Home page of journal: http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/1530-8669/


                WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS AND MOBILE COMPUTING 
                                                                
                                                                
                         Special Issue Announcement 
                                                                
          Radio Link and Transport Protocol Engineering for Future-
                  Generation Wireless Mobile Data Networks  

                                Guest Editors 
                VICTOR C. M. LEUNG, University of British Columbia, Canada 
                vleung@ece.ubc.ca 

                EKRAM HOSSAIN, University of Manitoba, Canada 
                ekram@ee.umanitoba.ca 

                SHAHROKH VALAEE, University of Toronto, Canada 
                valaee@comm.utoronto.ca 
                 

 
The emergence of wireless packet data applications (e.g., wireless web access, interactive and real-
time mobile multimedia applications, wireless interactive gaming, client-server applications) is the key 
driver for the evolution of future-generation wireless networks from the current 2G/3G systems. To 
support such applications, efficient and intelligent engineering of protocols at different layers in the 
protocol stack with the wireless network in mind, and the development of related concepts and 
technologies will be essential. While in wired networks the applications and protocols are quite fine 
tuned, the unique characteristics of wireless networks such as user mobility, frequent link failure, limited 
link capacity, and limited battery and computational resources of mobile devices pose significant 
challenges in designing link-level and transport protocols for future-generation high-speed wireless data 
networks. We can identify several challenges as follows: 
 
Protocol adaptation: Designing radio link-level protocols to accommodate highly heterogeneous and 
time-varying QoS in a dynamic environment is a big hurdle. Development of efficient and dynamic link 
adaptation protocols, especially for the evolving WCDMA-based air interface, is particularly challenging 
and has recently received significant attention although there are still many open research issues. The 
design and analysis of transport protocols and investigating whether TCP (Transmission Control 
Protocol) is suitable and efficient for reliable data networking over such a dynamically adapting link-
layer is a significant research issue.  
 
Cross-layer protocol interaction: Protocol engineering to optimize the performance of the 
transmission protocol stack would require a better understanding of the interaction between different 
layers (e.g., impact of link adaptation on end-to-end throughput, fairness, energy efficiency of the link 
and transport layer protocols). Designing appropriate adaptation mechanisms for transport and 
application-layer protocols taking into account user preferences, mobility and wireless channel 
characteristics is also a significant research issue. 
 
Other issues: The limited battery resources in mobile data terminals demand an energy-centric 
approach to link and transport protocol engineering. Incorporating proxy services to alleviate some of 
these problems is another important issue in protocol engineering for future wireless data networks.  
 
The emphasis of the special issue will be on design, analysis, and simulation of medium access control, 
radio link control and transport protocols, protocol adaptation to the wireless channel, user preferences, 
and mobility, and implementation of proxy services for future-generation high-speed wireless cellular 
and ad hoc networks. Papers in the following three main categories - survey/tutorial, 
industrial/applications, and research/technical are sought. The topics of interest include but are not 
limited to: 
 

     ·  Differentiated services (Diffserv)/QoS MAC protocols for wireless cellular/ad hoc networks 
     ·  Dynamic radio link adaptation in wireless cellular/ad hoc networks 
     ·  Transport protocols (reliable/unreliable) for narrowband/wideband cellular/ad hoc wireless 
        systems 
     ·  Multicasting in mobile ad hoc networks 
     ·  Interaction between radio link and transport protocols in cellular/ad hoc wireless networks 
     ·  Protocol adaptation in cellular/ad hoc  wireless networks 
     ·  Energy-efficient protocol design for cellular/ad hoc  wireless networks 
     ·  Proxy functions and services in wide-area wireless networks 
     ·  Standardization activities 
 
The guest editors encourage the authors to submit their manuscripts as an email attachment to one of 
the guest editors, or to provide a URL with a PDF or postscript version of their manuscript. Detailed 
instructions to authors can be found in: 
http://www.interscience.wiley.com/jpages/1530-8669/authors.html 
 
Schedule: 

Start of submission: 1 May 2004 
Submission deadline: 1 August 2004 
Notification of acceptance: 1 November 2004 
Camera-ready papers: 31 December, 2004 
Publication: April 2005