IEEE Wireless Communications is designed for audience working in the wireless communications and networking communities. It covers technical, policy and standard issues relating to wireless communications in all media (and combinations of media), and at all protocol layers. All wireless/mobile communications, networking, computing and services will be covered. Each issue of this interdisciplinary magazine provides tutorial articles of high quality and depth concerning the revolutionary technological advances in wireless/mobile communications, networking and computing.

Special Issue on Toward Practical Low-Altitude Economy Networking: Standardization, Testbeds, and Real-world Deployments
Submission Date: 2025-06-01

The increasing shortage of ground transportation resources has prompted the exploration of low-altitude airspace, leading to the emergence of the low-altitude economy (LAE). LAE involves carry out various activities, such as cargo transportation and low-altitude inspections, in the airspace extending up to 3,000 meters above the ground, by using manned and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV), such as drones and electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL). Unlike traditional UAV and non-terrestrial networks, the LAE involves deploying a large number of flying vehicles that not only act as base stations but also function as service-providing devices, such as air taxis. Due to the high mobility of aerial vehicles and weather challenges, constructing the low-altitude wireless network presents significant challenges in standardization, technological innovation, testbeds, and practical deployments.

For developing standardized communication protocols and regulations, it is vital to consider physical obstacles in airspace, mechanical operation restrictions, and compatibility with existing aerial communication networks. From a technological perspective, providing reliable communication services to massive aerial vehicles requires addressing issues, such as electromagnetic interference and the cooperation with terrestrial communication networks. Besides, integrating communications with sensing and computing is also important due to the dynamic features of the airspace and the limited endurance of aerial vehicles. Such integration requires more advanced methods to manage and optimize spectrum, computing, and storage resources, due to the increased dimensionality and dynamics of the constraints. Moreover, the deployment, testing, and optimization of the low-altitude wireless network in real-world scenarios, along with the development of relevant testing platforms, are also crucial to ensure the safety of LAE applications. Given the challenges mentioned above, this Special Issue (SI) aims to explore the relevant solutions within the context of LAE, covering aspects of standards, technologies, testbeds, and practical deployments of low-altitude wireless networks. The scope includes but not limited to:

    Design, simulation, practical trials, and standardization of communications architectures and protocols for LAE.
    Sustainable real-world deployment strategies and use case for low-altitude wireless networks.
    Practical dynamic spectrum access and management for LAE applications.
    Scalable framework design, practical evaluation, and standardization for integrating low-altitude wireless network with existing aerial network.
    Privacy and data security protocol design and standardization in wireless communications for LAE.
    Design, evaluation, and analysis of the metrics in practical environment for LAE.
    Interference management and integration among satellite, low-altitude, and terrestrial networks in LAE.
    Integrating communication, sensing, and computing for real-world LAE applications.
    Resource management and optimization for communications, computation, and storage in LAE.
    Airspace sensing, reconstruction, and analysis technologies for LAE applications.
    Testbed design, implementation, analysis, and standardization for LAE Applications.

Evidence of real testbeds and demos, such as figures, videos, and datasets, is strongly preferred.

Submission Guidelines

Prospective authors should prepare their submissions in accordance with the rules specified in the "Information for Authors" of the IEEE Wireless Communications Authors Guidelines. Authors should submit a PDF version of their complete manuscript to Manuscript Central. The timetable is as follows:

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 1 June 2025
Initial Decision Date: 1 August 2025
Revised Manuscript Due: 1 September 2025
Final Decision Date: 1 October 2025
Final Manuscript Due: 15 December 2025
Publication Date: February 2026

Guest Editors

Jiacheng Wang
Technological University, Singapore, Singapore 

Jiming Chen
Zhejiang University/Hangzhou Dianzi University, China

Lin Cai
University of Victoria, Canada

Dominic Schupke
Airbus, Germany

Dusit (Tao) Niyato
Technological University, Singapore, Singapore  

Special Issue on Movable and Reconfigurable Antennas-Empowered Wireless Networks
Submission Date: 2025-06-01

Mechanically movable antennas (MAs) and electronically reconfigurable antennas (RAs) have been recognized as promising technologies for wireless systems enabling dynamic movement/reconfiguration of antennas at the transmitter (Tx)/receiver (Rx). Due to the flexibility of their positions, orientations, radiations, polarizations, and frequency responses, MAs and RAs can fully exploit the degrees of freedom (DoFs) in the time/frequency/space domain for improving wireless communication/sensing performance. Thus, with flexible antenna movement/configuration, MAs/RAs can adaptively reconfigure wireless channels between transceivers in dynamic environments to achieve substantial improvements in spatial diversity, multiplexing, and beamforming gains, paving a new way for realizing ultra-high reliability and capacity. On the other hand, the new flexibility of MAs/RAs in position/orientation/radiation/polarization adjustment also enhances the sensing accuracy and coverage of wireless systems. Moreover, the reconfigurability of MAs/RAs enables flexible functionality sharing/switching between sensing and communications, thus providing a promising solution for the implementation of integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) in future wireless networks.

However, despite the above advantages, the research on MAs/RAs is still in an early stage from both the wireless communication and sensing perspectives. Substantial knowledge gaps exist in various aspects, e.g., channel modeling and estimation, performance limit characterization, antenna movement/configuration optimization, and low-cost implementation of MAs/RAs and their integration into existing and future wireless networks. Addressing these technical issues is crucial for harnessing the full potential of MAs/RAs and realizing their envisioned benefits in wireless networks.

This Special Issue (SI) aims to focus on the theoretical analysis and practical design of MAs and RAs as well as other relevant technologies, such as fluid antennas and flexible antennas in wireless communications/sensing applications. Prospective authors are invited to submit original manuscripts on topics including but not limited to:

    Energy-efficient design and implementation of MAs/RAs.
    Channel measurement and modeling for MA/RA systems.
    Performance analysis for MA/RA wireless systems.
    Characterizing fundamental limits of MA/RA systems.
    Channel estimation for MA/RA wireless systems.
    Antenna movement/configuration optimization for MA/RA systems.
    Physical-layer secure and covert communication aided by MAs/RAs.
    MA/RA-aided over-the-air and mobile edge computing.
    Advanced localization, sensing, and imaging aided by MAs/RAs.
    MAs/RAs for integrated sensing and communications (ISAC).
    AI-enabled designs for MA/RA systems.
    Six-dimensional movable antenna (6DMA)-aided communication and/or sensing.
    Protocol design for MA/RA-aided wireless networks.
    Experimental demonstrations, prototyping, and field-tests of MA/RA systems.
    Standardization activities for MA/RA systems.
    MAs/RAs meet other advanced technologies, e.g., IRS, UAV, satellite, mmWave/THz, near-field, cell-free, semantic communications, etc.

Submission Guidelines

Prospective authors should prepare their submissions in accordance with the rules specified in the "Information for Authors" of the IEEE Wireless Communications Authors Guidelines. Authors should submit a PDF version of their complete manuscript to Manuscript Central. The timetable is as follows:

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 1 June 2025
Initial Decision Date: 1 August 2025
Revised Manuscript Due: 1 September 2025
Final Decision Date: 1 October 2025
Final Manuscript Due: 15 December 2025
Publication Date: February 2026

Guest Editors

Lipeng Zhu
National University of Singapore, Singapore

Robert Schober
Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany

Harish Viswanathan
Nokia Bell Labs, USA

Rui Zhang
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China