Guest Editorial Special Issue on the Internet of Nano Things

T HE Internet of Things paradigm has transformed the way we operate our personal and professional lives, it is driving our economy and will continue to enable many new opportunities in broad research areas. As this pervasive and ubiquitous interconnection of our everyday life appliances continues into the future, new types of devices enabled by nano and biotechnology promise to push engineering to previously unex-plored application domains, where the exchange of information and access from/to the broader Internet for their monitoring and control are even more essential. The research on nanoscale communication and networks aims to develop systems for interconnecting these novel devices at the nanoscale, i.e., the Internet of Nano Things. Research on nanoscale communications can be broadly subdivided into two areas, which include: 1) electromagnetic (EM) nano communications and 2) molecular communications. Electromagnetic nano communications bring new challenges to the traditional wireless paradigms, as nano-devices can only operate at extremely high frequencies, i.e., in the terahertz (THz) band (0.1–10 THz) and above. In addition, the unprecedented properties of nanomaterials and metamaterials bring new capabilities to the nano-devices, which have to be leveraged to enable practical nanoscale communication systems. Molecular communications, on the other hand, are a brand new paradigm that aims to create communication systems based on chemical reactions and transport processes, especially those underlying living organisms. A number of different models have been proposed for molecular communication systems , including molecular diffusion-based systems, bacterial nano-networks, or calcium signaling, among many others. Due to their inherent properties, and their feasibility in biological environments, molecular communications are enabling the engineering of communication systems in previously unex-plored domains, such as chemistry and biotechnology. While researchers are currently investigating these challenges to develop fully functional nano communication systems , a question remains as to whether they can represent an extended communication network that is part of the broader Internet. This JOURNAL's Special Issue solicited research papers that address new solutions for the Internet of Nano Things. In total, 13 papers were received in response to this call for papers. Each of the papers went through at least two rounds of rigorous reviews, and finally 6 papers were accepted for publication in this Special Issue. The very first paper in this Special Issue entitled " The Internet of Molecular Things Based on FRET, " by Kuscu and Akan, explores nano communication using Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET). The authors utilize the short-range …