is currently an Associate Professor with the Beijing Institute of Technology.

His research interests are in wireless communications, with a focus on multicarrier modulations, multiple antenna systems, and sparse signal processing. He was awarded the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program (2018-2021) from the China Association for Science and Technology, the first prize in Natural Science by Chinese Institute of Electronics (CIE), and the Elsevier 2020~2021 MOST Cited Chinese Researchers.

De Mi, University of Surrey, UK

De Mi received the B.Eng. degree from the Beijing Institute of Technology, China, the M.Sc. degree from Imperial College London, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Surrey, U.K. He is currently with the Institute for Communication Systems, Home of 5G Innovation Centre (5GIC) and 6G Innovation Centre (6GIC), University of Surrey.

His research interests include 5G/B5G air interface design, multi-antenna signal processing, next generation broadcast and multicast, and millimeter-wave communications.

Chunxiao Jiang, Tsinghua University

Chunxiao Jiang is an associate professor in School of Information Science and Technology, Tsinghua University. He received the Ph.D. degree in electronic engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing in 2013, both with the highest honors.

His research interests include application of game theory, optimization, and statistical theories to communication, networking, and resource allocation problems, in particular space networks and heterogeneous networks. Dr. Jiang has served as an Editor of IEEE Internet of Things Journal, IEEE Network, IEEE Communications Letters. He has also served as a member of the technical program committee as well as the Symposium Chair for a number of international conferences. He received the Chinese National Second Prize in Technical Inventions Award in 2018 and Natural Science Foundation of China Excellent Young Scientists Fund Award in 2019.

Symeon Chatzinotas, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Symeon Chatzinotas is Full Professor and Head of the SIGCOM Research Group at SnT, University of Luxembourg. He is coordinating the research activities on communications and networking across a group of 70 researchers, acting as a PI for more than 40 projects and main representative for 3GPP, ETSI, DVB.

He is currently serving in the editorial board of the IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Open Journal of Vehicular Technology and the International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking. He has (co-)authored more than 600 technical papers in refereed international journals, conferences and scientific books.

Derrick Wing Kwan Ng, The University of New South Wales, Australia

Derrick Wing Kwan Ng (Fellow, IEEE) received the Ph.D. degree from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in November 2012. He is a Scientia Associate Professor with the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

His research interests include convex and non-convex optimization, physical layer security, IRS-assisted communication, UAV-assisted communication, wireless information and power transfer, and green (energy-efficient) wireless communications.

He has been listed as a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate Analytics (Web of Science), since 2018. He received the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2017, the IEEE Communications Society Stephen O. Rice Prize 2022. He is now serving as the Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Communications, the IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, and an Area Editor of the IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society.

Qihui Wu, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Qihui Wu serves as the Vice President of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Distinguished Professor of Changjiang Scholars of the Ministry of Education, and IET Fellow.

He is also a member of the Communication Science and Technology Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Director/Fellow of the Chinese Institute of Electronics, and Member/Fellow of the Academic Committee of the China Institute of Communications. He was awarded the IEEE Signal Processing Society Young Author Best Paper Award and the VTC2014-Fall Best Paper Award. He was the inventor of 2 American patents and the author of 5 international standard proposals, which were submitted and finally adopted. His innovative research outcome has been applied to major strategic projects such as Beidou satellite and the lunar exploration project.

Qing Guo, Harbin Institute of Technology

Qing Guo received the Ph.D. degrees in information and communication engineering from the Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China. He is currently a Professor with the School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, and the Director of the Key Laboratory of Wideband Wireless Communications and Networks, Heilongjiang.

He has authored or coauthored one book and more than 150 papers in journals and international conferences. His research interests include broadband satellite communications, space information networks, small satellite TT&C, and wireless communication networks.

Submission Instructions

Please indicate in your cover letter that your submission is intended for inclusion in the special issue.

Submission Deadline: July 1, 2023

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