Editorial:Special Topic on Energy Consumption Challenges and Prospects on B5G Communication Systems

The objective of this special issue was to attract high quality research articles on energy consumption chal?lenges and prospects for beyond fifth generation (B5G)communication systems.We have received approxi?mately 10 papers in different areas.The submitted papers were rigorously reviewed,and six papers were finally accepted.

The first paper entitled“Saving Energy for Wireless Trans?mission:An Important Revelation from Shannon Formula”by ZHU et al.presents two basic study points for wireless saving energy and provides the error-corrected modulation method based on extending the Shannon formulas.The numerical anal?ysis shows that the given error-corrected modulation method greatly improves the energy-saving effect of the traditional method in theory.The second paper entitled“Efficient Net?work Slicing with Dynamic Resource Allocation”by JI et al.proposes a two-stage dynamic resource allocation framework that first makes decisions on the slices to which flows are as?signed,and then coordinates resources adjustment among slic?es to overcome the resource imbalance.The proposed algo?rithm is evaluated in simulation environments for hierarchical ring 5G networks.The third paper entitled“Enabling EnergyEfficiency in 5G network”by LIU et al.focuses on the energy efficiency of radio access networks and introduces NR cell switching on/off schemes in 3GPP to achieve energy efficiency in 5G RAN.The proposed scheme is experimented in the real wireless environment,whose power consumption can be re?duced significantly.The fourth paper entitled“Cluster Head Selection Algorithm for UAV Assisted Clustered IoT Network Utilizing Blockchain”by LIN et al.proposes a designed un?manned aerial vehicle (UAV) cluster head selection algorithm for UAV networks assisted clustered IoT system.The simula?tion results show that the proposed algorithm has great advan?tages compared with the existing cluster head selection algo?rithms.The fifth paper entitled“Green Air-Ground Integrated Heterogeneous Network in 6G Era”by WU et al.is dedicated to discussing green communications of air-ground integrated heterogeneous network (AGIHN).From the aspects of green terrestrial network and green aerial network,challenges of green AGIHN are analyzed and several promising green tech?niques which can be employed in AGIHN are discussed.The final paper entitled“Kinetic Energy Harvesting Toward Bat?tery-Free IoT:Fundamentals,Co-Design Necessity and Pros?pects”by LIANG et al.gives a brief introduction to the config?urations and basic principles of practical KEH-IoT systems,including their mechanical,electrical,and computing parts.

We would like to thank all the authors for their valuable contri?butions.We hope that our readers will enjoy reading the articles and find this special issue helpful to their own research work.