IEEE Transactions on Networking Special Issue on AI and Networking

Call for Papers

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a powerful tool in the domain of networking systems, addressing complex tasks across edge computing, cloud computing, Internet-of-things, embedded systems, and NextG cellular wireless networks. Recent research has also unleashed the potential of AI techniques in optimizing various aspects of wireless and wired networking and communications, fundamentally changing the design approaches across all layers in the protocol stack. Meanwhile, AI has also evolved into a ubiquitous service deployed over a large variety of networking systems. Thus, enhancing the performance of AI-based networking systems and facilitating AI on top of a wide spectrum of networking systems have become increasingly paramount in modern network system designs. In addition, utilizing the power of AI solutions to secure networking and communications against adversaries and developing new networking solutions for distributed AI security have become focal points in the AI and networking research communities. As a result, developing efficient and robust AI technologies on and for wireless and wired networking is crucial, particularly in networking systems that operate under limited communication and computational resources. To address all these new networking challenges in the era of AI, this ToN special issue aims to bring together experts from the fields of AI, wired and wireless networking and communications, and security fields to facilitate the dissemination of cutting-edge research findings in the areas of "AI for networks" and "AI on networks," which will further foster emerging research directions to drive AI and networking innovations forward.

Topics of Interest (but not limited to):

  1. AI for Networks
    • AI modeling, methods, and evaluations for edge networks, cloud computing, embedded systems, vehicular networks,airborne networks, satellite networks, and NextG cellular networks;
    • AI-powered cyber-security for edge networks, cloud computing, embedded systems, vehicular networks,airborne networks, satellite networks, and NextG cellular networks
    • Explainable AI solutions on and for communications and networking.
    • AI-assisted network management method design
    • AI-driven network resource allocation, adaptive modulation, interference management, access control, spectrum auction and sharing, energy efficiency, mobile offloading, and mobile system management.
  2. AI on Networks
    • Decentralized learning, distributed training and inference, federated learning over device-edge-cloud continuum
    • Trustworthy and privacy-preserving AI over a wide spectrum of networks
    • Large foundation model pre-training, fine-tuning and inference over large-scale networks
    • Robust adversarial machine learning over wired and wireless networks
    • Resource-constrained and edge deployable AI solutions, experiments and testbeds for ML-driven wireless systems.

Submission Guidelines

Prospective authors should submit their manuscripts following the IEEE ToN guidelines. The authors should choose Article Type of "IEEE Transactions on Networking Special Issue on AI and Networking" in IEEE Author Portal ( the regular TON submission portal), with a cover letter saying the submission is for the special issue according to the following schedule.

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 15 January 2025
First-round Decision Notification: 6 July 2025
Revised Manuscript Submission: 30 September 2025
Final Decision Notification: 30 November 2025
Final Manuscript Due: 30 December 2025
Planned Publication: March 2026

Guest Editors

Jia (Kevin) Liu (Lead Guest Editor)
The Ohio State University, USA

Ness B. Shroff
The Ohio State University, USA

Yingbin Liang
The Ohio State University, USA

Elisa Bertino
Purdue University, USA

Kaushik Chowdhury
University of Texas Austin, USA

Lei Ying
University of Michigan, USA

Sen Lin
University of Houston, USA

Eylem Ekici
The Ohio State University, USA

Bo Ji
Virginia Tech, USA

Bin Li
Pennsylvania State University, USA