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The landscape of wireless communication is rapidly evolving and technologies operating in unlicensed spectra play a pivotal role in shaping the future of wireless connectivity. As we navigate the digital era, the demand for faster, more reliable, and ubiquitous connectivity is on the rise. Wi-Fi is the most prominent technology operating in unlicensed spectra and some estimates indicate that around 70% of the global Internet traffic crosses a Wi-Fi network.

Recent advances in Wi-Fi technology, including Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7, have focused on keeping up with this growing traffic demand through the introduction of new technologies such as OFDMA to cope up with device density, wider 320 MHz channels in the 6 GHz band to provide high throughputs and lower latencies, puncturing to improve spectrum efficiency and deal with coexistence with incumbents in the 6 GHz band, and multi-link operation that enables seamless access to multiple channels thereby providing aggregate peak data rates that exceed 30 Gbps and single digit millisecond latency. The industry and academia are now researching the next generation technologies that can evolve Wi-Fi with the goal to provide deterministic operation and high reliability for applications such as AR/VR, industrial IoT, gaming, ultra-high-definition wireless display, to name a few.

At the same time, other technologies are also evolving and expanding their use of unlicensed spectra. Bluetooth and other narrowband technologies are in the process of being designed to operate in the 5 GHz and/or 6 GHz band. Ultra-wideband (UWB) is being widely deployed in the 6 GHz band to provide accurate and secure raging for applications such as access control. 5G NR-U is an extension of 5G technology that enables it to operate in unlicensed spectrum. 

The evolution and coexistence of these various technologies is of utmost importance to ultimately provide the experience, performance and applications that users expect and is a major focus of this Specia Issue. Academia, industry, and regulatory bodies need to work together to define the future technologies, standards and regulatory frameworks that will provide the conditions necessary for adequate spectrum sharing and efficient spectrum utilization that will enable deterministic and reliable operation demanded by applications making use of unlicensed spectra. 

This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive presentation of the state-of-the-art findings including technology, theory, design, optimization, and applications of Wi-Fi and other technologies operating in unlicensed spectra and their impact on the future of wireless communication. Original technical contributions are solicited in future Wi-Fi and related areas including, but not limited to, the following:

• Analysis, experimentation, and performance evaluation of the latest and upcoming Wi-Fi and Bluetooth standards
• Next generation PHY, MAC, and network layer architectures and protocols
• Wi-Fi sensing and joint communication and sensing
• Latency and time-sensitive services
• Accurate and secure location and ranging
• Spectrum sharing and coexistence
• AI/ML applied to technologies operating in unlicensed spectra
• Privacy and security
• Spectrum and regulations
• Implementation and deployment challenges
• Emerging applications and services

Submission Guidelines

Prospective authors should submit their manuscripts following the IEEE JSAC guidelines. Authors should submit a PDF version of their complete manuscript to EDAS.

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission: 30 November 30, 2024
First Notification: 1 March 2025
Acceptance Notification: 30 April 2025
Final Manuscript Submission: 15 May 2025
Publication Date: Third Quarter 2025

Guest Editors

Carlos Cordeiro (Lead Editor)
Intel Corporation, USA

Edward Knightly
Rice University, USA

Giovanni Geraci
Telefonica Research and UPF Barcelona, Spain

Joerg Widmer
IMDEA Networks, Spain

Malcolm Smith
Cisco, USA

V.K. Jones
Qualcomm, USA