Guest Editorial Special Issue on Low-Latency High-Reliability Communications for the IoT

As one of the key enabling technologies of emerging smart societies and industries (i.e., industry 4.0), the Internet of Things (IoT) has evolved significantly in both the technologies and applications. It is estimated that more than 25 billion devices will be connected by wireless IoT networks by 2020. In addition to ubiquitous connectivity, many envisioned applications of the IoT, such as industrial automation, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) networks, smart grids, and remote surgery, will have stringent transmission latency and reliability requirements, which may not be supported by the existing systems. Thus, there is an urgent need for rethinking the entire communication protocol stack for wireless IoT networks.