Dear Colleagues,

Dear Colleagues,
The technical program for the third annual IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference spans most of the key areas in wireless and mobile communications from the physical layer up through the network layer. Among the topics receiving the largest numbers of papers for this year’s conference were coding and modulation, signal processing, 3G/4G wireless networks system, ad hoc mobile networks, radio resource management, multiple access methods, and QoS for wireless systems. As is evident from just those categories alone, the technical program will almost assuredly provide some topics of interest for all attendees.

A total of 568 papers were received as a result of the open call. In keeping with the goal at WCNC to become one of the highest quality conferences on wireless communications, the acceptance rate was less than 30%. In addition, four papers were invited to lead off some of the technical tracks at WCNC. The invited speakers are Nick Bambos, Jerry Gibson, Mike Pursley, and Steve Weinstein. Furthermore, we have lined up several exciting business applications sessions, and a number of technical and plenary sessions. Together with the high power keynote and executive panel sessions, pre- and post-conference tutorials, the overall program of WCNC2002 brings into focus the two threads of our theme: the convergence of wireless/mobility and IP, and the integration of wireless WANs and LANs.

In order to put this technical program together, many people expended a great deal of effort. I would first like to thank C.K. Toh, one of the two technical co-chairs of the conference, for the excellent job he did with the regular sessions. Secondly, I would like to thank our other co-chair, Willlie Lu, for putting together the business applications sessions. Further thanks go to both Li-Fung Chang and Len Cimini, the tutorials co-chairs, and Mehmet Unsoy, the executive panel chair, for all their hard work and dedication. Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to Chih-Lin I, the chair of the WCNC Advisory Board, for all her insight and support in helping to shape the technical program, and to Tom Stevenson for his help with all the logistics.

Welcome to Orlando.