Special Issue on Advanced AI for Communications and Networks

The rapid advancement of communication technologies has increased the role of AI in cognitive communications and networking domain. AI are already improving boosting the efficiency and performance of communication systems across various applications such as network optimization, resource management, and intelligent control. As the industry moves toward 6G, networks will need to operate under tighter latency and reliability constraints, support far more heterogeneous services, and adapt to highly dynamic environments. Cognitive communication and networking—by design responsive to context, traffic conditions, and user needs—will be a key enabler of these capabilities, helping networks use spectrum, energy, and compute resources more efficiently while making decisions at operational scale.

At the same time, deployment at this level of autonomy raises practical requirements beyond raw performance. Advanced AI therefore becomes a closed verification loop: the inner optimizer explores extreme regimes of spectrum, energy, and geometry, while the outer governance layer certifies, mathematically and in real time, that every emitted waveform, routing decision, and slice admission satisfies operator-defined contracts. The research community is moving beyond "explain every gradient" to "prove every outcome". By achieving this, we can unlock the full potential of advanced AI in optimizing and managing the complex communication networks of the future.

This special issue aims to accelerate the adoption of advanced AI in communications and networks by showcasing methods, frameworks, and evaluations that make autonomy deployable.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Explainable and trustworthy AI models for communications and networks
• Generative AI for resource allocation in communications and networks
• Transformer-based channel state information estimation for massive MIMO
• Agentic AI enables integrated sensing, communication, and computing
• Design of advanced AI architectures and protocols for communications and networking
• Advanced AI model-enabled semantic communication in 6G
• The role of AI-RAN in wireless communications and network management
• Some AI applications in mission-critical or task-originated communications in 6G
• Distributed learning and edge intelligence for the collaborative computing networks
• Digital twins with advanced AI for Internet of Everything in 6G
• LLM and foundation model-enabled communications and networks in 6G
• Embodied AI for networked collaborative robotics and IoV in 6G
• Cross-layer optimization frameworks for AI-enhanced communications and networking
• Tiny AI/ML method empowered optimization on communications and networking
• Case studies, testbeds and practical deployments for advanced AI in 6G

Submission guidelines

Prospective authors are invited to submit their manuscripts electronically, adhering to the Digital Communications and Networks guidelines. Please submit your papers through the online system and be sure to select the special issue name. Manuscripts should not have been published or be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. Please submit only full papers intended for review, not abstracts, to the Editorial Manager. If requested, abstracts should be sent by e-mail directly to the Guest Editors.

Important Dates

• First submission deadline: June 1, 2026
• Notification of first decision: August 1, 2026
• First revision submission deadline: September 15, 2026
• Notification of final decision: November 1, 2026
• Final manuscript (camera ready) submission deadline: December 1, 2026
• Issue of Publication: 2027

Guest Editors

Mingkai Chen

Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, China

E-mail: mkchen@njupt.edu.cn

Jiajia Guo

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hongkong

Email: eejiajiaguo@ust.hk 

Yun Lin

Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, China

E-mail: linyun@hrbeu.edu.cn

Joel J. P. C. Rodrigues

Federal University of Piauí, Teresina - PI, Brazil

Email: joeljr@ieee.org

Shi Jin

Southeast University

Email: jinshi@seu.edu.cn