The IEEE CCNC 2024 conference has been organized in the vibrant Las Vegas, from January 6 - 9th, 2024. Continuing tradition, the prestigious Flaming Hotel once again served as the conference venue. However, this year’s event was strategically scheduled before the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), providing attendees with the unique opportunity to delve into the trends of consumer electronics at our conference before exploring the technological innovations of the year at the CES.

Organizing a conference as extensive as CCNC, which included numerous concurrent events and involved over 30 dedicated individuals on the organizing committee, demanded careful planning and coordination: to this aim, we implemented a meticulous process that engaged all members of the organizing committee, fostering a sense of community among everyone involved. After the Covid pandemic, we could feel palpable eagerness within the research community to return to in-person events and reconnect with colleagues.

We believed that CCNC and Vegas provided the ideal setting for fostering these social interactions. To enhance networking opportunities, we paid attention to enjoyable social events to complement the technical program. In addition to the traditional social dinner, where we announced the best paper awards, we organized a lively welcome cocktail event. Attendees enjoyed food and beverages while engaging in a poster session, and a similar dynamic was replicated during the demo session.

However, the true measure of the conference’s success was the level of interaction and engagement observed among participants during the sessions. These meaningful exchanges served as an ultimate reward for the organizing committee and provided promising indicators for the future of the conference.

The CCNC 2024 conference presented attendees with a diverse and comprehensive program, ensuring that participants could find something of interest at every moment of the event. Our program featured two keynote addresses, one-panel discussion, four workshops, nine tutorials, three poster sessions, one demo session, and 35 technical and work-in-progress sessions, totaling more than 280 presentations all condensed into just three-and-a-half days.

While keeping the focus on networking and consumer communications, the CCNC 2024 conference explored how innovation in this domain can be enriched by integrating complementary fields. To accomplish this, we meticulously planned ten technical main tracks, delving into the future of AI-driven, secure, integrated networking systems, and applications.

Notably, we introduced a new track focused on the digital twin of cyber-physical systems. The overwhelming response from the community confirmed the efficacy of this approach, with more than 300 technical papers submitted and carefully reviewed by our Technical Program Committee (TPC). Based on the outcomes of the tracks, we highlight that challenges related to cybersecurity are perceived as highly significant by the research community in this domain.

However, the most formidable challenge appears to be integrating security into system design, while also addressing other requirements. Notably, the paper awarded as the best of this edition (“A Lightweight Aggregate Authentication Protocol for Internet of Drones,” from Image Bhattarai, Cong Pu, and Kim-Kwang Raymond Choo) tackled the combined challenges of communication security and efficiency for resource-constrained drones.

From paper submissions, it was evident that AI-driven approaches can support all aspects of networking and consumer communications, spanning from protocol design to applications and services. In this context, the remarkable industrial keynote by Dr. Charles Schroeder from National Instruments unveiled the possibilities and challenges of generative AI in designing new measurement systems and next-generation communication technologies.

Additionally, the need for holistic approaches in designing communication systems for future 6G networks was underscored in the keynote by Prof. Danijela Cabric from UCLA, who provided insights into the fundamental rethinking of radio architectures, signal processing, and networking protocols required by such systems.

In exploring the societal impacts of these technologies, the panel organized by Prof. Mehmet Ulema from Manhattan College and Dr. Doug Zuckerman prompted the audience to reflect on communication systems for public safety and shed light on IEEE initiatives addressing this critical area. The program was further enriched by workshops and tutorials going into the vertical of emerging topics, such as quantum and virtualized edge computing for future network systems, digital twins, and the web of things, just to name a few.

We are confident that the diverse array of offerings presented over the three days of the CCNC conference will undoubtedly inspire researchers and catalyze new studies.