Smart cities are becoming reality, due to the enormous research into the technology enablers and development of the Internet of Things (IoT) enabling a multitude of applications, which are built around various types of sensors. To manage the increased population of cities, there is a need to have more sustainable, environmentally-, and economically-friendly smarter cities and technologies. Recently, a number of smart devices appeared on a large scale, such as the SleepNumber smart bed with its focus on health during sleeping, the Kolibree smart toothbrush, and the Belkin smart saucepan. These are the few, with more applications and products to be showcased in the recent future.

In the context of this special issue, we define a smart city as a collection of entities (living and nonliving) in an urban area that is always connected, fully aware, automanaged, self-secure, adaptive, and well-informed. Furthermore, the growing footprint of ultra-high-speed broadband networks, pervasive wireless networks, cloud computing, crowd sensing, and software-defined infrastructure connect smart/mobile devices to generate relevant city data on a massive scale. These advances will enable transformative applications and services that will enhance the quality of peoples’ lives while addressing important national priorities such as real-time tracking, security, authenticity, and availability of classified information to the decision makers. Similarly, to make a smart city, a strong communications infrastructure is required for connecting smart objects, people, and sensors. For instance, audio and video sensors support a variety of safety (monitoring) and nonsafety applications.

Communication within cities involves multiple aggregations and access networks that can be either public or private. A city may gather data from smart devices and sensors embedded in the roadways, power grids, buildings, and other assets. It shares that data via a smart communications system that is typically a combination of wired and wireless networks. It then uses smart software to create valuable information and digitally enhanced services such as health care assistance, security and safety, real-time traffic monitoring, and managing the environment.

In this special issue, we aim to bring together researchers, academics, and individuals working on selected areas of smart cities along with new emerging technologies and share their new ideas, latest findings, and results.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Resource and network management in smart cities
• Wireless Networking for crowd sensing applications in smart cities
• Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms for wireless networks in smart cities
• Integration and coexistence of technologies and networks for smart cities
• Mobile Traffic analytics for smart cities applications
• Interoperability between heterogeneous networks of smart cities
• Smart applications for smart cities
• Communication architectures for audio and video sensors in smart cities
• Energy-aware wireless protocols and algorithms for smart cities
• Sensing technologies and applications for smart cities
• Wireless networks for smart city surveillance and management
• Experimental network measurements and characterization of smart cities data traffic
• Cooperative and smart sensing techniques
• Sensor deployment, placement, and control and management issues
• Experimental results, prototypes, and testbeds for smart cities
• Security issues and solutions for privacy in smart cities
• Role of intelligent transportation in smart cities
• Big data analytics for smart networks
• Cognitive networks and IoT for smart cities
• Smart recovery of incomplete or missing data in IoT for smart cities
• Mobile edge computing (or fog computing) in smart networks
• Smart grid in wireless smart cities
• Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) for smart cities
• Future internet architectures and smart cities