B5G/6G support for space/air/ground/marine/submarine cooperative, connected, and autonomous vehicles

Co-located with the IEEE 98th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2023-Fall)

Hong Kong | 10-13 October 2023

Scope

Cooperative, connected, and autonomous vehicles (CCAVs) have attracted tremendous research attention from both academia and industry, aiming at delivering a “society in motion” featured with unprecedented travel experience and significantly enhanced traffic efficiency and safety. The potential of the fifth generation (5G) of mobile networks to support CCAVs has been established from numerous seminal studies and field trials. From an initial interest in the ground segment to a new trend in exploring other domains (e.g., space, air and water), CCAVs have been pivotal to enable ubiquitous, seamless, and scalable mobility. In this context, the aim of this workshop is to assess the capabilities of beyond 5G (B5G) and sixth generation (6G) mobile networks to support CCAVs across all possible (i.e., space, air, ground, marine and submarine) segments. First, the workshop will identify the gaps of the existing 5G solutions in supporting the cooperation, connectivity, and autonomy elements of CCAVs. Second, the workshop will disseminate the latest findings and solutions assessing the capabilities of future B5G/6G networks in filling those gaps arising from a variety of CCAV use cases. Third, the workshop will analyse and discuss pressing challenges and future trends in the development, testing and deployment of CCAVs from various perspectives, including new algorithms, metrics, tools, and materials.

Topics

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

B5G/6G integration of space/air/ground/marine/submarine domains for ubiquitous, seamless, and scalable mobility;
B5G/6G satellites (i.e., VLEO, LEO, MEO and GEO) support for CCAVs;
B5G/6G high altitude platforms (HAPs) support for CCAVs;
B5G/6G unmanned aerial vehicles (aka drones) support for CCAVs;
B5G/6G integration of terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks (NTN) for CCAVs;
Next-generation vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications for CCAVs;
B5G/6G subnetworks for CCAVs;
B5G/6G combined communications, computation, positioning and sensing (CCPS) for CCAVs;
Advanced 5G/6G networking features (e.g., network slicing, Open RAN and mutli-access edge computing (MEC)) for CCAVs;
Licensed, lightly licensed (i.e., shared), and unlicensed spectrum for CCAVs;
AI/ML-assisted connectivity, cooperation, and autonomy for CCAVs;
Digital Twins for CCAVs;
Software-defined CCAVs;
B5G/6G-assisted swarm intelligence for CCAVs;
B5G/6G-assisted enhanced positioning and navigation for CCAVs;
B5G/6G-assisted enhanced safety for CCAVs;
B5G/6G-assisted security and threat analytics for CCAVs;
Traffic management systems for manned/unmanned CCAVs;
Innovative B5G/6G-enabled CCAV use cases;
B5G/6G enablers (e.g., THz communications, joint sensing and communications (JSC) and intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRS)) for CCAVs;
CCAVs as enablers for B5G/6G (e.g., for extension, monitoring and maintaining of infrastructure);
Joint design of B5G/6G networks and CCAVs;
Testbeds, experimental evaluations, and field trials of B5G/6G-enabled CCAV use cases.