ICT ExpressPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-11-29DOI: 10.1016/j.icte.2025.11.021
Hyunjin Jo, Nilesh Maharjan, Byung Wook Kim
{"title":"Spatial attention and wide activation-based deep super-resolution scheme for vehicle detection in noisy and low-resolution LEO satellite imagery","authors":"Hyunjin Jo, Nilesh Maharjan, Byung Wook Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.icte.2025.11.021","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.icte.2025.11.021","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper presents a robust vehicle detection method for Low Earth Orbit satellite imagery degraded by environmental factors. To enhance feature representation from RGB and IR images, a denoising autoencoder and a multimodal fusion (MF) module with multi-head squeeze excitation are used. To compensate for texture loss in small vehicles at low resolution, a spatial attention module (SAM) is embedded into the YOLOv5 backbone, and a modified wide activation super-resolution (WDSR) branch is attached for learning finer-grained representations. Experiments on degraded images show that the proposed model outperforms the YOLO series and SuperYOLO in terms of mean average precision (mAP).</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48526,"journal":{"name":"ICT Express","volume":"12 1","pages":"Pages 26-31"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146154368","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ICT ExpressPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-03DOI: 10.1016/j.icte.2025.11.018
Victor Ikenna Kanu, Simeon Okechukwu Ajakwe, Jae Min Lee, Dong-Seong Kim
{"title":"Deterministic protein structure and binding site analysis through blockchain-integrated workflow verification","authors":"Victor Ikenna Kanu, Simeon Okechukwu Ajakwe, Jae Min Lee, Dong-Seong Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.icte.2025.11.018","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.icte.2025.11.018","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Reproducibility is a critical issue in protein structure analysis, especially in drug discovery workflows. Previous methods do not consistently produce reliable results across systems and do not provide deterministic outcomes in protein analysis. This work proposes a tri-layered blockchain-inspired architecture that leverages cryptographic metadata and capabilities to validate protonation states and guarantee deterministic results and data integrity across protein structure preparation and ensure reproducible binding site analysis. The results show 100% reproducibility with a 1745.1% performance overhead with execution time still under 11 s, enhancing data security and offering a reliable solution for computational drug discovery workflows. This system enhances confidence in computational drug discovery workflows.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48526,"journal":{"name":"ICT Express","volume":"12 1","pages":"Pages 83-91"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146154372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mobility management in 3D unified 6G networks: Challenges, opportunities and future directions","authors":"Ehab Mahmoud Mohamed , Sherief Hashima , Kohei Hatano , Mohamed Rihan","doi":"10.1016/j.icte.2025.11.011","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.icte.2025.11.011","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Sixth generation (6G) wireless networks are poised to revolutionize connectivity by integrating terrestrial, aerial, and satellite communication segments into a unified 3D architecture. However, this integration introduces unprecedented challenges in mobility management due to the dynamic and heterogeneous nature of the network. The high mobility of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and ground users requires frequent and seamless handovers, complicating channel estimation, resource allocation, and routing. These challenges arise from the rapid relative motion between network entities, leading to time-varying channels, Doppler shifts, and unpredictable visibility windows. In addition, the diverse operational altitudes and energy constraints of UAVs further complicate trajectory planning and energy-efficient operation. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of these mobility management challenges, exploring their underlying causes and importance in ensuring reliable, low-latency communication in 6G networks. We examine key techniques such as time-varying channel estimation, dynamic resource allocation, seamless handovers, energy-aware UAV trajectory planning, and 3D dynamic routing. A case study demonstrates joint optimization of the UAV trajectory and satellite handovers using online learning, showcasing the role of AI in addressing these issues. The paper concludes with a discussion on future directions, including the need for distributed mobility management architectures, mobility-aware modulation schemes, and proactive handover strategies, all critical for realizing the full potential of 6G networks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48526,"journal":{"name":"ICT Express","volume":"12 1","pages":"Pages 255-266"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146154415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ICT ExpressPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-10-23DOI: 10.1016/j.icte.2025.10.008
Jiaqi Li, Seung-Hoon Hwang
{"title":"Indoor positioning in 5G new radio: how it works, status quo of research, and the road ahead","authors":"Jiaqi Li, Seung-Hoon Hwang","doi":"10.1016/j.icte.2025.10.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.icte.2025.10.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper, the architecture and mechanism of 5G New Radio indoor positioning schemes such as downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA), uplink (UL) TDOA, multiple-cell round trip time (Multi-RTT), DL angle of departure, UL angle of arrival (AOA), and enhanced cell-ID, are comprehensively described. In addition, their performances are investigated under different channel bandwidths and conditions, and antenna configurations. Numerical results show the time-based schemes provide more benefit by wider bandwidth, while the angle-based schemes give gains by more antenna elements. Note that the Multi-RTT achieves the best accuracy with line-of-sight (LOS) conditions, while the UL-AOA does with non-LOS.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48526,"journal":{"name":"ICT Express","volume":"12 1","pages":"Pages 223-248"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146154413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ICT ExpressPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-01DOI: 10.1016/j.icte.2025.11.024
Dhiraj P. Tulaskar , Battina Sindhu , Nitin Chakole , Rina Parteki , A. Anny Leema , P. Balakrishnan , Ankita Avthanka , Rangnath Girhe , Madhusudan B. Kulkarni , Manish Bhaiyya
{"title":"AI and ML empowering 5G and shaping the 6G future: Models, metrics, architectures, and applications","authors":"Dhiraj P. Tulaskar , Battina Sindhu , Nitin Chakole , Rina Parteki , A. Anny Leema , P. Balakrishnan , Ankita Avthanka , Rangnath Girhe , Madhusudan B. Kulkarni , Manish Bhaiyya","doi":"10.1016/j.icte.2025.11.024","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.icte.2025.11.024","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies are becoming more important in wireless telecommunications networks, especially in the transition from 5G to 6G, a more advanced AI networking environment. While in 5G networks AI is used basically to get better performance from the individual tasks, in 6G, AI will be a model that is used at each layer of the system design-from the physical retransmission of the signals right through to the management of the services. The paper will examine the advanced AI technologies of Deep Learning, Reinforcement Learning, Generative Models, and Federated Learning, and their impact on core processes in the networking framework like beamforming, channel estimation, spectrum access, and anomaly detection which are evaluated against core metrics of accuracy, latency, power consumption, privacy, and comprehensibility. In the process of going beyond technical detail, the review situates AI-based wireless innovations in different fields including autonomous vehicles, telesurgery, industrial IoT, and smart cities. It also points out the persistent challenges, such as data scarcity, real-time inference, edge deployment, and ethical concerns, and presents some promising future research directions, including digital twins, AI–quantum convergence, and regulatory frameworks. This work presents a strategic roadmap to achieve scalable, secure, and intelligent 6G networks by providing a cross-layer and cross-domain synthesis.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48526,"journal":{"name":"ICT Express","volume":"12 1","pages":"Pages 111-135"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146154374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ICT ExpressPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-09-15DOI: 10.1016/j.icte.2025.08.004
Tae-Yoon Kim , Wonjae Lee , Jae-Hyun Kim
{"title":"Enhanced RACH-less conditional handover for LEO intra-satellite system","authors":"Tae-Yoon Kim , Wonjae Lee , Jae-Hyun Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.icte.2025.08.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.icte.2025.08.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this letter, we propose a random access channel (RACH)-less conditional handover (RCHO) algorithm that utilizes antenna gain to predict uplink (UL) grant start timing, reducing signaling overhead and enhancing handover (HO) performance in the low Earth orbit (LEO) intra-satellite system. The proposed algorithm mitigates execution timing unpredictability, allowing a user equipment (UE) to HO to any pre-configured target cell while minimizing signaling overhead. We analyze the performance of the proposed RCHO and compare it with basic HO (BHO), conditional HO (CHO), and RCHO without UL grant start timing prediction. Simulation results demonstrate that RCHO achieves comparable or superior HO performance with the lowest latency while reducing overhead by more than 85% compared to conventional RCHO.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48526,"journal":{"name":"ICT Express","volume":"12 1","pages":"Pages 142-146"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146154376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ICT ExpressPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-11-03DOI: 10.1016/j.icte.2025.11.001
Houjin Lu, Seung-Hoon Hwang
{"title":"Robot-assisted RSSI data collection for indoor fingerprint-based positioning","authors":"Houjin Lu, Seung-Hoon Hwang","doi":"10.1016/j.icte.2025.11.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.icte.2025.11.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Indoor positioning has diverse applications in public safety, industry, and healthcare [<span><span>1</span></span>]. This paper presents a robot-assisted data collection method to overcome the inefficiencies of conventional smartphone-based approaches in indoor positioning. By integrating advanced hardware and software optimizations, the robot achieves efficient and comprehensive Wi-Fi RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) data acquisition at reference points (RPs). Experimental results demonstrate that the robot-assisted system achieves a positioning accuracy of 91.92 %, improving accuracy by 1.8 % compared to the smartphone-based method [<span><span>2</span></span>], while reducing data collection time by 59 %. The results validate the proposed method’s efficiency, systematization, and effectiveness in improving indoor positioning.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48526,"journal":{"name":"ICT Express","volume":"12 1","pages":"Pages 249-254"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146154414","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ICT ExpressPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2026-01-06DOI: 10.1016/j.icte.2026.01.001
Ali Aouto , Jung-Hyeon Kim , Jae-Min Lee , Dong-Seong Kim
{"title":"Vision-based black ice identification using lightweight CNN and CLAHE-enhanced imagery","authors":"Ali Aouto , Jung-Hyeon Kim , Jae-Min Lee , Dong-Seong Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.icte.2026.01.001","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.icte.2026.01.001","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper presents BlackNet, a vision-based black ice detection system designed for real-time vehicular safety. Unlike traditional methods that require expensive environmental sensors, BlackNet leverages existing onboard surround-view cameras. The proposed architecture integrates ResNet-style residual connections into a lightweight MobileNetV2 backbone to optimize feature extraction for subtle road surface variations. To enhance visibility in low-light and high-glare conditions, Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE) is utilized for image preprocessing. The model was trained and validated on a comprehensive dataset of 15,200 images, achieving an accuracy of 92.4%. We propose a cloud-assisted deployment framework where inference is performed remotely in cloud, overcoming the computational constraints of edge devices. This approach offers a scalable, hardware-efficient solution for autonomous and connected vehicle safety.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48526,"journal":{"name":"ICT Express","volume":"12 1","pages":"Pages 180-185"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146154380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
ICT ExpressPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-10-16DOI: 10.1016/j.icte.2025.09.014
Md Shahriar Nazim, Md Minhazur Rahman, Md Ibne Joha, Yeong Min Jang
{"title":"Optimizing energy efficiency in hybrid UAVs using DQN-based energy management system","authors":"Md Shahriar Nazim, Md Minhazur Rahman, Md Ibne Joha, Yeong Min Jang","doi":"10.1016/j.icte.2025.09.014","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.icte.2025.09.014","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the growing demand for hybrid UAVs, efficient energy management systems (EMS) are becoming increasingly essential. This study proposes a Deep Q-network-based EMS for hybrid UAVs powered by an internal combustion engine and a battery. The EMS optimizes engine efficiency by maintaining operation within its most effective range while the battery supplies additional power as needed. Simulations under dynamically changing conditions demonstrate that the EMS efficiently distributes energy between sources, ensuring reliable power delivery and significantly improving overall efficiency. The proposed system presents a promising approach to enhancing the performance of hybrid UAVs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48526,"journal":{"name":"ICT Express","volume":"12 1","pages":"Pages 76-82"},"PeriodicalIF":4.2,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146154371","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}