IEEE 6G Training School

9:40 am - 10:40 am

• Speaker: Merouane Debbah

• Title of Talk: Wireless Networks Design in the Era of Deep Learning

• Abstract:

In this talk, we will discuss use of emerging deep learning techniques in future wireless communication networks. We will focus on artificial neural networks and highlight how artificial neural networks should be integrated into the architecture of future wireless communication networks.

11:00 am - 12:00 pm

• Speaker: Murat Uysal

• Title of Talk: Visible Light Communications for 6G and Beyond: From Theory to Industrial Standardization

• Abstract:

Visible light communication (VLC) builds upon the ubiquitous presence of light emitting diodes (LEDs) and exploits the existing illumination infrastructure for wireless access. VLC provides high data rate transmission in unregulated optical spectrum and is considered as a powerful complement to radio frequency based solutions in user dense environments or as an alternative in places where radio waves may not be permitted or restricted. In this talk, we first provide an overview of this promising technology and highlight its unique advantages and applications areas. Then, we explain how we can model VLC channels in a realistic manner and introduce key physical layer technologies to enable the implementation of high-speed VLC systems. Finally, we present ongoing international standardization activities in the area of VLC and summarize our relevant standard contributions.

1:30 pm - 2:30 pm

• Speaker: Luca Sanguinetti

• Title of Talk: MIMO Technologies for 5G and Beyond

• Abstract:

Over the past decade, Massive MIMO has gone from being a wild multi-antenna concept for improving the data rates in future cellular networks to a mainstream technology. The first part of the seminar will review the basic concepts of Massive MIMO and will explain why Massive MIMO has become in less than 10 years a core technology in 5G. But how close to the theoretical predictions will the 5G Massive MIMO technology actually perform? By answering this question, we will reveal the main weaknesses of the MIMO technology and will will then take a look at potential technology evolutions for beyond 5G networks. Among the different technologies, a promising one is represented by Cell-free Massive MIMO. The second part of the seminar will identify the fundamental aspects that call for a shift towards the cell-free paradigm, and will explain the benefits of the user-centric cell-free operation compared to conventional cellular operation. The third part of the seminar will focus on the new concept of Holographic MIMO communications, which refers to systems that are capable to generate any current distribution and to weight the impinging electric field according to a desired function.

2:50 pm - 3:50 pm

• Speaker: Tareq Al-Naffouri

• Title of Talk: Towards the Convergence of Communication, Localization, and Sensing in THz Systems

• Abstract:

Terahertz (THz)-band communications are a key enabler for future-generation wireless communication systems. In this talk we will overview some of the unique features of the THz channel and its pronounced impairments and demonstrate how this leads to the integration of of communications, localization, and sensing. We will propose solutions utilizing RIS, 3D arrays, and THz-RF coexistence which could alleviate some of the channel impairments and improve the coverage of THz systems.

4:10 pm - 5:10 pm

• Speaker: Salim El Rouayheb

• Title of Talk: On/Off Privacy for Online Users

• Abstract:

Online users are gradually getting more control over their privacy and the data collected about them. What is sometimes overlooked is how correlation can compromise their privacy. For example, a user who wants location privacy during a period of time, has to also worry about hiding his location outside of this period, since teleportation is not yet possible. Also, a user in a social network has to worry about his friends’ and family’s privacy settings due to them having similar behavior.

To formulate this problem, we focus on an “all-or-nothing” setting for privacy which we refer to as On/Off privacy, in which a user can switch between his/her privacy being On or Off depending on many factors such as internet connection, location, or device. The challenge here is that due to correlation one has to worry about privacy, even when privacy is Off. I will focus on information-theoretic measures for On/Off privacy and describe our initial results that deal with correlation and privacy in the context of private information retrieval.

9:00 am - 10:00 am

• Speaker: Angeliki Alexiou

• Title of Talk: Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces: redefining wireless design principles, features and challenges

• Abstract:

A Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) reflects an incident wave ideally towards any desired angle. Owing to this unique feature, the RIS has recently attracted considerable attention as a means of mediating non-line-of- sight links in wireless communications. As the need for increased data rates pushes the operation to higher frequencies, the functionalities offered by the RIS can be particularly useful in millimeter-wave and THz communications, where communication links become more vulnerable to blockage.

In this talk, fundamental RIS features are analyzed by examining RIS as a spatial filter, analytical performance characterization results are presented, also in the presence of beam misalignment, the RIS efficiency is discussed in the fully and partially illuminated cases and optimal RIS position and orientation are investigated in a mobile user environment.

RIS is considered a key 6G enabler, mainly because, by engineering its shape and size and the properties of the incident beam, it is possible to manipulate the reflected waves to suppress unwanted interference, while concentrating the power to desired directions, and also deliver advanced operations, such as focusing and self-healing.

10:20 am - 11:20 am

• Speaker: Ekram Hossain

• Title of Talk: Stochastic Multi-Armed Bandits With Knapsacks and Their Applications in Wireless Networks

• Abstract:

Multi-armed bandit (MAB) is a popular sequential decision making technique ideal for decision making under uncertainty given no prior knowledge of the environment. It uses the history of previous decisions and observations as well as side information, if available, to arrive at the current decision. The classic MAB algorithm such as the upper confidence bound (UCB) algorithm concerns with learning the single optimal action among a set of candidate actions with unknown rewards. Different from traditional bandits, bandits with knapsacks (BwK) can model more sophisticated distributed decision-making problems under global constraints. Starting with the basics of stochastic MAB models and the UCB algorithm, in this talk, I shall discuss a BwK model and show it’s application to the distributed access point (AP) or server selection problem in wireless networks. Time permitting, I will also discuss a linear contextual bandit with knapsack model for the same problem.

11:40 am - 12:40 pm

• Speaker: Ian Akyildiz

• Title of Talk: METAVERSE: Challenges for Extended Reality and Hologram Type Communication in the Next Decade

• Abstract:

The term "METAVERSE" (META= BEYOND) and (VERSE=UNIVERSE) originated in the science fiction novel “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson in 1992 can be regarded as the evolution of the Internet where there will be almost no separation between digital and physical. The metaverse is a network of connecting the physical and virtual world seamlessly. This will be made possible thanks to the convergence of key emerging technologies such as Extended Reality (XR) (the umbrella term for Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR)) as well as Hologram Type Communication (HTC). In this talk, the XR and HTC technologies are explored and according research challenges concerning wireless communications for the next decade are presented. XR and HTC provide truly immersive experiences for a plethora of use cases. They face great challenges in transmitting high volume data with high throughput and guaranteed end-to-end latency which cannot be addressed by existing/current communication technologies. In this talk, a roadmap towards wireless ultimate XR and HTC technologies is presented. The basics, existing products and use cases of these technologies are reviewed. Upon which technical requirements and bottlenecks of realizing these technologies within wireless communication networks are identified.

2:10 pm - 3:10 pm

• Speaker: Peiying Zhu

• Title of Talk: 6G Integrated Sensing and Communication: From Theory to Practice

• Abstract:

TBD

3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

• Speaker: Christos Masouros

• Title of Talk: The Multi-functional Wireless Network of 6G and Beyond: Signalling, Function Synergies and Trade-offs

• Abstract:

The integration of sensing and communication functionalities is seen as a key enabling technology for 6G networks to provide services beyond communications. In this talk I argue that it is a natural evolution of the two technologies, as it has obvious gains in energy-, hardware- and cost- efficiency through the use of dual-functional hardware. I further explain that their co-design also offers opportunities in flexible trade-offs and new synergies between sensing and communication. I discuss signalling strategies that enable information exchange together with target detection from a single transmission. These range from radar-centric and communication-centric, to joint signalling. I present some results from my team’s work in the area, that underline the benefits of the co-design in offering a graceful trade-off between the two functionalities. I then discuss use cases that highlight potential synergies between sensing and communications. I conclude with some thoughts on research opportunities and the road ahead.

4:50 pm - 5:50 pm

• Speaker: Emilio Calvanese Strinati

• Title of Talk: 6G Networks: Beyond Shannon Towards Semantic and Goal-Oriented Communications

• Abstract:

This lecture promotes the idea that including semantic and goal-oriented aspects in future 6G networks can produce a significant leap forward in terms of system effectiveness and sustainability. Semantic communication goes beyond the common Shannon paradigm of guaranteeing the correct reception of each single transmitted packet, irrespective of the meaning conveyed by the packet. The idea is that, whenever communication occurs to convey meaning or to accomplish a goal, what really matters is the impact that the correct reception/interpretation of a packet is going to have on the goal accomplishment. Focusing on semantic and goal-oriented aspects and possibly combining them, helps to identify the relevant information, i.e. the information strictly necessary to recover the meaning intended by the transmitter or to accomplish a goal. With this lecture we focus on the benefit of semantic compression. We present and detail a novel architecture that enables representation learning of semantic symbols for effective semantic communications. After discussing theoretical aspects and successfully design objective functions, which help learn effective semantic encoders and decoders, we present promising experimentation results for the scenario of text transmission when the sender and receiver speak different languages.