Vehicular networks are expected to empower automated driving and intelligent transportation via vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications and edge/cloud-assisted computation, and Cellular V2X (C-V2X) is gaining wide support from the global industrial ecosystem. The 5G NR-V2X technology is the evolution of LTE-V2X, which is expected to provide ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communications (uRLLC) with 1ms latency and 99.999% reliability. Nevertheless, vehicular networks still face great challenges in supporting emerging time-critical applications, which comprise sensing, communication and computation as closed-loops. On the one hand, compared with conventional mobile services, road and driving-related applications pose more strict latency requirements, beyond the air-interface delay, for road safety and efficiency. On the other hand, context information (e.g., the conditions of surrounding vehicles and pedestrians, dynamic high-precision maps, availability of parking lots, and traffic congestion) can be outdated due to high dynamics over various time scales, as measured by recently proposed new information timeliness/freshness metrics (e.g., age of information). In this regard, fundamental issues of time-critical communication (e.g., timely delivering the context information) and computation (e.g., making driving decisions with low response time) should be investigated to support emerging applications like intelligent connected automated driving. 

The main goal of this feature topic is to explore new theories, frameworks, algorithms, mechanisms, applications, and tools of time-critical communications and computations for intelligent vehicular networks. It solicits original contributions of latest progress in this area, where substantially extended versions of papers published in early conferences, symposiums and workshops are also welcomed to be submitted. Survey and visionary articles indicating future research directions from various perspectives are also encouraged.

 

Shanzhi Chen, China Academy of Telecommunications Technology (CATT), China

Tommy Svensson, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Sheng Zhou, Tsinghua University, China

Shan Zhang, Beihang University, China

 

● Architectures, frameworks, protocols, and models for time-critical applications in vehicular networks

● Physical layer transmission technologies for time-critical applications in vehicular networks

● Machine learning (ML) based algorithms for time-critical applications in vehicular networks

● Artificial intelligence (AI)-empowered network management for time-critical applications in vehicular networks

● Age of information (AoI) aware communication and computation in vehicular networks

● Delay and AoI performance analysis and optimization in vehicular networks

● Time-critical communication and computation for connected automated driving

● UAV/satellite assisted vehicular networks

● Edge computing/caching for time-critical applications in vehicular networks

● Security and privacy for time-critical applications in vehicular networks

● Proof-of-concepts and experiments for time-critical communication and computation in vehicular networks

 

All submissions will be anonymously peer reviewed and will be evaluated on the basis of their technical merits. Potential topics of interest include, but not limited to areas listed above.

 

Papers should be submitted in two separate .doc files (preferred) or .pdf files: 1) Main Document (including paper title, abstract, key words, and full text); 2) Title page (including paper title, author affiliation, acknowledgement and any other information related with the authors’ identification) through the Manuscript Central. Please register or login at http://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/chinacomm, then go to the author center and follow the instructions there. Remember to select “Time-Critical Communication and Computation for Intelligent Vehicular Networks June Issue 2021” as your manuscript type when submitting; otherwise, it might be considered as a regular paper.

 

Each submission must be accompanied by the following information:

● an abstract of no more than 150 words

● 3-8 keywords

● original photographs with high-resolution (300 dpi or greater); eps. ortif. format is preferred; sequentially numbered references.

● sequentially numbered references. The basic reference format is: author name, "article name", issue name (italic), vol., no., page, month, year. for example: Y. M. Huang, "pervateture in wireless heterogeneous…", IEEE Journal on Selected Areas, vol. 27, no. 5, pp 34-50, May, 2009.

● brief biographies of authors (50-75 words)

● contact information, including email and mailing addresses