Cognitive radio networks are at the cusp of a major revolution. What started as a paradigm for spectrum sharing and dynamic spectrum access, grew into a major wireless communications field that weaves together multiple disciplines ranging from communication theory to machine learning, network science, and network science. As such, the concept of a cognitive network is rapidly evolving from a traditional, spectrum-centric perspective to a broader, network-wide perspective, in which cognition should no longer be restricted to spectrum access but must instead span the entire panoply of network functions.

This need for large-scale, intelligent cognition in wireless networks coupled with the ongoing 5G revolution, is also ushering in numerous innovative applications for cognitive radio networks that range from smart transportation to broad Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystems. In order to accompany this major change in cognitive networking paradigm, this first issue of the TCCN Newsletter of 2017 will primarily focus on new analytics and wireless applications which are expected to be central to tomorrow’s cognitive radio networks. In particular, this newsletter will feature two key cognitive radio networking topic: a) The Internet of Things and b) Machine Learning. For each topic, we have gathered a review on innovative new results that have appeared in the recent literature. Then, we had some stimulating discussions with leaders in the fields, in order to provide an in-depth discussion on the major technical challenges and opportunities in these two central areas of cognitive radio networking.

That said, we would like to thank our two feature topic editors: Dr. Nguyen Tran from Kyung Hee University and Dr. Muhammad Zeeshan Shakir from the University of West Scotland, for their efforts in arranging the paper reviews and expert interviews. Moreover, we want to thank all interviewees for contributing their significant research works to the two feature topics and sharing with us their useful experience and future outlook on the area. I would finally like to acknowledge the gracious support from the TCCN chair, Dr. Jianwei Huang and all TCCN officers. As always, if you have any suggestions, feel free to contact me. We hope that you enjoy the material provided here!

Dr. Walid Saad
Vice Chair, IEEE ComSoc TCCN
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Virginia Tech, USA
http://resume.walid-saad.com