Special Session on 6G Non-Terrestrial Network Technologies Toward Global Coverage

6G wireless technology is foreseen to play an important role in providing connectivity beyond ground-based infrastructure and connecting the unconnected. As such, 6G wireless technology is anticipated to integrate terrestrial networks with multilayered non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) to improve global coverage and to ensure seamless, resilient, and ubiquitous communication. A 6G-NTN of the resulting heterogeneous network toward global ubiquitous communications may incorporate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), high altitude platforms (HAPs), airborne-based network components, and satellite systems. The growing importance of such NTNs in 6G is due to their ability of enabling wireless coverage in unconnected rural and remote areas, less-developed regions, disaster relief and service recovery, mission-critical applications, and scenarios where terrestrial networks are economically infeasible and less sustainable. Apart from the demands on low energy consumption and low to medium data rates, NTNs are characterized by weakly connected communication links, high mobility of airborne and spaceborne platforms inducing severe Doppler shifts, potentially high latency due to large distances, limited computational resources, and highly dynamic network topologies requiring complex handover mechanisms. Hence, solutions tailored to terrestrial networks cannot be directly applied to NTNs.

The main goal of this Special Session on 6G Non-Terrestrial Network Technologies Toward Global Coverage is to bring together researchers and scientists from academia and industry that work in this exciting field to present and discuss their latest research results, explore new ideas and solutions, and to facilitate networking among colleagues.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

• Physical layer and waveform design for 6G NTNs
• Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces assisted 6G NTNs
• OTFS, DDMC, ODDM, OCDM, and AFDM for 6G NTNs
• 6G NTN-based THz communications
• 6G NTN radio access technologies and architectures
• 6G integrated satellite-air-ground networking
• 6G NTN sustainable networking
• Mobile edge computing for 6G NTNs
• Integrated sensing and communication for 6G NTNs
• Joint communication and computing for 6G NTNs
• QoS and QoE in 6G NTNs
• Optimized clustering and caching for 6G NTNs
• Quantum-empowered 6G NTNs
• Machine learning-based resource allocation in 6G NTNs
• Neuromorphic computing for real-time learning in 6G NTNs
• Spiking neural networks for energy efficient processing in 6G NTNs
• Security and privacy within 6G NTNs
• 6G NTN standardization
• 6G NTN applications, testbeds, and prototypes

Organizing Committee:

• Hans-Jürgen Zepernick, PhD (Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden) - Chair
• Trung Q. Duong, PhD (Memorial University, Canada)  - Co-chair

Paper Submission Deadline: 

The deadlines are the same as that of ICCE 2026. 

Submission Link:

https://edas.info/newPaper.php?c=34278&track=134826

Contact information:

For further information or inquiries about Special session on 6G Non-Terrestrial Network Technologies Toward Global Coverage, please contact the special session chairs:

Dr. Hans-Jürgen Zepernick (hans-jurgen.zepernick@bth.se) or Secretariat of ICCE 2026 (secretariat@ieee-icce.org) for general matters.