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 Intelligent IoT for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Industries
Submission Date: 2025-05-15

Agriculture and food industries are the cornerstones of human society. Unfortunately, modern agriculture and food industries confront many challenges and are far from sustainable. Many waste and carbon emissions are generated, and resource usage is not optimized in the agriculture and food industries. Luckily, the importance of sustainable agriculture and food industries has been well-recognized and has been included in the second goal (together with the other 16 goals) of sustainable development by the United Nations. On the way to sustainable agriculture and food industries, intelligent IoT technologies will play significant roles. It is expected that intelligent IoT will enable innovative solutions to promote waste reduction, carbon reduction, resource usage optimization, improved productivity, etc. Meanwhile, there are still significant technical challenges for intelligent IoTs in sustainable agriculture and food industries, such as the lack of commonly accepted IoT architecture, the security issues of IoT-enabled applications, and the optimal integration of diverse technologies. With these motivations, this special issue seeks innovative and groundbreaking intelligent IoT technologies and pioneering applications for sustainable agriculture and food industries.

Topics include, but are not limited to the following:
 Intelligent IoT architecture for sustainable agriculture and food industries
 Edge computing-enabled IoT for sustainable agriculture and food industries
 Artificial intelligence-enabled IoT for sustainable agriculture and food industries
 Cloud-native IoT in sustainable agriculture and food industries
 Blockchain-enabled IoT for sustainable agriculture and food industries
 Security and trustworthy IoT for sustainable agriculture and food industries
 Biodegradable and eco-friendly IoT for sustainable agriculture and food industries
 Intelligent IoT for carbon reduction in agriculture and food industries
 Intelligent IoT for waste reduction in agriculture and food industries
 Intelligent IoT for supply chain optimization in agriculture and food industries
 Next-generation IoT for sustainable agriculture and food industries
 etc.

Important Dates:
Submission Deadline: May 15, 2025
First Review Due: Jul. 15, 2025
Revision Due: Aug. 15, 2025
Sec. Reviews Due/Notification: Sept.15, 2025
Final Manuscript Due: Sept. 30, 2025
Publication Date: December 2025

Submission Guidelines:
All original manuscripts or revisions to the IEEE IoT Journal must be submitted electronically through IEEE Manuscript Central, https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/iot. When the authors reach the “Article Type” step in the submission process, they should select “SI: Intelligent IoT for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Industries”. Solicited original submissions must not be currently under consideration for publication in other venues. Author guidelines and submission information can be
found at http://ieee-iotj.org/guidelines-for-authors/.

Guest Editors:
Prof. Yuemin Ding, University of Navarra, Spain, email: yueminding@unav.es (lead guest editor)
Dr. Zhibo Pang, ABB & KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, email: pang.zhibo@se.abb.com
Dr. Yu Liu, Ericsson Research, Sweden, email: yu.a.liu@ericsson.com
Dr. Kan Yu, La Trobe University, Australia, email: K.Yu@latrobe.edu.au
Prof. Fei Pan, Sichuan Agricultural University, China, Email: fei.pan@sicau.edu.cn

Special Issue on Integrated Transmissions and Computations for Non-Terrestrial Network-assisted Internet of Things
Submission Date: 2025-05-15

Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTNs) have advantages to complement the terrestrial
networks in coverage and flexibility, especially for Internet of Things (IoT) in harsh
environments including desert, marine, and mountainous regions. Future NTNs can
support not only the information transmissions but also real-time data processing with
the improved computation capacity of state-of-the-art satellites and Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles (UAVs). Moreover, future intelligent and diversified IoT applications
demand the optimization of both transmissions and computations. However, the high
dynamics, differentiated communication conditions, and heterogeneous hardware
platforms of NTNs, as well as the diversified service requirements, uneven
distributions, and the limited IoT device batteries, pose significant challenges for
network and performance optimization.

To optimize the provided Integrated Transmissions And Computations (ITAC)
services, extensive research can be conducted from the topics including network
architecture design, protocol design, resource allocation, task offloading, hardware
design, etc. Thus, topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

 Network architecture design for NTNs and IoT integration
 Scalable and adaptive NTN architectures design for harsh environments
 Deployment of satellites and UAVs for seamless ITAC service provision
 Terahertz and FSO communications in NTNs for ITAC services
 Access, handover, routing, and switching protocols for NTN-assisted IoTs
 Hierarchical computing and caching techniques
 Energy issues in NTN-assisted IoTs for ITAC services
 Privacy-preserving techniques for computation and transmission in NTNs
 AI, Generative AI, and Large Language Models (LLMs) for NTN-assisted IoT
 Digital twin/metaverse-based simulation platforms in NTN-assisted IoTs

Guest Editors:

Bomin Mao, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China, maobomin@nwpu.edu.cn
Shuai Han, Harbin Institute of Technology, China, hanshuai@hit.edu.cn
Yuanqiu Luo, Futurewei Technologies, Inc., USA, Yuanqiu.Luo@futurewei.com
Igor Bisio, University of Genoa, Italy, igor.bisio@unige.it
Ekram Hossain, University of Manitoba, Canada, ekram.hossain@umanitoba.ca

Important Dates:

Submission Deadline: May 15th, 2025 
First Reviews Due: August 15th, 2025 
Revision Due: October 15th, 2025 
Final Reviews Due: November 15th, 2025
Final Manuscript Due: November 30th, 2025
Publication Date: January 2026

Submission Guidelines:

The submission information is available at http://ieeeiotj.org/guidelines-for-authors/.
All original manuscripts and revisions must be submitted electronically through IEEE
Manuscript Central, http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/iot, with the selection “Special
Issue on Integrated Transmissions and Computations for Non-Terrestrial
Network-assisted Internet of Things” for the type.

Special Issue on Challenges and Opportunities of IoT-based Healthcare Industry 5.0
Submission Date: 2025-05-31

Healthcare Industry 5.0 refers to the fifth industrial revolution in the healthcare field, in which the specific needs of patients and healthcare providers can be met. In the past, Industry 4.0 facilitated the implementation of mass customization, but this alone was insufficient. Presently, the healthcare sector is seeking to achieve mass personalization while maintaining a human touch. Therefore, Healthcare Industry 5.0 facilitates the transition from mass customization to mass personalization. It offers a customized product to patients and healthcare professionals based on their individual needs. Cloud computing, blockchain, big data analytics, the IoT, and 6G networks are some of the enabling technologies for Healthcare Industry 5.0.

Amidst the current paradigm shift, a sensor or IoT equipped with artificial intelligence will expeditiously analyze the data. Machines will possess the adaptability to make sophisticated decisions based on the requirements of patients. Within the medical domain, these technologies can accurately measure and monitor many physiological parameters of the human body according to the specific needs of the patient. This aids in monitoring the body's reaction with enhanced efficiency. It facilitates the integration of healthcare services and enables the accurate and efficient digital sharing of information.

Although Industry 5.0 offers several benefits, its implementation in healthcare faces challenges such as the need for a robust infrastructure, concerns over data protection, and ethical considerations. However, the healthcare industry is expected to undergo substantial progress in the near future as a result of the ongoing improvements in Industry 5.0. The proposed SI will cover the broad spectrum of Healthcare Industry 5.0. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

• IoT Protocols for Healthcare Industry 5.0
• Disease diagnosis for automated monitoring of health
• IoTs for optimized healthcare
• IoT-based precision medicare
• Embedded healthcare systems
• Big Data Analytics for Healthcare Industry 5.0
• Edge and cloud collaboration for IoT-based Healthcare Industry 5.0
• Enabling B5G/6G in IoT-based Healthcare Industry 5.0
• Privacy and security in IoT-based Healthcare Industry 5.0
• Innovative IoT applications for Healthcare Industry 5.0

Submission Guidelines:
All original manuscripts or revisions to the IEEE IoT Journal must be submitted electronically through IEEE Manuscript Central, http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/iot. Solicited original submissions must not be currently under consideration for publication in other venues. Author guidelines and submission information can be found at http://ieee-iotj.org/guidelines-for-authors/.

Important dates:
• Submission Deadline: May 31st, 2025
• First Review Due: July 15th, 2025
• Revision Due: August 15th, 2025
• Second Reviews Due/Notification: September 15th, 2025
• Final Manuscript Due: October 15th, 2025
• Publication date: December 2025

Guest editors
Ghulam Muhammad, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. Email: ghulam@ksu.edu.sa
Victor C.M. Leung, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Email: VLeung@ece.ubc.ca
Cheng-Xiang Wang, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. Email: chxwang@seu.edu.cn
Danda B. Rawat, Howard University, Washington, D.C., United States. Email: db.rawat@ieee.org
Jalel Ben Othman, University of Paris 13, France. Email: jalel.benothman@centralesupelec.f

Special Issue on Augmented Edge Sensing Intelligence for Low-Altitude IoT Systems
Submission Date: 2025-06-15

With the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), low-altitude systems such as drones, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and other aerial devices have garnered significant attention due to their unique capabilities and applications in environmental monitoring, disaster management and smart city implementations. The deployment and efficacy of low-altitude IoT systems hinge critically on the seamless integration of sensing and intelligence. However, the existing solutions encounter several challenges. First, the isolated-point wireless sensing by low-altitude nodes without network connectivity lacks data awareness, reducing overall sensing effectiveness. Meanwhile, the vast amounts of complex sensory data necessitate advanced processing capabilities to interpret the data accurately and efficiently. Then, traditional cloud-based data processing requires cross-domain communication, which risks data leakage and long response delays and thus is particularly impertinent for low-altitude IoT systems operating in dynamic and often unpredictable environments.

These observations motivate the emerging research theme of edge sensing intelligence, which refers to the integration of edge artificial intelligence (AI) and wireless sensing at the network edge. This fusion aims to achieve fast data processing and decision-making, offering advantages of reducing data transmission latency, enhancing data privacy and security, and lowering computing costs. Typically, base stations (BSs) and IoT devices leverage existing communication signal formats to perform uplink and downlink sensing in a task-oriented manner aligned with specific objectives. This approach facilitates subsequent data processing and decision-making, enabling the edge network to directly access massive real-time and diverse data. Such access contributes to real-time responsiveness, optimization of resource allocation, and implementation of privacy/security measures, while also driving the development of novel applications. As the intersection of edge AI and wireless sensing, edge sensing intelligence represents a groundbreaking paradigm where data is not only collected directly at the edge network but also wirelessly transmitted and intelligently processed.

The revolution of existing architecture necessitates a rethinking of current low-altitude IoT network in terms of fundamental limits and tradeoffs, hardware integration, information extraction, processing technologies, learning principles, and emerging challenges related to public security and privacy. This special issue aims to provide a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art technologies and theories for integrating wireless sensing and AI in low-altitude IoT systems. It will provide a forum for the latest research, innovations, and applications of edge sensing intelligence technologies in these systems, helping to bridge the gap between theory and practice. We solicit high-quality original research papers on topics including, but not limited to:

• Fundamental limits for edge sensing intelligence in low-altitude IoT networks
• Low-altitude IoT Network architectures/transmission protocols/frame designs for edge sensing intelligence
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data-driven designs for edge sensing intelligence
• Cloud/edge computing and task/data/computation offloading for edge sensing intelligence
• Waveform/receiver design for edge sensing intelligence in low-altitude IoT networks
• Security and privacy issues of edge sensing intelligence for low-altitude IoT applications
• Machine learning methods in edge sensing intelligence for low-altitude IoT connectivity
• Massive MIMO/Intelligent Reflecting Surface (IRS)/holographic MIMO surface for edge sensing intelligence in low-altitude IoT systems
• Standardization progress of edge sensing intelligence for low-altitude IoT
• Experimental demonstrations and prototypes of edge sensing intelligence for low-altitude IoT

Important Dates
• Manuscript Submission Deadline: June 15th, 2025
• First Review Due: August 20th, 2025
• Revised Manuscript Due: October 10th, 2025
• Acceptance Notification: November 20th, 2025
• Final Manuscript Due: December 15th, 2025
• Publication Date: February 2026

Guest Editors
Yuanhao Cui, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China, email: cuiyuanhao@bupt.edu.cn
Derrick Wing Kwan Ng, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, email: w.k.ng@unsw.edu.au
Weijie Yuan, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China, email: yuanwj@sustech.edu.cn
Dusit (Tao) Niyato, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, email: dniyato@ntu.edu.sg
Naofal Al-Dhahir, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, US, email: aldhahir@utdallas.edu

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)