IEEE WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS

CALL FOR PAPERS

RADIO RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND PROTOCOL ENGINEERING IN FUTURE IEEE BROADBAND WIRELESS NETWORKS

Background: The IEEE Standard 802.16 and its evolutions (i.e., 802.16a, 802.16d, 802.16e, 802.16g) set the stage for a worldwide revolution in Broadband Wireless Access (BWA). In addition, IEEE 802.20 working group is developing new standards for both fixed and mobile broadband wireless wide-area networking (WWAN). Also known as the WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), IEEE 802.16 (802.16a, 802.16d, 802.16e, WiBro)-based technology can potentially deliver fixed, portable, and mobile wireless solutions enabling high-bandwidth services with an array of multimedia features, and it supports point-to-multipoint (PTM) and mesh network architectures. With advantages in terms of high transmission rate and coverage area, mobility support, and pre-defined Quality-of-Service (QoS) framework, this IP-based wireless broadband technology can be integrated with 3G mobile networks, 802.11-based WLANs, and wireline networks to provide seamless broadband connectivity to mobile users. With an exponential growth, the worldwide installed base for WiMAX technology is expected to reach the 200 million mark by 2006. A Mobile Broadband Wireless Access (MBWA) Working Group has been approved by the IEEE Standards Board for the establishment of IEEE 802.20 (also referred to as MobileFi) with specifications for Medium Access Control (MAC) as well as PHYsical (PHY) layer that support mobility, packet data services and efficient adaptive antenna support.

Although the IEEE 802.16 specifications define the signaling messages for the multiple access mechanisms, the radio resource management protocols for sub-carrier allocation, dynamic bandwidth adaptation, connection admission control, and many aspects of network control and management algorithms are unspecified on purpose and left open for innovations by individual equipment vendors as a way to differentiate their products in the marketplace. Protocol engineering for 802.16/802.20-based broadband wireless systems is an emerging research area where some results have recently been published. However, it holds a greater potential for even comprehensive results addressing relevant issues to support the emerging applications and the development of related concepts and technologies are critical. The emphasis of this special issue will be on design, analysis, and optimization of protocols (in Layer 2 and above) for WiMAX/MobileFi networks.

Scope of Contributions: The papers in this feature topic will focus on state-of -the-art research in various aspects of protocol (Layer 2 and above) design and engineering for WiMAX/MobileFi networks. We solicit original unpublished manuscripts not currently being considered elsewhere for publication. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:

Papers should be of tutorial in nature and the authors must follow the IEEE Wireless Communications guidelines for preparation of the manuscripts. For further details, potential authors should refer to "Information for Authors" in IEEE Wireless Communications website at

http://www.comsoc.org/pubs/pcm/sub_guidelines.html

Prospective authors should e-mail their manuscripts as a pdf attachment along with the title, the abstract, and the address for correspondence as a separate text attachment to one of the Guest Editors no later than June 15, 2006.

Schedule

Guest Editors

Kin K. Leung, Imperial College, United Kingdom, kin.leung@imperial.ac.uk (or kkleung@ieee.org)
Ekram Hossain, University of Manitoba, Canada, ekram@ee.umanitoba.ca
Yang Xiao, The University of Memphis, USA, yangxiao@ieee.org
Li-Chun Wang, National Chiao-Tung University,Taiwan, lichun@cc.nctu.edu.tw