China Communications (ISSN 1673-5447) is an English-language monthly journal cosponsored by the China Institute of Communications (CIC) and IEEE Communications Society (IEEE ComSoc) towards readers in industry, universities, research and development organizations and government agencies in the field of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) all over the world.

Aiming at promoting worldwide academic exchange in the ICTs sector, CIC and the IEEE ComSoc are committed to publishing high-quality papers in China Communications to contribute to the global ICTs industry. The publication provides instant access to the latest articles and papers presenting leading-edge research achievement, tutorial overviews, and descriptions of significant practical applications of technology.

China Communications has been indexed in SCIE (Science Citation Index-Expanded) since January, 2007. In addition, all articles have been available in the IEEE Xplore digital library since January, 2013.  

Special Issue on Non-Terrestrial Network: Architecture, Technologies and Applications
Submission Date: 2025-03-15

 With the coming of digital era, profound changes are happening in communication field. Within these, non-terrestrial network (NTN) is considered as a leading-edge technology. NTN not only represents an innovation, but also signifies the main development trend of future global communication. As a layered heterogeneous network, NTN will integrate multiple communication platforms, including satellites, high altitude platform systems (HAPS), and unmanned aerial systems (UAS), these provide flexible and composable solutions for achieving ubiquitous global communication coverage.

The layered heterogeneous architecture of NTN is a typical characteristic. Unlike traditional ground networks, NTN's core ideology is to fully utilize aerial communication platforms, that naturally breaks through the constrain of geographical environment. Namely, satellites provide highly reliable long-distance communication services, HAPS offer more flexible selection for communication at stratospheric altitudes, and UAS support highly customized communication services at low altitudes in specific regions. These enable NTN to achieve global coverage. Accordingly, implementing on-demand coverage of NTN architecture has become the primary issue.

In NTN, multiple communication platforms work collaboratively, forming a layered and wide coverage global network. This novel architecture provides a new perspective for global communication development, that can simultaneously offer flexible and customizable communication services for various application scenarios. However, how to design and develop new radio access and network technologies suitable for ground terminals and aerial base stations to address large dynamic spatial mobility, optimize the use of air network sites to reduce transmission and routing delays, remains an open research question.

The research on NTN is crucial for promoting global communication to achieve ubiquitous and high-quality services. By focusing on the architectures, key technologies, and practical applications of NTN, we hope to explore possible methods and solutions for achieving global coverage. This, in turn, will propel innovation in communication technology across various fields, including agriculture, emergency response, intelligent transportation, healthcare, etc. Ultimately, the goal is to construct a more intelligent, reliable, and ubiquitous communication network.

This special issue will focus on exploring the architecture, technologies, and applications of NTN.

Topics include (but not limited to):

● NTN Network Architecture, Standards, Protocols, and Applications
● Seamless Coverage in Three-Dimensional Space
● Cross-Layer Resource Management in NTN
● NTN Integrated Perception and Positioning Optimization
● NTN network communication technology
● NTN Network Multi-Platform Collaborative Resource Management
● NTN Internet integrated sensing and communication
● Computing and cloud-edge-end intelligent collaboration technology over NTN
● Machine learning over NTN
● NTN Network Security Technology
● Novel RF technologies for the NTN, including wideband RF techniques for supporting multiple platforms, and novel architectures for super-massive multiple-beam or phased arrays.  

Schedule

Submission Deadline: 15th March, 2025
Acceptance Notification (1st round): 20th May, 2025
Minor Revision Due: 25th June, 2025
Final Decision Due: 30th July, 2025
Final Manuscript Due: 25th August, 2025
Publication Date: 15th October, 2025

Guest editors 

Yuan Gao, Academy of Military Science of the PLA, China
Gang Wu, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China
Zhangcheng Hao, Southeast University, China
Nan Zhao, Dalian University of Technology, China
Dusit Niyato, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Arumugam Nallanathan, Queen Mary University of London, UK