Call for Papers
IEEE Communications Magazine

Smart Device-to-Smart Device Communications

Although ad-hoc WLAN mode has been available in 802.11 for many years, the usage has been rather limited compared with the infrastructure mode. Nevertheless, there has been an increased interest in device-to-device communication recently, as manifested by the WiFi Direct specifications and proposals for LTE-A device to device (D2D) standardization. A key motivation for D2D connectivity is the potential for operators to offload traffic from the core network, and the framework for a new communication paradigm to support social networking through localization. The current ad-hoc mode of communication does not support this functionality due to configuration complexity. LTE-A, Qualcomm and IEEE 802.15.4g (SUN) are currently addressing the standardizing of D2D communication over licensed band. A major breakthrough was achieved in due course when 3GPP (LTE-A release, 12 June 2012) agreed on starting a study item for D2D technology.

D2D communication uses cellular spectrum (license band) supported by a cellular infrastructure and promises three types of gain: the proximity of user equipment (UE) may allow for extremely high bit rates, low delays and low energy consumption; the reuse gain implies that radio resources may be simultaneously used by cellular as well as D2D links, tightening the reuse factor, even on reuse-1 system; finally, the hop gain refers to using both uplink and downlink resources when communicating via the access point in the cellular mode. Moreover, D2D communication may extend the cellular coverage and facilitate new types of wireless peer-to-peer services whilst at the same time increase the energy efficiency of communication. It is clear that D2D can offer a palette of interesting colours that can paint new business opportunities for mobile stakeholders promoting its candidacy for next generation wireless communication system.

A key international research project tackling D2D communication is the CELTIC Green-T (Green Terminals— http://greent.av.it.pt/index.html), that investigates multi-standard wireless mobile devices by exploiting D2D communication in synergy with cognitive radio and cooperative strategies while still maintaining the essential performance in terms of data rate and QoS to support mobile broadband applications. These strategies assist GREEN-T to overcome the so called "back to the future" (fixed line communications) scenario and avoid users being constrained to the nearest available electricity socket, and falling prey to the energy trap in 4th Generation systems. GREEN-T provides a solid foundation towards economic and environmental sustainability, as well as inspiration for this feature topic on Smart Device to Device Communication in LTE-Advanced.

This feature topic includes different aspects on smart D2D communication ranging from smart radio protocols to energy efficient networking topologies, including deployment strategies and lightweight security. This issue intends to bring together all mobile stakeholders, academic and industry, to identify and promote technical challenges and recent results related to D2D communication. This feature topic focuses on the state-of-the-art research and development in various aspects of D2D communication. Original, unpublished contributions and survey/tutorial type articles will be considered for the feature topic. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

This feature topic is expected to have 5-6 papers.

Submission Guidelines Articles should be tutorial in nature, with the intended audience being all members of the communications technology communities. They should be written in a style comprehensible to readers outside the specialty of the article. Mathematical equations should not be used (in justified cases up to three simple equations are allowed). Articles should not exceed 4500 words. Figures and tables should be limited to a combined total of six. The number of references is recommended to not exceed 10 (maximum 15). Complete guidelines for preparation of the manuscript are posted at http://www.comsoc.org/commag/paper-submission-guidelines. Please send a pdf (preferred) or MSWORD formatted paper via Manuscript Central (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/commag-ieee). Register or log in, and go to Author Center. Follow the instructions there. Select "April 2014/Smart Device-to-Smart Device Communications" as the feature topic category for your submission.

Important Dates
Manuscript Submission Deadline: September 1, 2013
Notification of acceptance: December 1, 2013
Final Manuscript Due: February 1, 2014
Publication: April 2014

Guest Editors Dr. Shahid Mumtaz smumtaz@av.it.pt
Instituto de Telecomunicacoes, Portugal

Prof Lie-Liang Yang ll-yang@ieee.org
University of Southampton, UK

Prof Chonggang Wang cgwang@ieee.org
InterDigital Communications, USA

Prof Fumiyuki Adachi adachi@ecei.tohoku.ac.jp
Tohoku University, Japan

Prof Najah Abu Ali najah@uaeu.ac.ae
UAE University, Abu Dhabi