Thursday, 10 June 2021, 16:00-17:30, Zoom Room
Session Chair: Pekka Pirinen (University of Oulu, Finland)
Big Communications: Connect the Unconnected
Shuping Dang and Chuanting Zhang (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia); Basem Shihada (KAUST, Saudi Arabia); Mohamed-Slim Alouini (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia)
In this poster, we present the analysis of the digital divide to illustrate the unfair access to the benefits brought by information and communications technology (ICT) over the globe and provide our solution termed big communications (BigCom) to close the digital divide and democratize the benefits of ICT. To facilitate the implementation of BigCom, we give a complete framework of BigCom considering both technological and non-technological factors. By implementing BigCom, we aim to connect the last four billion unconnected people living in far-flung and underdeveloped areas and achieve the goal of global and ubiquitous connectivity for everyone in the 6G era.
Mobile Edge Computing Heterogeneous Networks: Spatial Modeling and Delay Analysis
Yongqiang Zhang (KAUST & King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia); Mustafa A Kishk (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia); Mohamed-Slim Alouini (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia)
Mobile edge computing (MEC) can dramatically promote the computation capability and prolong the lifetime of mobile users by offloading computation-intensive tasks to edge cloud. In this paper, a spatial-random two-tier heterogeneous network (HetNet) is modelled to feature random node distribution, where the small-cell base stations (SBSs) and the macro base stations (MBSs) are cascaded with resource-limited servers and resource-unlimited servers, respectively. Only a certain type of application services and finite number of offloaded tasks can be cached and processed in the resource-limited edge server. For that setup, we investigate the performance of two offloading strategies corresponding to integrated access and backhaul (IAB)-enabled MEC networks and traditional cellular MEC networks. Using tools from stochastic geometry and queuing theory, we derive the average delay for the two different strategies, in order to better understand the influence of IAB on MEC networks. Simulations results are provided to verify the derived expressions and to reveal various system-level insights.
Performance Evaluation of UAV-Enabled Wireless Networks with Limited Capacity Charging Stations
Yujie Qin (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia); Mustafa A Kishk (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia); Mohamed-Slim Alouini (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia)
Using drones for cellular coverage enhancement is a recent technology that has shown a great potential in various practical scenarios. However, one of the main challenges that limits the performance of drone-enabled wireless networks is the limited flight time. In particular, due to the limited on-board battery size, the drone needs to frequently interrupt its operation and fly back to a charging station to recharge/replace its battery. In addition, the charging station might be responsible to recharge multiple drones. Given that the charging station has limited capacity, it can only serve a finite number of drones simultaneously. Hence, in order to accurately capture the influence of the battery limitation on the performance, it is required to analyze the dynamics of the time spent by the drones at the charging stations. In this paper, we use tools from queuing theory and stochastic geometry to study the influence of each of the charging stations’ limited capacity and spatial density on the performance of a drone-enabled wireless network.
Laser-Powered UAVs for Wireless Communication Coverage: A Large-Scale Deployment Strategy
Mohamed-Amine Lahmeri and Mustafa A Kishk (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia); Mohamed-Slim Alouini (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia)
To meet the latest requirements of the 6G standards, several techniques have been proposed in the open literature, such as millimeter waves, terahertz waves, and massive MIMO. In addition to these recent technologies, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is strongly advocated for 6G networks, as the 6G standard will not be dedicated to broadband services, but will rather be operating within reduced geographical cellular coverage. In this context, the deployment of UAVs is considered a key solution for seamless connectivity and reliable coverage. That being said, it is important to underline that although UAVs are characterized by their high mobility and their ability to establish line-of-sight links, their use is still impeded by several factors such as weather conditions, their limited computing power, and, most importantly, their limited energy. In this work, we are aiming for the novel technology that enables indefinite wireless power transfer for UAVs using laser beams. We propose a novel UAV deployment strategy, based on which we analyze the overall performance of the system in terms of wireless coverage. To this end, we use tractable tools from stochastic geometry to model the complex communication system and derive the coverage probability, to provide finally useful insights about the system.
Compressive Localization with RIS in Near-Field
Omar Rinchi (University of Jordan, Jordan); Ahmed Elzanaty and Mohamed-Slim Alouini (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia)
Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) is a key feature of the next sixth-generation cellular networks (6G) wireless communication technology. Exploiting its phase design properly can improve the wireless localization and estimation accuracy. For this reason, in this extended abstract we firstly consider a near field localization scenario where the position of the user equipment (UE) is to be estimated with the aid of a RIS using compressed sensing (CS). Furthermore, we address the bias mismatch problem by setting an optimization problem to estimate the off-the-grid error. Finally, we optimize the RIS phases to enhance the positioning performance. We compare the localization performance with the proposed phase design and other phase techniques.
AI-Enabled Slice Protection Exploiting Moving Target Defense in 6G Networks
Maria Christopoulou (NCSR Demokritos, Greece); Wissem Soussi (Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) & University of Zürich (UZH), Switzerland); George K Xilouris (NCSR Demokritos, Greece); Gürkan Gür (Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Switzerland); Edgardo Montes de Oca (Montimage, France); Harilaos Koumaras (NCSR Demokritos, Greece); Burkhard Stiller (University of Zürich, Switzerland)
As commercial 5G roll-outs continue progressing, research efforts are shifting toward requirements, challenges, and critical enablers for prospective 6G networks. The introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) support in 5G will be further exploited, rendering AI a key enabler for providing automated network management and orchestration, while improving the network resilience against potential threat actors. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate smart security schemes in “Beyond 5G” networks. This paper presents a use case for the proactive and reactive defense of end-to-end network slices that relies on AI-based attack detection to apply Moving Target Defense (MTD) policies based on an innovative framework.
Piezoelectrically Adjustable Metamaterial Particles in the Role of THz Modulators
Antonios Lalas (University of Western Macedonia, Greece)
The utilization of piezoelectric micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) actuators to efficiently implement programmable metamaterial components and metasurfaces as fundamental part of envisioned 6G networks is introduced in this paper. The novel arrangements enable the modification of the structural characteristics of complex media by applying appropriate bias voltage, revealing in this way a significant THz modulation capability along with enhanced bandwidth tunability. The overall performance of a metamaterial THz modulator is thoroughly examined. Several numerical data, obtained via the finite element method (FEM), clarify the features of the proposed device, along with potential employment in 6G reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) and future applications.
On the Capacity of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Assisted MIMO Systems
Jia Ye (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia); Shuaishuai Guo (Shandong University, China); Mohamed-Slim Alouini (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia)
This work investigates the capacity of RIS assisted multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems utilizing multiple reflecting patterns, where each reflecting pattern is non-uniformly activated to carry additional information. To enhance transmission performance, the reflecting patterns, reflecting activation probability, and the transmit covariance matrix are jointly designed. Based on the lower bound on the capacity, a gradient ascent algorithm is developed to find the optimal reflecting patterns, reflecting activation probability, and the transmit covariance matrix. By taking advantage of the concise-form upper bound on the capacity, closed-form solutions of the reflecting activation probability and transmit covariance matrix can be derived after optimizing the reflecting patterns. The superiority of the proposed design is investigated and verified by computer simulations. Some selected numerical results demonstrate that the proposed design can achieve a higher capacity than the benchmark adopting only one reflecting pattern.
Dynamic Control Plane Load Balancing in Large Scale Distributed vSDN-Enabled 5G Networks
Deborsi Basu (Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur & IEEE Student Member, India); Sricheta Parui and Vikash Gupta (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India); Uttam Ghosh (Vanderbilt University, USA)
The next-generation wireless communication networks are going to encounter excessive traffic overheads due to the rapid digitization of technologies. In this work, we have proposed a vSDN enabled distributed wide area network (WAN) architecture using a FlexFlow Mechanism that can dynamically distribute the load among the network Controllers keeping the latency threshold under the tolerance limit. The load balancing model along with our FlexFlow algorithmic solution produces proficient output that validates our claims. The result shows a significant reduction in load and is sufficient enough to handle heavy traffic flow over any wide geographical locations. The comparative analysis with an unbalanced load model is also done to show the utility of our approach.
Security Orchestration Framework for Federated Network Slicing
Shalitha Wijethilaka (University College Dublin, Ireland); Madhusanka Liyanage (University College Dublin, Ireland & University of Oulu, Finland)
Network slicing is a utilitarian technology in future mobile networks that can facilitate heterogeneous network requirements of a plethora of applications over a shared physical network cost-effectively. Federated slicing, an extension of conventional network slicing, allows network services across multiple administrative domains in a seamless manner. Management of security operations in such a system is a cumbersome activity. This paper proposes a framework to simplify the security orchestration in a federated network slicing system to support efficient security management in 5G and beyond networks. Probable advantages and the potential implementation challenges of the proposed framework are discussed in the paper.
Identifying Factors Enabling the Enhancement of Service Migration of Multi-Access Edge Computing
Pasika S Ranaweera (University College Dublin, Ireland & University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka); Anca Delia Jurcut (University College Dublin, Ireland); Madhusanka Liyanage (University College Dublin, Ireland & University of Oulu, Finland)
Edge computing is a novel concept proposed to overcome the limitations of the prevailing cloud-based telecommunication networks. Various concepts have emerged with edge computing that requires proper investigation prior to deployment. Migration of services within the edge computing nodes/ base stations is an imminent aspect of the envisaged paradigm that has created a lot of attention. The selection of the optimum edge node to migrate the service is such an issue that restricts the advancement of edge paradigms. The sole focus of this research is to identify and validate the factors enabling the optimal migration decision considering the Multi-Access Edge Computing paradigm.
SANCUS – Towards Unifying the Analysis and Control of Security, Privacy and Service Reliability
Charilaos Zarakovitis (National Centre for Scientific Research Demokritos, Greece); Nikolaos Pitropakis (Eight Bells LTD, Athens, Greece); Dimitrios Klonidis (UBITECH, Greece); Hicham Khalife (Thales Communications & Security, France)
The arrival of new technologies change the global digital landscape in many ways. In the past years, for example, network virtualization and cloud computing have given raise to organizations for meeting their everyday needs in an elastic manner without continuously investing on physical infrastructure. Things combined with fifth-generation (5G) technology standards speeded up the communication speeds providing, thereby, new perspectives to verticals and especially, Industry 4.0. However, the increasing popularity of such technologies have also attracted the attention of malicious parties, and thereby, conventional cybersecurity solutions start becoming obsolete. The analysis software scheme of uniform statistical sampling, audit and defence processes (SANCUS) draws on formalising the logic of expressing – for the first time – the notions of cyber security and digital privacy by means of final formulas and fuse these formulas into optimisation strategies to acquire the truly optimal defense recommendation in dynamic manner. In this respect, we aim at investigating inclusive solutions in the form of unified security-vs-privacy-vs-reliability trade-offs, for manipulating the system network cybersecurity, privacy and quality of service performance jointly, explicitly and automatically.
Measurement-Based Performance Evaluation of 5G NR Broadcasting
Kiril Kirev and Stefan Pratschner (TU Wien, Austria); Stefan Schwarz (TU Wien & CD-Lab Society in Motion, Austria)
We present measurement results of a 5G broadcasting measurement campaign conducted in collaboration with Austrian Broadcasting Services in and around Vienna, Austria. We report results from two measurement campaigns, one with a single high-power high-tower 5G broadcast transmitter and a receiver mounted on a car travelling at up to 100 km/h in line-of-sight conditions. The other with two transmitters, one high-power high-tower transmitter and one medium-power medium-tower transmitter operating in single-frequency network (SFN) mode. We measure the carrier to interference and noise ratio and the bit error ratio of 5G-compliant broadcast transmissions with a subcarrier spacing of 1.25 kHz. Our results show that the system is robust with respect to the relatively high velocity of 100 km/h in line-of-sight conditions and that SFN operation, compared to activating only one transmitter, can improve but also deteriorate the performance depending on the receiver location, even if the cyclic-prefix is not violated.
Spatial Probabilistic Shaping for VLC
Amanat Kafizov (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia); Ahmed Elzanaty and Mohamed-Slim Alouini (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia
Visible light communication (VLC) is a promising technology to be used in 6th-generation communication (6G) networks because of its attractive features such as colossal bandwidth and unlicensed spectrum. In this paper, a novel adaptive coded spatial modulation scheme with probabilistic shaping (PS) is proposed to approach the capacity of the spatial modulation (SM) in VLC channels with intensity modulation and direct detection (IM/DD). In the proposed scheme, either spatial or constellation symbols are probabilistically shaped depending on the user’s location inside the room and optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR). The input distribution, symbol spacing, and coding rate of the encoders are optimized to maximize the achievable rate for a given OSNR. Hence, high spectral efficiency (SE)is achieved. An algorithm to determine the proposed scheme’s capacity-achieving distribution with unipolar M-ary pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) signaling is also proposed. After that, spatial or constellation symbols, depending on the user’s location, are probabilistically shaped with optimal distribution, and the signal is encoded using DVB-S2 low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes. Simulation and numerical results are provided to evaluate proposed schemes’ performance in terms of SE and frame error rate (FER). The proposed schemes outperform the uniform-based scheme in the SE and FER. For example, for 8-PAM signaling with N=8 transmit antennas, the proposed schemes operate within 0.2dB from the capacity and outperform the uniform-based scheme by around 1.8dB at a transmission rate of 2.5 bits per channel use (bpcu).
A Single Detector Versus an Array of Detectors Receiver in Free-Space Optical Communications: A Performance Comparison
Ming-cheng Tsai (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia); Salman Bashir (KAUST, Saudi Arabia); Mohamed-Slim Alouini (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia)
Free-space optical (FSO) communications is an important technology that will be used for supporting high data-rates in the backhaul of the next generation of wireless communication networks. In this paper, we have compared the probability of error performance of two types of receivers used in FSO today: a receiver based on a single detector, and a receiver based on an array of detectors. The performance of these two receivers is compared for a number of fusion algorithms for an array of detectors such as equal gain combiner(EGC), selection combiner(SC), switched combiner(SWC) and the maximal ratio combiner(MRC). From this study, we conclude that even though the array of detectors adds more noise in the sufficient statistic by virtue of large number of detectors, using more computationally expensive fusion algorithms (such as SC and MRC) can help us achieve a superior probability of error performance as opposed to a single-detector receiver for practical channel conditions.
Beamforming Design for Full-Duplex Wireless Powered Communication Networks
Muhammad Shahid Iqbal (Koc University, Turkey); Yalcin Sadi (Kadir Has University, Turkey); Sinem Coleri (Koc University, Turkey)
Radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting is key in attaining perpetual lifetime for time-critical wireless powered communication networks due to full control on energy transfer, far field region, small and low-cost circuitry. In this study, we formulate a novel minimum length scheduling problem to determine the optimal beam-forming weights, power control and time allocation to minimize the schedule length. We consider the traffic demand, maximum transmit power, scheduling and energy causality constraints for a full-duplex wireless powered communication network. The formulated optimization problem is a mixed integer non-linear optimization problem therefore, difficult to solve for global optimum. As a future work, we present an efficient solution strategy based on the decomposition of the problem into power control problem and scheduling problem.
