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1 Editorial

Welcome to the Special Issue of the Mobile Networks and Applications Journal on Future Wireless Personal Networks. We have received a large number of wireless-related submissions to the journal. Wireless personal communication needs are extending beyond its limitations by gradually incorporating a wide range of challenging services and applications. These integrated network environments require innovative computing strategies to exploit the communication opportunity. Furthermore, mobility, quality of service and battery constrains increase the complexity of this task. In this context, what appears theoretically possible becomes conditionally feasible only when all available network resources are being efficiently exploited, including those hosted in nearby network architecture.

This special issue addresses the architecture issues with emphasis on wireless applications. The contributions to this special issue cover high-quality theoretical as well as practical works on a wide range of wireless issues. The contributed papers have been divided into three categories. The first category contains papers that deal with the performance improvements of wireless networks. The second group of papers in this issue deals with security issues in wireless systems. This group of papers offers solutions group security and user authentication. The third group of papers covers infrastructure issues of wireless networks.

We would like to thank the authors of the papers whose keen efforts and dedications made the publication of this special issue possible. We are indebted to the promptness and devotion of the reviewers whose valuable evaluations improved the quality of the papers significantly. In addition, we would like to thank the Springer publication staff members for their continuous support and dedication. We particularly appreciate the relentless support and encouragements granted to us by Dr. Imrich Chlamtac, the Editor-in-Chief of the Mobile Networks and Applications Journal.