Guest Editorial: Introduction to the Special Section on Advanced Networking Technologies in the Battle Against the Outbreak of Epidemic Diseases

The papers in this special section focus on advanced networking technologies used to combat the outbreak of epidemic diseases. Currently, COVID-19 is a major global public health challenge. Worse, this epidemic could last for 2 years, according to US experts. To address it, scientific research institutions attempt to actively leveraged networking technologies to fight the epidemic disease, which have effectively improved the efficiency of epidemic monitoring, virus tracking, prevention, control and treatment, and resource allocation. For example, to make full use of the resources of medical experts, the remote consultation system, supporting live-streaming video and telemedicine by 5G, cloud computing, blockchain and other networking- related technologies, has been quickly implemented in many hospitals all over the world. Although networking technologies have played an important role in the epidemic prevention and control, new challenges arise when billions of people around the world have been ordered to stay at home to help curb the epidemic disease.