Special Issue on Flexible Antenna Technologies for 6G and Beyond
Published 02 March, 2026
In recent years, flexible antenna technologies, such as Pinching Antenna Systems (PASS), Fluid Antenna Systems (FAS), Movable Antenna (MA), and Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS), have reshaped next-generation mobile communications by reconfiguring signal propagation to enhance spectral efficiency, coverage, and interference mitigation. However, some challenges remain: time-varying channel statistics in PASS, near-field effects in MA, hardware fragility in FAS, and cascaded channel estimation and phase optimization in RIS. Addressing these requires innovative optimization algorithms, advanced machine learning techniques, physical-layer security mechanisms, and integrated sensing and communication. This special issue invites interdisciplinary contributions on theoretical frameworks and system architectures, waveform design and signal processing, channel modeling and estimation, secure and covert communication, and wireless resource optimization in flexible antenna areas to advance both theoretical foundations and practical implementations for next-generation networks.
Topics:
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Theoretical frameworks and architectures for flexible antenna systems: from fixed-position antenna theory to continuous spatial modeling, including FAS/PASS/MA/RIS
- Waveform design and signal processing for flexible antenna systems: from conventional fixed-array beamforming to position-adaptive waveform optimization
- Channel modeling and estimation for FAS/PASS/MA systems: from stationary channel models to variant channel characterization
- Digital twin frameworks for flexible antenna systems: from electromagnetic simulations to real-time digital twins integrating multiphysics, multiscale, probabilistic simulation
- AI and Large Language Model (LLM)-driven for flexible antenna systems: from conventional convex optimization and heuristic algorithms to generative AI and LLM-empowered algorithms
- Advanced transceiver design with flexible antenna systems: from conventional analog/digital beamforming to AI-driven adaptive beamforming
- Energy efficiency and sustainability trade-offs in flexible antenna systems: from hardware-centric RF power consumption model to dynamic optimization frameworks accounting for mechanical actuation energy, control circuit overhead, and liquid metal heat dissipation
- Multiple access with flexible antenna systems: from traditional TDMA/NOMA to Compact Ultra-massive Antenna arrays (CUMA) and Fluid Antenna Multiple Access (FAMA)
- Near-field beam focusing and holographic communication for FAS/PASS/MA systems: from far-field planar wave assumption to near-field spherical wave assumption and beam focusing
- Space-air-ground integrated networks with RIS: from isolated terrestrial/satellite systems to RIS-empowered three-dimensional communication systems
- Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) for flexible antenna systems: from separate radar/communication modules to unified ISAC frameworks with flexible antenna mobility
- Flexible antenna technologies for wireless sensor networks and Internet of Things (IoT): from sensor nodes with fixed antennas to massive IoT networks with reconfigurable antenna architectures
- Flexible antenna technologies for Internet of Vehicles (IoV) and high-mobility scenarios: from conventional vehicular antennas with fixed mounting positions and electronic beam steering to FAS/MA/PASS/RIS-enabled spatial degrees-of-freedom exploitation
Timeline:
Submission deadline: July 31, 2026
Acceptance deadline: September 30, 2026
Publication date: January 31, 2027
Guest Editors:
Long Yang
Professor, State Key Laboratory of Integrated Services Networks, Xidian University, China
Email: lyang@xidian.edu.cn
Dr. Long Yang received the B.E. and Ph.D. degrees from Xidian University, Xi'an, China, in 2010 and 2015, respectively. Since 2015, he has been a Faculty Member with Xidian University, where he is currently a Professor with the School of Telecommunications Engineering. From 2017 to 2019, he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. His current research interests include non-orthogonal multiple access, cooperative communications, and wireless physical-layer security. He was a Leading Guest Editor of IEEE Internet of Things Journal on Special Issue Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Satellite Communications for Ubiquitous Internet of Everything (IoE). He is currently serving as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology and IET Communications, as well as an Editor for IEEE Communications Letters.
Zhiguo Ding
Professor, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Email: zhiguo.ding@ntu.edu.sg
Dr. Zhiguo Ding is currently a Professor in Communications at Nanyang Technological University and an Academic Visitor at Princeton University. His research interests are 6G networks, communications and signal processing. His h-index is over 120 and his work receives 70,000+ Google citations. He is serving as the EiC of IEEE JSAC, an Area Editor for the IEEE TWC and OJSP, an Editor for IEEE TVT, and OJ-SP, and was an Area Editor for IEEE TCOM and OJCOMS, an Editor for IEEE TCOM, TWC, COMST, WCL, CL and WCMC. He received the best paper award of IET ICWMC-2009 and IEEE WCSP2014, the EU Marie Curie Fellowship 2012-2014, the Top IEEE TVT Editor 2017, IEEE Heinrich Hertz Award 2018, IEEE Jack Neubauer Memorial Award 2018, IEEE Best Signal Processing Letter Award 2018, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award 2020, IEEE SPCC Technical Recognition Award 2021, IEEE VTS Best Magazine Paper Award 2023, and the Best Paper Award in IEEE GLOBCOM 2024. He is a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher in two disciplines (2019-2025), and a Fellow of the IEEE.
Arumugam Nallanathan
Professor, Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, U.K.
Email: a.nallanathan@qmul.ac.uk
Dr. Arumugam Nallanathan has been a Professor in wireless communications and the Founding Head of the Communication Systems Research (CSR) Group, School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, since September 2017. He was with the Department of Informatics, King's College London, from December 2007 to August 2017, where he was a Professor in wireless communications from April 2013 to August 2017 and a Visiting Professor from September 2017 to August 2020. He was an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, from August 2000 to December 2007. He has published nearly 900 technical papers in scientific journals and international conferences. His research interests include artificial intelligence for wireless systems, beyond 5G wireless networks, and Internet of Things (IoT)., Dr. Nallanathan was a co-recipient of the Best Paper Awards presented at the IEEE International Conference on Communications in 2016 (ICC’2016), IEEE Global Communications Conference in 2017 (GLOBECOM’2017), and IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference in 2018 (VTC’2018). He was also a co-recipient of IEEE Communications Society Leonard G. Abraham Prize in 2022. He is an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer. He has been selected as a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher in 2016 and (2022–2025). He was a Senior Editor of IEEE Wireless Communications Letters; and an Editor of IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, and IEEE Signal Processing Letters. He served as a Guest Editor for numerous special issues of IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC). He served as the Chair for the Signal Processing and Communication Electronics (SPCE) Technical Committee of IEEE Communications Society and the technical program chair and a member of technical program committees in numerous IEEE conferences. He received the IEEE Communications Society SPCE Outstanding Service Award in 2012 and IEEE Communications Society RCC Outstanding Service Award in 2014. He is an ESI (Web of Science) Highly Cited Researcher and a Fellow of the IEEE.
Hai Jiang
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, Canada
Email: hai1@ualberta.ca
Dr. Hai Jiang received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electronics engineering from Peking University, Beijing, China, in 1995 and 1998, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada, in 2006. Since 2007, he has been a Faculty Member with the University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada, where he is currently a Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research interests include radio resource management, mobile edge computing, and cooperative communications. He served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (2007–2017), IEEE Wireless Communications Letters (2011–2016) and he is now serving as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications (2021–present). He received the Best Paper Award of IEEE GLOBECOM in 2008 and the Best Paper Award of the Green Communications & Computing Technical Committee, IEEE Communications Society. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.
Fumiyuki Adachi
Professor, International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University, Japan
Email: fumiyuki.adachi.b4@tohoku.ac.jp
Dr. Fumiyuki Adachi received the B.S. and Dr. Eng. degrees in electrical engineering from Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, in 1973 and 1984, respectively. In April 1973, he joined the Electrical Communications Laboratories of NTT and started mobile communications research. From July 1992 to December 1999, he was with NTT DOCOMO, leading a research group on wideband/broadband wireless access for 3G and beyond. He contributed to developing the 3G air interface standard, known as W-CDMA. Since January 2000, he has been with Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. He is currently researching resilient wireless communication technology to realize beyond 5G/6G systems as a Specially Appointed Research Fellow/Professor Emeritus at the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University. His research interests are in the areas of wireless signal processing and networking, including multi-access, equalization, antenna diversity, cooperative transmission, channel coding, and radio resource management. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE.