Purpose and Scope

The IEEE IoT Journal (IoT-J), launched in 2014 (“Genesis of the IoT-J“), publishes papers on the latest advances, as well as review articles, on the various aspects of IoT. Topics include IoT system architecture, IoT enabling technologies, IoT communication and networking protocols, IoT services and applications, and the social implications of IoT. Examples are IoT demands, impacts, and implications on sensors technologies, big data management, and future internet design for various IoT use cases, such as smart cities, smart environments, smart homes, etc. The fields of interest include:

    IoT architectures such as things-centric, data-centric, service-centric architecture, CPS and SCADA platforms, future Internet design for IoT, cloud-based IoT, and system security and manageability.
    IoT enabling technologies such as sensors, radio frequency identification, low power and energy harvesting, sensor networks, machine-type communication, resource-constrained networks, real-time systems, IoT data analytics, in situ processing, and embedded software.
    IoT services, applications, standards, and test-beds such as streaming data management and mining platforms, service middleware, open service platform, semantic service management, security and privacy-preserving protocols, design examples of smart services and applications, and IoT application support.

Editor-in-Chief

Nei Kato, Tohoku University, Japan (Email: eic-iotj.is@grp.tohoku.ac.jp)

Special Issue on Responsible and Trustworthy AI for 6G Internet of Things (6G-IoT)
Submission Date: 2025-06-30

As the fifth generation of communication systems (5G) has been realized worldwide, industry
leaders and researchers are working towards the design and development of sixth generation
communication systems (6G). The idea is to make the next generation of communication systems
more reliable, faster, and able to accommodate a large number of devices. The data rate for the
6G system is estimated to be in terabits per second (Tbps), which is not possible to achieve with
the current generation of communication system.

On the other hand, Internet of Things (IoT) has entered into an era where billions of devices are
being used in the context of autonomous vehicles, industrial machines, wearable devices, and
smart sensors, respectively. All of the IoT devices are capable of not only communicating with
each other but also have the capability of exchanging data as well as services. It is said that IoT
will be an enabling technology for 6G networks. However, it is also true for the other way around.
Currently, IoT is constrained by the limited capability of 5G network, thus restricting the potential
of IoT. The emergence of 6G networks will provide the base infrastructure for the IoT to venture
into new territories. The 6G will enable real-time communication between cloud servers and IoT
devices along with ultra-low latency and increased bandwidth. The aforementioned
characteristics will lay the foundation for complex applications including smart cities, traffic flow
optimization, and mission-critical IoT applications. Studies have been proposed already for the
hypothetical design of such applications.

However, many studies have recently emphasized the IMT 2030 6G vision and EU AI Act that
focuses on the responsible and trustworthiness of Artificial Intelligence (AI) models and services,
which is a core part of both the 6G and current IoT systems. The importance of responsible and
trustworthiness of AI models and services in integrated 6G and IoT (6G-IoT) networks have been
highlighted by several communication companies and standard organizations such as Huawei,
Ericsson, Nokia, China Mobile, IEEE, ETSI, and 3GPP, in their white papers, proposals, and
initiatives. Furthermore, EU AI ACT heavily emphasizes the reliability and trustworthiness of AI
models when used for 6G-IoT services.

Although there is a lot of hype around the Reliable and Trustworthy AI for 6G-IoT services, the
clarity on its role, characteristics, and implementation is still an open issue. Some researchers
equate Reliability and Trustworthiness to Security and privacy, while others confuse it with
explainability and reduction of biases. Another important issue around reliability and
trustworthiness is the lack of indicators and metrics to measure the performance. This special
issue tends to address both of the aforementioned issues from industry and academia
perspectives. The objective of this special issue is to attract papers that provide theories,
standards, technologies, and applications concerning the Reliability and Trustworthiness of AI
for 6G-IoT services. The special issue will also welcome high-quality review articles for defining
the roles or Reliable and Trustworthy AI services in the context of 6G and IoT applications.
Potential topics of interest but not limited to are as follows:

• Standardization and Guidelines for Reliable and Trustworthy AI services.
• Evaluation and Testing for Reliable and Trustworthy 6G-IoT.
• Integration of Reliability and Trustworthiness in 6G-IoT architecture.
• Machine Learning techniques for Reliable and Trustworthy 6G-IoT.
• Definition of Reliable and Trustworthy 6G-IoT from the lens of EU AI ACT.
• Industrial Adaptation of Reliable and Trustworthy 6G-IoT.
• Distribution learning technology for Reliable and Trustworthy 6G-IoT.
• New Architectures and Frameworks for Reliable and Trustworthy 6G-IoT.
• Explainability of AI models for Reliable and Trustworthy 6G-IoT.

Guest Editors
• Kapal Dev (IEEE Senior Member) Munster Technological University, Ireland
Email: Kapal.dev@ieee.org
• Soumaya Cherkaoui (IEEE Senior Member), Polytechnique Montreal, Canada
Email: soumaya.cherkaoui@polymtl.ca
• Sunder Ali Khowaja (IEEE Senior Member) Technological University Dublin, Ireland.
Email: sunderali.khowaja@tudublin.ie
• Cedric Westphal, (IEEE Senior Member) University of California, Santa Cruz, USA Email:
cwestphal@gmail.com
• Guangjie Han (Fellow, IEEE), Hohai University, Changzhou, China
Email: hanguangjie@ieee.org
• Aruna Prasad Seneviratne, (IEEE Senior Member) University of New South Wales,
Australia. Email: a.seneviratne@unsw.edu.au

Important Dates
• Submission Deadline: June 30th, 2025
• Initial Decision Date: August 15, 2025
• Revised Manuscript Due: September15, 2025
• Second Reviews Due/Final Decision Date: November 15th, 2025
• Final Manuscript Due: December 31st, 2025
• Publication Date: March 2026

Submission Guidelines
All original manuscripts and revisions must be submitted electronically through IEEE author
portal: https://ieee.atyponrex.com/journal/iot. Solicited original submissions must not be
currently under consideration for publication in other venues. Author guidelines and submission
information can be found at https://ieee-iotj.org/

Special Issue on Intent-based Networking for AI powered IoT Communications
Submission Date: 2025-07-15

In recent years, the demand for wireless communication has witnessed a tremendous growth which
has shifted the focus of research fraternities towards big data analytics (BDA). This technological
trend has put significant pressure on data center providers to create the next-generation wireless
communication infrastructures, which can provide more flexible services regarding end-to-end
latency and reliability. In this direction, Intent-based Networking (IBN) has been evolving as a
promising solution where a specialized software seamlessly plans, designs and implements the
changes in the network. Numerous high-computing networking paradigms like Software Defined
Networks and Network Function Virtualization have already gained much attention in the recent years,
but their device-to-device management strategy often falls short while dealing with the advanced
wireless communication technologies like 5G. Further, investigating new software interfaces between
ML and the IoT is crucial for enhancing the functionality and efficiency of interconnected devices.
The investigation of these interfaces not only enhances the operational efficiency of IoT devices but
will also contributes to creating more intelligent, interconnected, and energy-efficient ecosystems.
Thus, the objective of this special issue focuses on exploring the recent advances in wireless
communication networks while addressing the practical challenges and limitations associated with
current state-of-the-art architectures. This special issue aims to bring together leading researchers and
developers to present their experimental, conceptual, and theoretical contributions for amalgamating
IBN for AI powered IoT communications. Particular emphasis is placed on novel solutions which are
not just the evolution of 5G but also act as key drivers for the next generation communication
networks.

Suitable topics include, but are not limited to following areas:
• New framework, algorithms, and protocol designs for IBN-based big data communications
• Security, privacy and fault detection
• Emerging technologies on AI and Machine Learning (ML) for future IoT communications
• IBN in mobile data offloading
• IBN in emerging networks like flying ad-hoc networks, vehicular networks, smart grids, etc.
• Emerging IoT and cloud applications
• Mission-critical applications like smart grid, industry automation, health-care, etc.
• IBN inspired MAC and routing protocols
• Big data analytics frameworks
• Deep learning and federated learning for network control and communications
• AI and ML algorithms for network management
• Software interfaces for integrating AI/ML with IoT
• Protocol design and optimization
• Energy-efficient solutions and their integration to network architectures
• Results from experiments, testbeds, and simulations
• Other concepts and technologies

Important Dates
Submission Deadline: July 15, 2025
First Review Due: September 15, 2025
Revision Due: November 15, 2025
Sec. Reviews Due/Notification: December 15, 2025
Final Manuscript Due: January 15, 2026
Publication Date: March 2026

Submission Guidelines
All original manuscripts or revisions to the IEEE IoT Journal must be submitted electronically
through IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL AUTHOR PORTAL SUBMISSION SITE.
When the authors reach the “Article Type” step in the submission process, they should select “Special
Issue on Intent-based Networking for AI powered IoT Communications”. Solicited original
submissions must not be currently under consideration for publication in other venues. Author
guidelines and submission information can be found at https://ieee-iotj.org/guidelines-for-authors/.

Guest Editors
-Sahil Garg, École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS), Montreal, Canada (Email: sahil.garg@ieee.org)
-Ranga Rao Venkatesha Prasad, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands (Email: r.r.venkateshaprasad@tudelft.nl)
-Fabrizio Granelli, University of Trento, Italy (Email: fabrizio.granelli@unitn.it)
-Shui Yu, University of Technology, Sydney (Email: shui.yu@uts.edu.au)