REFRESH 2026

6th International Workshop on Real-life Modeling in 5G/6G networks and beyond

June 22-24, 2026, Reykjavik, Iceland

Paper Important Dates

Submission

April, 2026

Decision Notification

April, 2026

Camera-ready

May, 2026

General Description

The 6th International Workshop on Real-life Modeling in 5G/6G networks and beyond will take place from June 22-24 2026 in Reykjavik, Iceland, co-located with the International Conference on Distributed Computing in Smart Systems and Internet of Things

The economic and societal potential of emerging 5G/6G and cyber-physical social systems is vastly greater than what has been realized so far, and major investments are being made worldwide to develop the corresponding science and technology. The Future Internet paradigm, the proliferation of emerging networks and architectures, wireless access technologies and multi-homing smart devices are evolving towards a competitive environment, where users and devices have access to various resources, while their behaviors become strongly interdependent. This fact demands and motivates the development of user-centric resource management and optimization frameworks, which enable user’s self-optimization and autonomy. This vision is further motivated and supported by the convergence of various emerging technologies enabling Cyber-Physical Systems operation, including 5G/B5G/6G technologies, Internet of Things (IoT), Mobile Edge Computing and Software Defined Networking, all targeting flexibility and efficiency. To deal with the involved complexity, and driven by the requirements of autonomy and scalability, distributed resource orchestration approaches appear as a necessity rather than a desire.

The REFRESH Workshop aims at to stimulate research on the most novel topics of real-life modeling in 5G/6G networks and beyond. This year’s edition encourages submission of theoretical and experimental work (including studies of real deployment), with a primary interest in new directions of wireless networking in concrete application scenarios and demonstrators in areas such as, but not limited to: mobile edge computing, Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, public safety networks, dynamic spectrum utilization, smart grid communications, wireless power communication, green wireless networks, information-centric wireless networks. The workshop seeks original work presented in the form of research papers describing new research and development approaches and results, as well as work-in-progress papers. Highly disruptive work-in-progress and position papers are also welcome, provided they focus on particularly innovative solutions or applications for 5G/6G networks and beyond. All papers shall be forward-looking, describe their relationship to existing work, and shall argue their impact and implications for ongoing or future research. Selected workshop papers will also be considered for publication in a Special Issue and/or Special Sections of international peer-reviewed journals.

Workshop Topics

Indicative topics, but not exhaustive, are listed below

Conference Topics
  • Channel Modeling and Estimation
  • Waveform Design, Advanced Coding, and Modulation
  • Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) and Holographic MIMO
  • Fluid Antennas (FA) and Advanced Antenna Systems
  • Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC / JCAS)
  • Energy Harvesting and Low-Energy Communications
  • Wireless Information and Power Transfer (WIPT)
  • Terahertz (THz) and Sub-THz Communications
  • Short Packet and Finite Block Length Communications
  • Physical Layer Security
  • Age and Value of Information
  • Channel Detection, Scheduling and Access Control
  • Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA) and Over-the-Air Computation (AirComp)
  • Hybrid OMA/NOMA Schemes
  • Grant-Free/Random Access
  • Cognitive Radio Communications and Networking
  • Cooperative and Multi-hop Communications and Networking
  • Edge Computing and Computation Offloading
  • Energy Management in Wireless Networks
  • AI-driven Energy Efficiency and Green Networking
  • Economic and Game-Theoretic Approaches to Resource Management
  • Reinforcement Learning (RL) and Multi-Agent Systems for Resource Management
  • Federated Learning (FL) and Decentralized AI for Wireless Communications
  • Agentic AI Systems for Resource Management
  • Machine Learning (ML) and Optimization for the Air Interface and RAN
  • Stochastic, Bayesian, and Robust Optimization for Resource Allocation
  • Optimization under Uncertainties in Wireless Networks
  • Assessment studies for 5G/6G KPIs
  • Multi-cluster and multi-domain trials over 5G/6G infrastructure
  • Energy consumption monitoring and management
  • Vertical applications deployment and management
  • Sustainability metrics and measurements
  • AI-Native 6G Architectures
  • Open/Virtualized RAN (O-RAN) Management and Orchestration (SMO/RIC)
  • Network Digital Twins for Simulation, Emulation, and Management
  • Deterministic Networking and Time-Sensitive Networks (TSN)
  • Cloud-Native 6G Core and Edge-Cloud Continuum
  • Semantic and Goal-Oriented Communications
  • Intent-Based Networking and Autonomous Networks
  • 6G Security: Zero Trust Architectures and Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC)
  • Attack modeling and prevention
  • Privacy-Preserving Techniques and Management
  • Immersive XR, Holographic Telepresence, and the Tactile Internet
  • Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN): Satellite, HAPS, and UAV Integration
  • Advanced V2X, Autonomous Driving, and Robotic/Drone Communications
  • Wireless for Disaster Recovery, Emergency Services, and Public Safety
  • Massive IoT (mIoT) and Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency (URLLC) Use Cases

Conference Sponsors and Supporters

We invite you to participate in the sponsor program for REFRESH 2026.

Sponsor benefits include:

  • • Sponsor company name and logo will be displayed on website and at the venue
  • • Opportunity for sponsored awards (best paper and best paper honorable mention)
  • • Opportunity to provide named travel grant
  • • Acknowledgment in opening talk and closing remarks

National Technical University of Athens

NTUA NETMODE

Institute of Communication & Computer Systens (ICCS)

ICSS

Arizona State University

ASU