In recent years, a shift toward an all IP networking architecture has attracted the attention of the researchers. We are now at a turning point where multimedia communications is the major driver for any communication network. The new paradigm is Quality of Service in a multimedia communication network related to the specific services required. This is particularly true in the wireless section of a communication network, where we face the problems of a scarce bandwidth resource, a channel with a time varying behaviour, the request of a low power consumption for the mobile terminal, and an increased bit rate demand per user. What we are foreseeing is that in the future a variety of wireless networking technologies will coexist to address different needs, such as, for example, a general cellular broadband wireless network (often denoted as 4G wireless system), and a variety of networks without infrastructure able to solve specific problems (sensor and ad hoc networks) that should be interconnected in order to transport the information everywhere. For all these networks we also have to consider Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting aspects together with the encryption of the message sent over the air, that are part of the security and QoS requirements across the networks. Wireless applications will be another important and challenging aspect for the future deployment of wireless networks.

The Tyrrhenian Workshop on Digital Communications is devoted each year to a specific theme in the broad area of digital communications and its applications.
The workshop tries to provides a friendly environment that favors the exchange of ideas on the main research challenges in the field of the workshop theme.

After several years, the theme chosen by the steering committee of the workshop this year is wireless communications, that is reaching a new key turning point and is expanding into new research directions.

In recent years, a shift toward an all IP networking architecture has attracted the attention of the researchers. We are now at a turning point where multimedia communications is the major driver for any communication network. The new paradigm is Quality of Service in a multimedia communication network related to the specific services required. This is particularly true in the wireless section of a communication network, where we face the problems of a scarce bandwidth resource, a channel with a time varying behavior, the request of a low power consumption for the mobile terminal, and an increased bit rate demand per user. What we are foreseeing is that in the future a variety of wireless networking technologies will coexist to address different needs, such as, for example, a general cellular broadband wireless network (often denoted as 4G wireless system), and a variety of networks without infrastructure able to solve specific problems (sensor and ad hoc networks) that should be interconnected in order to transport the information everywhere. For all these networks we also have to consider Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting aspects together with the encryption of the message sent over the air, that are part of the security and QoS requirements across the networks. Wireless applications will be another important and challenging aspect for the future deployment of wireless networks.

Based on these facts, we have structured the workshop into five sessions:

• 4G wireless systems
• Sensor and ad hoc networks
• Security in wireless networks
• QoS and efficiency in multimedia heterogeneous wireless networks
• Wireless system applications

These five sessions are complementary and interlaced with each other. Technical areas of interest for the workshop include (but are not limited to) the following:

modulation, coding, system impairments, channel modeling, MIMO and smart antennas, cross layer and radio resource management, protocols, routing in wireless networks, cognitive radios and networks, energy efficiency, multimedia wireless communications, Quality of Service architectures, security, architectures for security, key distribution, etc.

We are also specifically looking for the most advanced solutions for security and applications of wireless systems in many different environments, like multimedia communications, infomobility, health care, emergency situations, etc.

Interested authors are invited to submit their research papers according to the guidelines and timetable below. Authors could also submit work-in-progress papers, on topics still open for discussion in the area of wireless communications and its applications, to the poster session. All papers submitted to the Workshop must not have been published in, or submitted to, other technical conferences/journals.