Special Issue: The Road to 6G: Driving the Next Wave of Connectivity—Part II

Volume 113, Issue 9

September 2025

Guest Editors

Special Issue Papers

Scanning the Issue

By M.-S. Alouini, E. Björnson, M. Tao, and Y. Mostofi

Wireless 6G Connectivity for Massive Number of Devices and Critical Services

By A. E. Kalør, G. Durisi, S. Coleri, S. Parkvall, W. Yu, A. Mueller, and P. Popovski

This article examines how the two flagship 5G service classes massive-machine-type communications (mMTC) and ultrareliable low-latency communications (URLLC)] are expected to evolve in 6G systems.

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)-Native Wireless Systems: A Journey Beyond 6G

By W. Saad, O. Hashash, C. K. Thomas, C. Chaccour, M. Debbah, N. Mandayam, and Z. Han

This article presents a vision for next-generation wireless systems using artificial general intelligence (AGI)-native networks, going beyond conventional AI-native approaches.

Joint Source–Channel Coding: Fundamentals and Recent Progress in Practical Designs

By D. Gündüz, M. A. Wigger, T.-Y. Tung, P. Zhang, and Y. Xiao

This article discusses semantic- and task-oriented communication as a means to reduce latency and bandwidth in next-generation networks by transmitting only information relevant to a specific task.

The Evolution of Applications, Hardware Design, and Channel Modeling for Terahertz (THz) Band Communications and Sensing: Ready for 6G?

By J. M. Jornet, V. Petrov, H. Wang, Z. Popovi´c, D. Shakya, J. V. Siles, and T. S. Rappaport

This article provides a comprehensive roadmap for terahertz wireless communication, a frequency band historically used for radar, imaging, and spectroscopy but limited for wireless due to hardware challenges and lack of immediate need.

Uncrewed Vehicles in 6G Networks: A Unifying Treatment of Problems, Formulations, and Tools

By W. Hurst, S. Evmorfos, A. Petropulu, and Y. Mostof

This article explores the role of uncrewed vehicles as autonomous agents in 6G wireless networks.

A Vision, Survey, and Roadmap Toward Space Communications in the 6G and Beyond Era

By K. Ntontin, E. Lagunas, J. Querol, J. ur Rehman, J. Grotz, S. Chatzinotas, and B. Ottersten

This article provides a forward-looking vision of satellite communications beyond 2030, highlighting technological advancements and use cases.

Quantum Information Processing, Sensing, and Communications: Their Myths, Realities, and Futures

By L. Hanzo, Z. Babar, Z. Cai, D. Chandra, I. B. Djordjevic, B. Koczor, S. X. Ng, M. Razavi, and O. Simeone

This article surveys recent advances in quantum information processing, sensing, and communications, identifying knowledge gaps and proposing a roadmap for future development.

Federated Edge Learning for 6G: Foundations, Methodologies, and Applications

By M. Tao, Y. Zhou, Y. Shi, J. Lu, S. Cui, J. Lu and K. B. Letaief

This article examines the role of federated edge learning in enabling AI-native 6G networks.