2026 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference

Apr 13 - 17, 2026

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Apr 13 - 17, 2026

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

About the Conference

The IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC) is a top-ranked, flagship conference of the IEEE Communications Society, bringing together researchers from academia, industry, and government. IEEE WCNC 2026 will be hosted in the warm and wonderful city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and will be conducted in person, allowing attendees to fully benefit from the conference atmosphere and experience.

Subject Areas

Track 1: Physical Layer and Communication Theory Track 2: Medium Access Control and Networking Track 3: Machine Learning and Optimization for Wireless Systems Track 4: Emerging Technologies, Network Architectures, and Applications

Keynote Speakers

Hao Xu

VP Engineering, Head of Qualcomm Research China, IEEE Fellow · Qualcomm, USA

Kai-Kit Wong

Chair Professor of Wireless Communications · University College London, UK

Wen Tong

CTO, Wireless Network, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. President, Huawei Canada R&D · Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Gerhard Fettweis

Vodafone Chair Professor at TU Dresden · TU Dresden, Germany

Reinaldo A. Valenzuela

Nokia Bell Labs, USA

Merouane Debbah

Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Important Dates

2025-10-26 Technical Paper Submission Deadline CLOSED

2026-01-11 Technical Papers Acceptance Notification CLOSED

2026-02-07 Technical Papers Camera-Ready Due CLOSED

2026-03-14 Author Registration Deadline CLOSED

2026-04-13 Conference Dates · 13 - 16 April 2026 CLOSED

Call For Papers

Track 1: Physical Layer and Communication Theory

Antennas and RF Channel Modeling and Estimation Coding Theory and Techniques Energy Harvesting and Low Energy Communication Feedback and Two-Way Communication Free Space Optical Communication Holographic Surfaces and Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces Information Theory Aspects of Wireless Communications Integrated Sensing and Communications Iterative Techniques, Detection, and Decoding Low Resolution Communication Millimeter-Wave and Terahertz Near-Field communication and sensing MIMO, d Massive MIMO, and cell-free massive MIMO Physical Layer Security Propagation and Interference Modeling Relaying and Self-Backhauling Semantic Communications Short Packet and Finite Block Length Communications Waveforms and Modulation Wireless Power and Information Transfer

Track 2: Medium Access Control and Networking

Age and Value of Information for Networks Backscatter Communications Cognitive Radio and Networking Cooperative Communications and Networking Edge Computing, Edge Intelligence and Fog Networks Energy-Efficient and Green Networking Load Balancing and Cell/Band Association IoT networks and protocols Low Power Wireless Networks Multiple Access and Contention Multihop Networks Emerging Medium Access Schemes in the 5G and Beyond Network Economics Network Slicing ORAN programmability of MAC and network functions RAN Data Collection and Storage Enhancement Resource allocation for wireless communications and networks Resource Management Resource Orchestration for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Systems Routing and Congestion Control Scheduling and Opportunistic Communications SDN/NFV Spectrum Sensing, Access, and Sharing Unlicensed Spectrum and Licensed/Unlicensed Inter-Networking URLLC, Time Sensitive, and Deterministic Networking Wireless Network Security and Privacy

Track 3: Machine Learning and Optimization for Wireless Systems

Bayesian Optimization for Wireless Communications Communication-inspired Machine Learning Convex and Non-Convex Optimization for Wireless Communications Data-driven Network Modelling and Optimization Datasets for Wireless Systems and Channels Deep Learning for Wireless Communications Deep Unfolding for Wireless Communications and Networks Distributed Learning and Federated Learning for Wireless Communications Distributed Optimization & Resource Allocation for Wireless Communications End-to-end Machine Learning over Wireless Channels Game-Theoretic Approaches to Wireless Communications Implementation of Machine Learning Algorithms in Wireless Networks Large language models and generative AI for wireless systems Machine Learning Methods for Wireless Localization Networking Architectures for Artificial Intelligence Online Learning for Wireless Networks Performance Analysis of Machine Learning Techniques for Wireless Communications Reinforcement Learning for Wireless Communications Scalability of ML for Wireless Communications Semantic and Goal-Oriented Communications Transfer Learning for Wireless Communications and Networks Unsupervised and Generative Models

Track 4: Emerging Technologies, Network Architectures, and Applications

5G NR and 6G Standardization 802.11 and Next-Generation Wi-Fi AI-RAN Blockchain and Cryptography Connected Vehicles Digital Twin networks E-health and Mobile Health Experiments, Prototypes, and Testbeds Fluid Antenna Communications Full-Duplex Communication Networks Innovative Implanted and Wearable Devices Intelligent Beamforming Relays IoT and Machine Type Communications Joint Radar and Communications Low-altitude communications and networks Molecular and Nano Communications Networking support for virtual and augmented reality O-RAN Quantum Communications Satellite and Deep Space Communications Sensing and Localization Software Defined Radio and Networks Surface Wave Communications UAVs and Non-Terrestrial Networks Visible Light and Optical Communication

Publication & Indexing

PublisherIEEE

ProceedingsIEEE WCNC 2026 Conference Proceedings

IndexingIEEE Xplore

Conference Organization

Organized by

IEEE Communications Society

Committee

General Co-Chair

Nordin Ramli

MIMOS, Malaysia

Hafizal Mohamad

USIM, Malaysia

Senior Advisor

Hikmet Sari

NUPT, China

Borhanuddin Mohd Ali

Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

Technical Program Co-Chair

Stefano Bregni

Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Meixia Tao

Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

Industry Program Co-Chair

Luis M. Correia

IST - University of Lisbon, Portugal

Sumei Sun

Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), A*STAR, Singapore

Azwan Mahmud

Multimedia University, Malaysia

Workshop Co-Chair

Yacine Ghamri-Doudane

University of La Rochelle, France

Derrick Wing Kwan Ng

New South Wales University, Australia

Mohamad Yusof Alias

Multimedia University, Malaysia

Tutorial Co-Chair

Ali Ghrayeb

Texas A&M University, Qatar

Chee Yen (Bruce) Leow

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

Keynote Chair

Khaled B. Letaief

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong

Operations Chair

Mohd Fais Mansor

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia

Finance Chair

Nur Idora Abdul Razak

Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia

Publication Chair

Mutlu Koca

Bogazici University, Türkiye

Awards Chair

Junshan Zhang

University of California Davis, USA

Travel Grants Chair

Baek-Young Choi

University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA

Publicity Co-Chair

Yongpeng Wu

Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

Eirini Eleni Tsiropoulou

Arizona State University, USA

Yessica Saez

Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá, Panama

Student Volunteer Chair

Fazirulhisyam Hashim

Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

Web & Social Media Chair

Khairil Anuar

Multimedia University, Malaysia

Senior Conference Planner

Stephanie Polo

IEEE Communication Society, USA

Steering Committee Chair

Hikmet Sari

Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China

Steering Committee Past Chair

Halim Yanikomeroglu

Carleton University, Canada

Member-at-Large

Hamid Aghvami

King’s College London, UK

Angela Yingjun Zhang

Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Marwa Chafii

New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE

Luis M. Correia

IST - University Lisbon, Portugal

Gunes Karabulut Kurt

Polytechnique Montréal, Canada

Track 1 - Physical Layer and Communication Theory, Co-Chair

George Alexandropoulos

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

Chuan Huang

CUHK at Shenzhen, China

Gunes Karabulut Kurt

Polytechnique Montréal, Canada

Track 2 - Medium Access Control and Networking, Co-Chair

Koichi Adachi

Keio University, Japan

Aryan Kaushik

Manchester Met, UK

Dusit Tao Niyato

NTU, Singapore

Track 3 - Machine Learning and Optimization for Wireless Systems, Co-Chair

Yansha Deng

King’s College London, UK

Guido Maier

Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Jun Zhang

HKUST, Hong Kong, China

Track 4 - Emerging Technologies, Network Architectures, and Applications, Co-Chair

Jihong Park

SUTD, Singapore

Abdallah Shami

The University of Western Ontario, Canada

Liang Xiao

Xiamen University, China