IEEE Access Special Section Editorial: Complex Network Analysis and Engineering in 5G and Beyond Toward 6G

Modern telecommunication networks represent a large-scale construction and deployment effort, with renovations occurring almost continuously over the course of decades. The resulting networks consist of numerous dimensions, each following its own trajectory of development, commingled into a complex ecosystem. Typical attributes used to characterize networks (e.g., interference, coverage, throughput, robustness, and cost) fail to fully capture a key feature of future wireless networks, namely the degree of organization. This is increasingly important when we consider the trajectory of the evolution of 5G and beyond networks with respect to densification, heterogeneity, and distributed and self-organizing decision-making.