W21 – Workshop on Mission Critical and Emergency Communications
Co-organizer: Jingqing Wang, Xidian University, China
Co-organizer: Abderrahim Benslimane, Avignon University, France
Co-organizer: Antonio Capone, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Co-organizer: Anirban Bhowal, NIT Rourkela, India
Co-organizer: Lixin Li, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China
Co-organizer: Hichan Moon, Hanyang University, South Korea
Co-organizer: Qinghe Du, Xi’an Jiaotong University, China
Co-organizer: Wenchi Cheng, Xidian University, China
Abstract: The advent of 5G and the prospect for 6G have paved the way for new applications in mission critical and emergency communications, including disaster monitoring/response, train/traffic controls and public safety. In scenarios such as natural disasters, large-scale accidents, extreme environments, or security threats, communication systems must remain highly reliable, resilient, low-latency, secure, and intelligent, even when conventional infrastructure is damaged, unavailable, or under attack. Emerging technologies such as AI-native wireless networks, ground-air-space integrated communications, satellite and High Altitude Platforms (HAPs)-based systems, high-accuracy positioning and sensing, and enhanced security are redefining how critical missions are supported. These technologies are essential for applications including disaster monitoring and rescue, public safety communications, autonomous vehicles and drones, train and traffic control, and navigation in GPS-denied or harsh environments.
Co-organizer’s Bios:
Jingqing Wang:
Jingqing Wang (M’23) received the B.S. degree from Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China, in Electronics and Information Engineering and the Ph.D. degree from Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA, in Computer Engineering in 2022. She is currently a Jingying assistant professor at Xidian University. She has published more than 60 international journal and conference papers in IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS, IEEE magazines, IEEE TRANSACTIONS, IEEE INFOCOM, GLOBECOM, WCNC, and ICC. She won the Best Paper Award from the IEEE GLOBECOM in 2020 and 2014, respectively. Her current research interests focus on next generation mobile wireless network technologies, statistical QoS provisioning, 6G mURLLC, information-theoretic analyses of FBC, and emerging machine learning techniques.
Abderrahim Benslimane:
Abderrahim Benslimane is Full Professor of Computer-Science at the Avignon University/France since 2001. He is Former vice Dean of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology and Former head of the master Degree SICOM. He has been nominated in 2020, 2022, and 2024 as IEEE VTS Distinguished Lecturer/Speaker. He is awarded the French award for Doctoral supervision and Research. He has been an International Expert at the French Ministry of Foreign and European affairs (2012-2016). He served as a Vice Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and head of the Research Center in Informatics at the French University in Egypt. He was attributed the French award of Scientific Excellency (2011-2014). He has been as Associate Professor at the University of Technology of Belfort- Montbéliard since September 1994. He obtained the title to supervise researches (HDR 2000) from the University of Cergy-Pontoise, France. He received the PhD degree (1993), DEA (MS 1989) from the Franche-Comte University of Besançon, and BS (1987) from the University of Nancy, all in Computer Science. He has more than 320 refereed international publications (books, conference proceedings, journals and conferences) and more than 25 Special issues.
Antonio Capone:
Antonio Capone (Fellow, IEEE) is a full professor at Politecnico di Milano where is director of the Advanced Network Technologies Laboratory (ANTLab). He served as the Dean of the School of Industrial and Information Engineering at Politecnico di Milano from 2019 to 2024. He is associate editor with IEEE Trans. on Mobile Computing and Elsevier Computer Communications, and member of the TPC of major conferences in networking. His research interests include radio resource management and planning of wireless networks, software defined networks and switching architectures. On these topics he has published more than 300 papers. He is a fellow of the IEEE.
Anirban Bhowal:
Dr. Anirban Bhowal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering at NIT Rourkela, India. He obtained his BTech degree from Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata, in 2012, MTech degree in Communication Engineering from IIIT Allahabad in 2015, and PhD degree from IIT, Guwahati, in 2020. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), Montreal, QC, Canada in 2021-2022 and subsequently served as a contractual faculty at IIIT Naya Raipur, India. His research interests include RIS, semantic communication, fluid antenna communication, short-packet communications, mission-critical applications, underwater optical wireless communications (UOWC), and FSO. Currently, he is the project investigator of multiple sponsored research projects and is involved in standardization works in ITU-T SG13. He has published in several reputed international journals and conferences, and co-authored the book “Advanced Spatial Modulation Systems” in Springer Nature.
Lixin Li:
Lixin Li (Member, IEEE) received the B.S. degree (Hons.), the M.S. degree (Hons.), and the Ph.D. degree from Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU), Xi’an, China, in 2001, 2004, and 2008, respectively. From 2009 to 2011, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with NPU. In 2011, he joined the School of Electronics and Information, NPU, where he is currently a Full Professor and Chair of Department of Communication Engineering with the School. In 2017, he held the Visiting Scholar Position with the University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA. He has authored or coauthored five books, more than 200 peer-reviewed papers in many prestigious journals and conferences, and he holds 26 granted patents. His research interests include 5G/6G wireless networks, federated learning, game theory, and machine learning for wireless communications. He was the recipient of the 2016 NPU Outstanding Young Teacher Award, which is the highest research and education honors for young faculties in NPU. He was an Exemplary Reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Communications in 2020.
Hichan Moon:
Hichan Moon is a professor in the Department of Electronic Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electronics engineering from Seoul National University (Summa Cum Laude), Seoul, Korea and his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. Before joining Hanyang University, he worked at Samsung Electronics Co., Korea. In Samsung, he designed mobile station modems for cdma2000, W-CDMA, and LTE. He also worked for 3GPP standardization. He is the project initiative of HELPS and a cofounder of Infoseize Systems. His research interests include accurate positioning, physical layer security, random access and next generation wireless systems. He is the chair of the Committee on Mission Critical Communications, IEEE Vehicular Technology Society.
Qinghe Du:
Qinghe Du (Member, IEEE) received the B.S. degree in information engineering and the M.S. degree in information and communications engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, in 2001 and 2004, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in computer engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, USA, in 2010. He is currently a Professor with the School of Information and Communications Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University. He has published over 100 technical papers inrefereed international conferences and journals. His research interests include mobile wireless communications and networking. He received the Best Paper Awards of the IEEE GLOBECOM 2007, IEEE COMCOMAP 2019, and IEEE/CIC ICCC 2021. He received the Best Paper Awards of China Communications in 2017 and 2020, respectively. He has served and/or serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE COMMUNICATIONS LETTERS, the Guest Editor for IEEE Network, an Area Editor for KSIl Transactions on Internet and Information Systems, and an Editor for Electronics.
Wenchi Cheng:
Wenchi Cheng (Member, IEEE) received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in telecommunication engineering from Xidian University, Xian, China, in 2008 and 2013, respectively. He was a Visiting Scholar with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA, from 2010 to 2011. He is currently a Full Professor with Xidian University. He has published more than 200 international journal and conference papers in IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS, IEEE MAGAZINES, IEEE TRANSACTIONS, etc. His current research interests include 6G wireless networks, electromagnetic-based wireless communications, and emergency wireless information. He received the IEEE ComSoc Asia–Pacific Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2021, the URSI Young Scientist Award in 2019, the Young Elite Scientist Award of CAST, and four IEEE journal conference best papers. He has served or serving as the Wireless Communications Symposium Co-Chair for IEEE ICC 2022 and IEEE GLOBECOM 2020, the Publicity Chair for IEEE ICC 2019, the Next Generation Networks Symposium Chair for IEEE ICCC 2019, and the Workshop Chair for IEEE ICC 2019/IEEE GLOBECOM 2019/INFOCOM 2020 Workshop on Intelligent Wireless Emergency Communications Networks.
For additional information: Workshop-CFP-combined-VTC2026Spring
Paper submission deadline Extended: 8 February 2026
Acceptance notification: 18 March 2026
Final paper submission deadline Extended: 7 April 2026
Submission requirements: 5-page paper (without overlength charge) and up to 2 additional pages are allowed with the purchase of additional page charges in the amount of $100 USD per additional page at the time of registration and final paper submission.
Paper submission can be located here: https://vtc2026s-rr-wks.trackchair.com/