IEEE Access Special Section Editorial: 5G Wireless Technologies: Perspectives on the Next Generation of Mobile Communications and Networking

To meet the requirements of 5G on enabling higher capacity, faster rates, more connectivity, higher reliability, lower latency, greater versatility, and application-domain specific topologies, new concepts and design approaches are in great need. Current standards for 4G may influence the introduction of radio features and network solutions for 5G systems. New network architectures extending beyond heterogeneous networks and exploiting new frequency spectra (e.g., millimeter wave) are emerging from research laboratories around the world. In addition to the network side, advanced terminals and receivers are being developed to optimize network performances. Splitting the control and data planes [currently studied in 3G Partnership Project (3GPP)] is an interesting paradigm for 5G, together with massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO), advanced antenna systems, software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), the Internet of Things, and cloud computing. Also, new radio protocols enabling heterogeneous traffics are required.