Competetion Tracks

Chair: Roberto Sabatini (AESS VP-TO)

Vice Chair: Trung Q. Duong

Committee Member: Mohamed Slim Alouini, Baha Eddine Youcef BELMEKKI, Xiangrong Wang, Giancarmine Fasano, Weijie Yuan, Maria Sabrina Greco, Braham Himed, Yanbo Huang, Gokhan Inalhan, Jiacheng Wang, Dong In Kim, Andreas Knopp, Fan Liu, Gunes Karabulut Kurt, Shuangyang Li, Sofie Pollin, Jun Wu, Luca Manica. 

Secretary: Sasinda C. Prabhashana

Publicity: Mahdi B Mashhadi (Europe), Changyuan Zhao (Asia Pacific), Shuhao Zeng (America).

Technical Scope

A. Network Architectures & Protocols

• Flying Ad-Hoc Networks (FANETs) and UAV swarm topologies.  

• Seamless integration of aerial networks with terrestrial 5G/6G, satellite, and High-Altitude Platform Station (HAPS) systems. 

• Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) for dynamic airspace management.  

• Novel routing protocols and delay-tolerant networking for disconnected or sparse aerial environments. 

B. Physical Layer, Antennas & Propagation

• Air-to-Ground (A2G) and Air-to-Air (A2A) channel modeling in 3D, high- mobility, and urban environments.  

• Advanced modulation and waveform design (e.g., OTFS, OFDM) to combat severe Doppler shifts and multipath fading.  

• Aerial deployment of Massive MIMO, mmWave, Terahertz (THz) communications, and Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS). 

• Lightweight, conformal, and energy-efficient antenna designs for UAVs and eVTOLs. 

C. Integrated Sensing, Navigation & Control

• Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC) for autonomous UAV operations and collision avoidance.  

• Centimeter-level positioning and navigation in GNSS-denied or degraded environments.

• Joint communication and trajectory optimization for automated command- and-control (C2).

D. Security, Privacy & Resilience

• Physical layer security and anti-jamming techniques for resilient C2 links. 

• Aerospace cyber-physical security, intrusion detection, and secure identity management for uncrewed traffic management (UTM)

• Privacy-preserving communication protocols for data-gathering drones. 

E. Edge Computing & AI/ML Interventions

• Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) deployed on UAVs or low-altitude platforms.  

• Distributed AI, federated learning, and machine learning models for dynamic spectrum sharing and resource allocation.  

• Energy-efficient operations and SWaP (Size, Weight, and Power) constrained network intelligence. 

F. Emerging Applications & Operations

• Communication solutions explicitly tailored for Urban Air Mobility (UAM), automated logistics, and flying taxis.  

• Mission-critical LAWN deployments for disaster response, search and rescue, and remote Earth observation. 

• Regulatory compliance, spectrum coexistence, and standardization frameworks (e.g., IEEE, 3GPP) for low-altitude operations.  

Evaluation Criteria

All submissions will be evaluated by a dedicated TPC using a standardized 100-point scoring framework. The criteria are designed to ensure a balanced assessment of scientific quality, practical relevance, and broader impact in the context of LAWN.

• Technical Rigor and Innovation (30 points)

• Practicality and Feasibility (20 points)

• Societal and Industrial Impact (10 points)

• Quality and Credibility of Results (15 points)

• Presentation and Clarity (10 points)

• Reproducibility, Openness, and Demonstration Quality (15 points)

Each submission will be evaluated by at least two independent reviewers without conflict of interest (CoI). The TPC will form an award panel to decide the finalist.