RAIN4C - Workshop

The RAIN4C workshop is organized in conjunction with the 22nd IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad-Hoc and Smart Systems (MASS 2025)

Call for Papers

Ensuring network services in critical scenarios—such as post-disaster areas, remote rural regions, and maritime environments—is a fundamental challenge in modern wireless communications. Traditional terrestrial networks (TNs) often fail to provide reliable coverage in these settings, making the integration of non-terrestrial networks (NTNs), including UAV swarms, drone-assisted relays, and satellite constellations, essential for next-generation connectivity. 
As 6G evolves toward a three-dimensional (3D) network architecture, seamless orchestration of aerial, satellite, and terrestrial segments becomes crucial to overcoming limitations in coverage, latency, and computational capacity. The RAIN4C workshop will explore innovative strategies for joint communication, computation, and caching to enable resilient and adaptive NTN-based architectures, with a particular focus on UAV-assisted networking, drone-based edge computing, and satellite-enabled service continuity. 

💰 IEEE Broadcast Technology Society will sponsor a Best Paper Award (BPA) with a cash prize of 500 USD.

Topics of Interest (including, but not limited to): 

  • Reliable NTN-based connectivity for post-disaster and remote scenarios 
  • Joint optimization of communication, computation, and caching in NTNs 
  • Edge-to-satellite continuum computation offloading for UAV-based networks 
  • Multi-layer caching strategies for latency reduction in NTN environments 
  • AI-driven resource allocation and orchestration in NTN-integrated 6G networks 
  • Cell-free massive MIMO, mmWave, and sub-THz communications for NTN 
  • Routing, mobility management, and energy-efficient UAV swarm coordination 
  • Security, privacy, and trust in aerial-satellite communications 
  • Experimental testbeds, real-world deployments, and performance evaluation

Important dates

  • Submission deadline: July 22, 2025 [ EXTENDED]
  • Notification: Thursday, August 7, 2025
  • Camera ready: Friday, August 15, 2025
  • Presentation: TBD

 Submissions Guidelines and Proceedings

Authors are invited to submit original, unpublished research papers that are not currently under review elsewhere. All submissions should be written in English with a maximum length of 6 single-spaced, double-column pages using 10pt fonts on 8.5 in x 11 in paper, including all figures, tables, and references, in PDF format. Authors must use the Manuscript Templates for IEEE Conference Proceedings. Reviewing will be single-blind, i.e., authors can keep their names on their submitted paper. Accepted papers will appear in the conference proceedings published by IEEE and will be presented at the conference. For all papers, IEEE reserves the right to exclude the paper from distribution after the conference (e.g., removal from IEEE Xplore) if the paper is not presented at the conference.

For each accepted paper to be published, at least one author is required to register and attend the conference. The paper must be presented by an author listed on the paper. Substitute presenters, due to unforeseen circumstances or verifiable excuses, must be authorized in advance by the TPC Chairs. Unauthorized substitute presentations will result in the paper not being added to the IEEE digital archive of the conference proceedings. We also strongly encourage the authors to apply for a visa, if needed, at their earliest convenience.

Submit a paper

EDAS link: SUBMIT A PAPER

Committees

General Chairs

  • Giovanni Interdonato, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Italy
  • Sara Pizzi, University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria, Italy
  • Angelo Trotta, University of Bologna, Italy

 

Technical Program Committee (to be completed)

  • Tomaso De Cola, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany
  • Marco Di Felice, University of Bologna, Italy
  • Tommaso Foggi, University of Parma, Italy
  • Juan A. Fraire, Inria, France
  • Zhangyu Guan,  University at Buffalo, USA
  • Josep M. Jornet, Northeastern University, USA
  • Helka-Liina Määttänen, Ericsson Research, Finland
  • Gino Masini, Ericsson Research, Sweden
  • Arcangela Rago, Politecnico di Bari, Italy
  • Gokhan Secinti, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey

Invited Keynote

Speaker: Prof. Igor Kadota (Northwestern University, USA)

Title: WiSwarm at the Edge: Wireless Networking for Collaborative Teams of UAVs

Abstract

Emerging applications, such as autonomous vehicles and smart factories, increasingly rely on sharing time-sensitive information for monitoring and control. In such application domains, it is essential to keep information fresh, as outdated information loses its value and can lead to system failures and safety risks. The Age-of-Information (AoI) captures the freshness of the information from the perspective of the destination. In this talk, we consider a wireless network with an edge-node receiving time-sensitive information from a number of sensing-nodes through unreliable channels. We formulate a discrete-time decision problem to find a transmission scheduling policy that optimizes the AoI in the network. We develop low-complexity scheduling policies with performance guarantees, including a randomized policy and a Max-Weight policy. Leveraging our theoretical results, we propose WiSwarm: an AoI-based application layer middleware that enables the customization of WiFi networks to the needs of time-sensitive applications. To demonstrate the benefits of WiSwarm in real operating scenarios, we implement a mobility tracking application using a swarm of UAVs communicating with a central controller (i.e., the edge-node) via WiFi.

Bio

Igor Kadota is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northwestern University. He received the Ph.D. degree from MIT LIDS and his B.Sc. degree from the Aeronautics Institute of Technology (ITA) in Brazil. His research is on modeling, analysis, optimization, and implementation of next-generation communication networks, with the emphasis on time-sensitive applications. Igor was a recipient of research, teaching, and mentoring awards, including the Best Paper Award at IEEE INFOCOM 2018, and the Best Student Paper Award at IFIP WiOpt 2024 and 2025. For additional information, please see: http://www.igorkadota.com.

Program

Note: This program is organized as a joint session with the UAV-IoT Workshop.

Date: October 8, 2025
Time: 13:30 – 15:00

13:30 – 14:00

Keynote Speaker
Prof. Igor Kadota (Northwestern University, USA)
WiSwarm at the Edge: Wireless Networking for Collaborative Teams of UAVs

14:00 – 15:00

Paper Session

  • (RAIN4C) Lightweight Group Handover for Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
    Oylum Gerenli (Istanbul Technical University, Turkey); Gunes Karabulut Kurt (Polytechnique de Montreal, Canada); Enver Ozdemir (Istanbul Technical University, Turkey)
  • (UAV-IoT) IoT-Enabled Control Room for Coordinated UAV Fleet Management
    Manuel Delucchi (University of Genoa, Italy); Gianni Vercelli (University of Genoa – DIBRIS, Italy); Subhransu Sourav Priyadarshan (University of Genoa, Italy)
  • (UAV-IoT) Urban Roads and Aerial Autonomy: Are Drones Safe Above Busy Roads?
    Papiya Das (University of Florence, Italy); Francesco Betti Sorbelli (University of Perugia, Italy); Punyasha Chatterjee (Jadavpur University, India); Cristina M. Pinotti (University of Perugia, Italy)
  • (UAV-IoT) A Priority-Based Spectrum Allocation Method for Centralized UAV Networks
    Jacob H. Zawadzki; Mohammed A. Jasim (University of Washington Tacoma, USA)
  • (UAV-IoT) Mobility-Aware Orchestration for UAV-Enabled IoT Networks in Emergency Scenarios
    Alexandre Heideker (University of Bologna, Italy & Federal University of the ABC, Brazil); Giovanni Interdonato (University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Italy & CNIT, Italy); Sara Pizzi; Antonella Molinaro (University Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria, Italy); Angelo Trotta (University of Bologna, Italy)