The advent of the fourth industrial revolution, known as “Industry 4.0” in Europe or “Made in China 2025” in China, has forced companies to adapt to changes in paradigms and approaches related to the organization and control of manufacturing processes. The increasing number of novel and heterogeneous technologies presents significant research opportunities for various Industry 4.0 sectors such as logistics, smart cities, utilities, healthcare, or Intelligent Transportation Systems.

Industry 4.0 environments have to cope with challenges such as cost efficiency, potential communication interference, fault tolerance, autonomous decision-making, full lifecycle traceability control, business-intelligence capabilities, new forms of human-machine interaction such as augmented-reality systems, higher capacities to handle data processing, energy-efficiency demands, and cooperative tasks. The use of technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), augmented reality, fog and edge computing, and even blockchain, together with wireless networks and mobile computing, can enable novel cyber-secured, resilient, human-centric, and context-aware applications to face these challenges.

This special issue aims to report on the latest advances in mobile and wireless technologies in the ever-increasing complex and integrated ecosystem of industrial systems, focusing on improving data collection, data communication, storage, authentication, scalability, energy efficiency, standardization, interoperability, mobility, and security in Industry 4.0.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Recent advances in fog/edge computing in IIoT
• Context-awareness in IIoT
• Human-machine interfaces and interactions in human-centric smart industrial systems
• Industrial applications of Internet of Things (IoT)
• Blockchain based Industry 4.0 solutions
• Cyber-physical systems enabled for Industry 4.0 applications
• Smart energy and cities in the IIoT era
• Privacy and security solutions for IIoT
• Low power wireless sensor networks for IIoT services
• Antenna design for IIoT devices