The articles in this special section are devoted to discussions and topics presented at the Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF), with particular emphasis on fifth generation (5G) mobile communications. As 5G heats up, the WWRF are developing new ways to explain the vision and requirements for members and to ensure that the technical standards that will start to be developed in 2016 reflect the ne...

Presents an overview of the events that were part of he 31st meeting of the WirelessWorld Research Forum (WWRF) that took place in Vancouver, Canada.

In less than two decades, mobile communication has developed from a niche application to a mass-market high-tech product, having experienced an unprecedented growth, never achieved by any other technology, whether radio, television, or even the Internet. Thirteen well-known experts, all of them honored as WWRF Fellows, have been interviewed and shared their expertise and opinions on ten questions about the wireless future, as presented here. The answers span a wide field from air interfaces, networks, devices, applications, to new ways of interaction, to name a few. Although the ideas and views presented here are not one common vision, they should provide stimulating ideas and questions for future research, and it will be exciting to see how things are really going to develop. The Fellows' ideas also clearly show the fascination, impact, and opportunities wireless communications has and will have in the future.

For ten years, the Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF) has been developing its visions of the future, working with its members, both academic and industrial, to create a road map for the research and development of the technologies required to build this future. Currently, there are members from five continents and a range of sectors. The forum was founded as a result of a study funded by the Eur...

Based on the wireless world research forum (WWRF) vision of seven trillion wireless devices serving seven billion people by 2020, we identified several key user requirements and a scenario to motivate research on many different technical areas. If addressed successfully by the research community and the industry, innovation in new air interfaces (for high bit rate and capacity and low latency); network architectures (like mobile cloud, mesh networks, or cognitive systems); solutions to privacy, security, and trust; and devices that do not need to be recharged for long periods would unleash an era of the wireless world where: each and every person will be empowered by wireless services. Wireless device(s) will become our interface to the digital world. We will live an ambient life style, such that: 1) our mobile device will become the key enabler to interact with smart environments and users; and 2) our mobile device will be a trusted personal assistant that will be indispensible. We will enjoy and benefit from an untethered-but-connected user experience and ubiquitous service delivery with a consistent user experience.

In this paper we propose a novel solution to the problem of providing trusted third party services, such as the management of cryptographic keys for end-to-end encryption, in a way that meets legal requirements for warranted interception. Also included is a discussion of what might be a reasonable set of requirements for international provision of such services, as well as some analysis of the cryptographic properties of the architecture and how it might operate in practice.

The Pan-European RACE II project Mobilise develops and demonstrates the Personal Services Communication Space (PSCS) as an approach for the deployment of personalised, mobile communication services based on Intelligent Network (IN) techniques. This paper discusses — after an introduction to end-to-end security service requirements — the security architecture of the PSCS demonstrator. It gives examples how these requirements can be met by using existing demonstrator features. A Public Key Cryptosystem (PKCS) using the RSA encryption algorithm is used for the mutual authentication between communication partners in the PSCS system. Available smart card technology is used for the secure storage of private and certified public keys, personal data, and for the processing of cryptographical functions needed by the PKCS. A security architecture including a certification hierarchy and a suitable protocol for the mutual authentication has been implemented according to existing standards (X.509 [1], ASN.1 [2] [3], PKCS#1 [4]). The performance of the system has been evaluated in detail and examples for the provisioning of end-to-end security services are given.

Trends within mobile communications networks are towards more diverse systems which rely increasingly of software components. The UK Virtual Centre of Excellence in Mobile and Personal Communications is researching these trends, and how it will be possible to control these future networks. This paper describes the work of the Software Dependent Systems work area of the programme.

The way forward for mobile networks is indicated by a number of themes including the move to IP-based networks, roaming across a variety of access networks, an increasingly userfocussed approach to services and applications, and terminals that are increasingly distributed, multifunctional and personalized devices. In the light of this, there is a need to determine how security technology can be used to protect the interests of all participants. This paper identifies the pertinent research issues, and describes how the IST SHAMAN project is dealing with them.

Future multimedia and Internet services will have more complex characteristics than the traditional service types. Accurate planning of mobile networks requires accurate prediction of traffic flows, which involves complex relationships between the services themselves, the mobility of users, and the business environment. This paper describes the work of the Mobile VCE services programme on new traffic models that take all three factors into account