Welcome Message from the General Chairs

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (IEEE WCNC 2018). The conference will be held at the Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona (CCIB), in the heart of the 22@ technological district, from April 15th to 18th. In this occasion, the conference theme will be ‘Leading the Way to 5G and Beyond'. We have no doubt that, once again, this conference will be a most enjoyable and memorable event.

IEEE WCNC has become a world premier event that brings together industry professionals, academics, and representatives from government agencies and other institutions to exchange ideas on the advancement of wireless communications and networking technology. It is therefore with great excitement that we welcome this year's edition in the historical city of Barcelona.

Its strategic Mediterranean location made Barcelona a communication hub exploited by multiple civilizations. Its cohabitation with the Mediterranean sea is a metaphor for cultural openness, which has traditionally made it become a hot cultural spot. This is proven by the wide variety and dimension of its museums, from Ancient Rome (and well before) to the most avant-garde cultural movements represented by architects, like Gaudí or Domènech i Montaner; and painters, like Miró or Dalí, which become a nice sample of the Catalan cultural heritage.

Possibly because of its cosmopolitan nature, Barcelona has also become a global (wireless) technology hub with a very active ecosystem of R&D centers, universities, startups, and industrial companies. In addition, hosting the Mobile World Congress, for more than a decade already, has contributed to strengthen its positioning in the technological arena at the international level. And earlier this year Barcelona has witnessed the world's first call using the Non Stand-Alone 3GPP 5G new radio standard and sub-6 GHz spectrum. This is a fantastic prelude to a conference like WCNC, where advanced research results in this area of wireless communications and networking will be presented.

The technical program of this year's edition is full of excellent contributions by prominent researchers and leaders from industry and academia. The first day will be devoted to workshops and tutorials, on exciting topics, such as massive MIMO, multi-access edge computing, network slicing, advanced channel coding, or ultra-dense networks. From Monday onwards, the conference will feature a comprehensive technical program offering over 100 technical sessions with papers showcasing the latest wireless communications and networking technologies, applications and services. In addition, the conference program includes keynote talks from industry leaders and renowned academics, six panel discussions, an inspiring exhibition, and a number of student activities. We also hope that you enjoy the social program and the fantastic city of Barcelona during your stay.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all the members of the organizing committee for their efforts and continued support to the conference. Our special thanks go to the TPC chair, Mischa Dohler, and our Track Chairs Eduard Jorswieck, Eryk Dutkiewicz, Xavier Costa-Pérez, and Kyung Sup Kwak for their diligent effort in reviewing the submissions, selecting the papers, and organizing the conference sessions. And, also, to the team of reviewers who participated in the peer-review process. We are also very grateful to the sponsors of the conference: their support is a cornerstone of this event! And, indeed, we are also indebted to all the authors for considering IEEE WCNC18 as a vehicle for the dissemination of research results; and to all attendees for their valuable discussions in the coming days. Last but not least, many (many!) thanks to all the members of the local organizing committee for their hard work, in particular during the final rush before the conference.

We sincerely hope that you will find IEEE WCNC'18 an inspiring conference ‘leading your way to 5G and beyond'. And that you will enjoy the program as much as we did putting it together.

Carles Antón-Haro, PhD, MBA, SIEEE General Chair, IEEE WCNC18 Director of R&D Programmes, Sr. Researcher Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC) Xavier Mestre, PhD, SIEEE General Vice-chair, IEEE WCNC18 Head of the ASIP Dept., Sr. Researcher Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC) Josep Mangues-Bafalluy, PhD General Vice-chair, IEEE WCNC18 Director of the Communication Networks Division, Sr. Researcher Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC)