Presenters:
Ruibo Wang, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
Weijie Yuan, Southern University of Science and Technology, China
Jiacheng Wang, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Mustafa A. Kishk, Maynooth University, Ireland
Jun Wu, Southern University of Science and Technology, China
Dusit Niyato, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Yongxing Zhou, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China
Mohamed-Slim Alouini, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
Abstract:
The sixth-generation (6G) wireless era aims to provide truly global, resilient, and intelligent connectivity across land, sea, and sky, with non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) spanning multiple altitudes emerging as a central architectural pillar. These include large low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations that offer wide-area coverage and direct-to-device connectivity to help bridge the digital divide, as well as drone-based low-altitude wireless networks (LAWNs) that enable agile, proximity-enhanced links and fine-grained sensing in complex three-dimensional environments. Although current designs often treat these layers separately and focus on modular connectivity functions, a unified multi-altitude NTN framework can significantly improve integration, resource efficiency, and system intelligence. This tutorial presents such a coherent perspective by combining recent advances in spherical stochastic geometry and queueing analysis for large-scale LEO networks with multi-functional, propagation-centric design principles for LAWNs that tightly integrate communication, sensing, and control. It emphasizes how stochastic-geometry-driven modeling, information-theoretic analysis, and modern signal processing can create NTNs that are robust to mobility, blockage, and finite-blocklength constraints while remaining energy-efficient and security-aware. The tutorial also explores the role of emerging generative AI and agentic decision-making in enhancing situational awareness, traffic prediction, and cross-layer orchestration across the space–air–ground continuum, and is structured around four main themes: foundations and use cases of multi-altitude NTNs for digital inclusion, spherical stochastic geometry and routing for LEO constellations, propagation-centric LAWN architectures enabling connectivity–sensing–control synergy, and AI-native, agentic NTN operations that address applications, trends, and open challenges toward scalable and standardization-ready multi-altitude networks.
Biographies:
Ruibo Wang (Member, IEEE) received his B.S. degree from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 2020 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, in 2022 and 2024, respectively, where he is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. His research interests include stochastic geometry, satellite communications, and optical communications. Weijie Yuan (Senior Member, IEEE) is an Assistant Professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology, with research interests in integrated sensing and communications (ISAC), orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS), and low-altitude wireless networks (LAWN). He serves as an editor for multiple IEEE journals, including IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, IEEE Communications Magazine, and others. He has led several special issues, served as track chair and organizer for major IEEE conferences, and is the founding chair of the IEEE ComSoc Special Interest Groups on LAWN and OTFS. His recognitions include multiple best paper awards and editorial awards. Jiacheng Wang (Member, IEEE) received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications in 2018 and 2022, respectively, and is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research focuses on generative AI, integrated sensing and communications, network optimization, and edge intelligence. He has published over 40 papers in leading IEEE venues, contributed to IEEE ComSoc Best Readings on generative AI and large language models for networking, and served as a guest editor for several IEEE journals. He is also the founding co-chair of the IEEE ComSoc SIG-LAWN.
Weijie Yuan (Senior Member, IEEE) is an Assistant Professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology, with research interests in stochastic geometry, satellite and optical communications, integrated sensing and communications (ISAC), orthogonal time frequency space (OTFS), and low-altitude wireless networks (LAWN). He currently serves as an editor for several leading IEEE journals, including IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, IEEE Communications Magazine, IEEE Communications Standards Magazine, IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking, IEEE Communications Letters, and IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society. He has led special issues in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing, and China Communications, and has served as a guest editor for IEEE Internet of Things Journal and IEEE Open Journal of Vehicular Technology. He was Track Chair for IEEE ICC 2025 and IEEE VTC 2025-Spring and has organized and chaired numerous workshops and special sessions at major IEEE and ACM conferences, including IEEE ICC, VTC, Globecom, IEEE/CIC ICCC, SPAWC, WCNC, ICASSP, and ACM MobiCom. He is the Founding Chair of the IEEE Communications Society Special Interest Groups on LAWN and OTFS. His recognitions include the IEEE Communications Letters Best Editor Award, Best Paper Awards at IEEE ICC 2023, IEEE/CIC ICCC 2023, and IEEE Globecom 2024, as well as the 2025 IEEE Communications Society and Information Theory Society Joint Paper Award.
Jiacheng Wang (Member, IEEE) received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in the School of Communication and Information Engineering from Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications in 2018 and 2022, respectively. From 2021 to 2022, he was a visiting researcher with the College of Computing and Data Science at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where he is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. His research interests include generative AI, integrated sensing and communications, network optimization, and edge intelligence. He has published more than 40 papers in leading IEEE journals and conferences, including IEEE JSAC, IEEE TMC, IEEE TWC, IEEE TCCN, IEEE TVT, IEEE Communications Magazine, IEEE Wireless Communications, IEEE Network, IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, IEEE GLOBECOM, IEEE ICC, and IEEE WCNC. He is the lead contributor to the IEEE Communications Society Best Readings on Generative AI and Large Language Models for Networking and has served as a Guest Editor for IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine, IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking, IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society, IEEE Internet of Things Magazine, and IEEE Networking Letters. He is also the Founding Co-Chair of the IEEE Communications Society Special Interest Group on Low-Altitude Wireless Networks (SIG-LAWN).
Mustafa A. Kishk (Member, IEEE) is an Assistant Professor in the Electronic Engineering Department at Maynooth University, Ireland. He previously served as a postdoctoral research fellow at KAUST and received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Cairo University and his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. His research interests include UAV-enabled and satellite communication systems. Dusit Niyato (Fellow, IEEE) is a President’s Chair Professor at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, with research interests in mobile generative AI, edge intelligence, quantum computing and networking, and incentive mechanism design. He is Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering and holds multiple senior editorial roles across leading IEEE journals. He serves on the IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors and has been recognized as a highly cited researcher in computer science. He is a Fellow of IEEE, IET, and CIC. Jun Wu is a Research Fellow at the Southern University of Science and Technology, China, and has authored more than 15 papers in leading IEEE journals. He serves as a reviewer and technical program committee member for major IEEE venues and is currently the Secretary of the IEEE ComSoc SIG-LAWN. He was recognized as an Exemplary Reviewer of IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking in 2023.
Dusit Niyato (Fellow, IEEE) is a President’s Chair Professor in the College of Computing and Data Science at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research interests include mobile generative AI, edge intelligence, quantum computing and networking, and incentive mechanism design. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering and is the past Editor-in-Chief and current Area Editor of IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials. He also holds editorial roles across numerous leading journals, including IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, IEEE Communications Magazine, IEEE Transactions on Services Computing, IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Wireless Communications, IEEE Network, IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking, and ACM Computing Surveys, and has served as a Guest Editor for IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. He is a Member-at-Large of the IEEE Communications Society Board of Governors for 2024–2026 and was named a Highly Cited Researcher in computer science from 2017 to 2024. He is a Fellow of IEEE, IET, and CIC.
Yongxing Zhou (Fellow, IEEE) received his Ph.D. degree from Tsinghua University in 2002 and is currently a professor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. Prior to this role, he spent 16 years at Huawei as Principal Scientist and Principal Expert in communication standards and patents, contributing extensively to 4G/5G research and standardization and holding over 200 granted U.S. patents. Mohamed-Slim Alouini (Fellow, IEEE) received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1998. He previously served as faculty at the University of Minnesota and Texas A&M University at Qatar before joining KAUST in 2009 as a Professor of Electrical Engineering. His research focuses on the modeling, design, and performance analysis of wireless communication systems.
Jun Wu is currently a Research Fellow with the School of Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing at the Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China. From June to December 2023, he was a visiting researcher at Xi’an Jiaotong University. He has authored or co-authored more than 15 papers in leading IEEE journals and conferences, including IEEE JSAC, IEEE TMC, IEEE TWC, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, IEEE TVT, IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, IEEE ICC, and IEEE ICCC/CIC. He has served as a reviewer for top-tier journals such as IEEE JSAC, IEEE TWC, IEEE TCCN, IEEE TVT, IEEE Network, and IEEE WCL, and as a Technical Program Committee member for major conferences including IEEE GLOBECOM, IEEE ICC, IEEE VTC, and IEEE WCNC. He currently serves as the Secretary of the IEEE Communications Society Special Interest Group on Low-Altitude Wireless Networks (SIG-LAWN) and was recognized as an Exemplary Reviewer of IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking in 2023.
Yongxing Zhou (Fellow, IEEE) received his Ph.D. degree from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2002 and is currently a Professor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT). Prior to joining BUPT in September 2025, he served at Huawei as Principal Scientist of Standard and Patent and as Huawei Device Communication Standard Principal Expert, where he led 16 years of research and standardization efforts in 4G/5G and device communications. He holds more than 200 granted U.S. utility patents, and over 30 of his standard essential patents have been widely adopted in commercial 4G/5G base stations and terminals worldwide.
Mohamed-Slim Alouini (Fellow, IEEE) was born in Tunis, Tunisia, and received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, USA, in 1998. He subsequently served as a faculty member at the University of Minnesota and later at Texas A&M University at Qatar before joining King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, in 2009 as a Professor of Electrical Engineering. His current research focuses on the modeling, design, and performance analysis of wireless communication systems.