Salama Ikki

News:

• [Sep. 26th, 2025] Congratulations to Sara Hassan for obtaining her Ph.D. degree. Well done, Dr. Sara.

• [September 19th, 2025] Delighted to be listed again this year among the top 2% of scientists in the world according to a study published by Elsevier (prepared by Scientists from Stanford University USA). This is another opportunity to thank all my mentors, colleagues, and students for their endless support and contributions: Source.

• [September 15th, 2025] "Tracking and Positioning Dynamic Targets in VLC: Signal Dependent Noises and Bayesian Bound Analysis " work accepted by IEEE TCOM, congratulations to Sara and Dr. Maysa.

• [August 25th, 2025] Congratulations to Mohammed Abufoul on being awarded the AFCCE Scholarship for the Fall 2025 semester by the **Association of Federal Communications Consulting Engineers (AFCCE), Washington, D.C., USA, Link . 

• [July 22nd, 2025] Congratulations to Sara on passing her PhD Seminar, well done.

• [May 21st, 2025] Congratulations to Islam Abu Mahady for obtaining her Ph.D. degree. Well done, Dr. Islam.

• [April 22nd, 2025] Congratulations to Sara on passing her PhD comprehensive exam, well done.

• [April. 1st, 2025] Our group member, Sara Hassan, has been awarded the Graduate Student Executive Scholarship in recognition of her outstanding research achievements. Congratulations to Sara—we wish her all the best! 

• [Jan. 24th, 2025] "Parameter-Based Estimation of Block Time-Varying Channels in OTFS Modulation Systems" work accepted by IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, Congratulations to Mohammed AbuFoul, Dr. Deeb Tubail and Dr. Mohammed Zourob.

• [Jan. 18th, 2025]  "Advancing Optical Communication: Visible Light Communication and Multi-Layer Airborne Backhaul Networks" has been ACCEPTED for presentation as a tutorial at the 2025 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) Tutorials. Congratulations to Dr. Maysa and Dr. Elamassie.

• [December 12th, 2024] "Enhancing and Generalizing Position-Velocity Tracking in Imperfect mm-wave Systems Using a Low-Complexity Neural Network" work accepted by IEEE OJCOM, congratulations to Dr. Deeb.

• [September 19th, 2024] Delighted to be listed again this year among the top 2% of scientists in the world according to a study published by Elsevier (prepared by Scientists from Stanford University USA). This is another opportunity to thank all my mentors, colleagues, and students for their endless support and contributions, Source.

• [September 12th, 2024] "FD MU-MIMO Systems: Performance Analysis in the Presence of Imperfect CSI and Non-ideal Transceivers" work accepted by IEEE Transaction on Mobile Computing, congratulations to Dr. Emad and Dr. Malek.

• [August 14th, 2024] "Bayesian Cramer-Rao Bound, Extended and Unscented Kalman Filters Based Tracking Through Non-Ideal Transceivers in 5G and Beyond " work accepted by IEEE Transaction on Vehicular Technology, congratulations to Dr. Deeb.

• [August 9th, 2024] Congratulations to Dr. Emad Saleh on being promoted to Senior IEEE Member. 

• [August 9th, 2024]  IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering 2024 1st Place BEST PAPER AWARDS: "Impact of Hardware Impairments on Physical Layer Security of Cell-Free Massive MIMO",  Congratulations to Ayesha Tahreem and Dr. Deeb Tubail.

• [July 7th, 2024] "Insights into Visible Light Positioning: Range Tracking and Bayesian Cramér-Rao Lower Bound Analysis " work accepted by IEEE Communications Letter (CL), congratulations to Sara and Dr. Maysa.

• [June 17th, 2024] "Signal-Dependent Shot and Relative Intensity Noise in Channel Estimation of Laser Diode-based Indoor VLC Systems" work accepted by Transaction on Communications (TCOM), congratulations to Dr. Maysa.

• [May 24th, 2024] Congratulations to Maysa Yaseen for obtaining her Ph.D. degree, well done Dr. Maysa.

• [May 5th, 2024] "Impact of Hardware Impairments on Physical Layer Security of Cell-Free Massive MIMO" work accepted by IEEE CCECE2014, congratulations to Ayesha and Dr. Deeb.

• [April 25th, 2024] Congratulations to Ayesha Tahreem for obtaining her Master's degree, well done Ayesha.

• [April 22nd, 2024] "Hardware Impairments Effects on Over the Air System Assisted by Unmanned Aerial Vehicle" work accepted by IEEE Communications Letter, congratulations to Dr. Hamzih, Dr. Emad and Dr. Malek, well done.

• [December 18th, 2023] Congratulations to Deeb Tubail for obtaining his Ph.D. degree, well done Dr. Deeb.

• [October 6th, 2023] Delighted to be listed again this year among the top 2% of scientists in the world according to a study published by Elsevier (prepared by Scientists from Stanford University USA). Another opportunity to thank all my mentors, colleagues, and students for their endless support and contributions, Source.  

• [August 1st, 2023] Congratulations to Hamzih Alsmadi for obtaining his Ph.D. degree, well done Dr. Hamzih.

• [July 22nd, 2023]  IEEE BLACKSEACOM 2023 BEST PAPER AWARDS: "An End-To-End Auto-Encoder Algorithm for Hardware-Impaired Transceivers",  Congratulations to Sara Elfar, well done. Link  

• [July 21st, 2023] Congratulations to Maysa Yaseen for passing her Seminar, well done.

• [July 12th, 2023] "Range-Direction Tracking and Bayesian Cramer-Rao Bound Analysis in mm-wave Systems Equipped with Imperfect Transceivers" work accepted by IEEE Wireless Communications Letter. Congratulations to Deeb Tubail, well done. 

• [June 12th, 2023] ''Capacity Analysis of UAV Communications Under the Non-ideal Transceiver Effects", work accepted by IEEE Communications Letter. Congratulations to Hamzih, Dr. Emad and Dr. Malek.

• [May 24th, 2023] ''Channel Estimation in Visible Light Communication Systems: The Effect of Input Signal-Dependent Noise," work accepted by the IEEE Transaction on Vehicular Technology, Congratulations to Maysa Yaseen, well done.

• [May 19th, 2023] Congratulations to Emad Saleh for obtaining his Ph.D. degree, well done Dr. Emad.

• [May 19th, 2023] ''An End-To-End Auto-Encoder Algorithm for Hardware-Impaired Transceivers," work accepted by the 2023 IEEE International Black Sea Conference on Communications and Networking, Congratulations to Sara Hasan, well done.

• [May 6th, 2023] I have been promoted to the rank of Full Professor.

• [May 4th, 2023] Congratulations to Maysa Yaseen for passing her comprehensive exam, well done.

• [May 5th, 2023] Congratulations to Deeb Tubail for passing his Seminar Exam, well done.

• [April 28, 2023] ''Physical Layer Security in Downlink of Cell-Free Massive MIMO with Imperfect CSI," work accepted by IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics & Security.  Deeb and Dr. Malik, well done.

• [April 14, 2023] Tutorial titled: An Overview of Signal Processing for Massive MIMO and Localization with non-Ideal Transceivers is accepted by IEEE Black Sea Conference on Communications and Networking, 2023. Deeb and Dr. Ayse, well done.

• [April 4th, 2023] Delighted to be listed again this year among the top 2% of scientists in the world according to a study published by Elsevier (prepared by Scientists from Stanford University USA). Another opportunity to thank all my mentors, colleagues, and students for their endless support and contributions, Source.

• [October 26, 2022] ''The Effect of Hardware Impairments on the Error Bounds of Localization and Maximum Likelihood Estimation of mm-Wave MISO-OFDM Systems," work accepted by IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. Congratulations. Deeb, Busra, and Dr. Ayse, well done.

• [October 22, 2022] ''RIS-Aided Mobile Localization Error Bounds Under Hardware Impairments," work accepted by IEEE Transactions on Communications. Congratulations Dr. Fariba, Dr. Malik, and Deeb, well done.

• [Oct. 10, 2022] Delighted to be listed again this year among the top 2% of scientists in the world according to a study published by Elsevier (prepared by Scientists from Stanford University USA). Another opportunity to thank all my mentors, colleagues, and students for their endless support and contributions. Source. 

• [October 7, 2022] ''Applying Game Theory to Relay Resource Selection in Hybrid-band Wireless Systems," work accepted by IEEE Sensors Journal. Congratulations Dr. Bushra, well done.

• [August 29, 2022] ''Spectral-Energy Efficiency and Power Allocation in Full-Duplex Networks: The Effects of Hardware Impairment and Nakagami-m Fading Channels, " work accepted by IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. Congratulations Emad, well done.

• [July 29th, 2022] Congratulations to Osama Amjad for obtaining her Ph.D. degree, well done Dr. Osama.

• [June 24th, 2022] Dr. Ikki becomes a Visiting Research Professor (Nokia Scholarship) at Aalto University, Finland: Link, NOKIA 

• [May 12th, 2022] Congratulations to Bushra Mughal for obtaining her Ph.D. degree, well done Dr. Bushra.

• [May 2022] Deeb Tubail has been awarded a Lakehead University 2022-23 Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS). Congratulations Deeb, well done.

• [May 2022] ''Less Complex and Higher Spectral Efficiency Resource Allocation Algorithm for UAVs Networks", work accepted by IEEE Canadian Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Congratulations Hamzih, well done.

• [April 2022] ''Less Complex Algorithm to Max-Min the Resource Allocation for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Networks'' work accepted by IEEE VTC2022-Spring, congratulations Hamzih, Dr. Huda and Dr. Malek. 

• [March 2022] ''Multi-UAV Wireless Networks: Jointly Trajectory Optimization and Resource Allocation'' work accepted by IEEE International Conference on Communication, 2022. Congratulations Dr. Huda. 

• [March 2022]  ''Spectral Efficiency of Full-Duplex MIMO Systems under the Effects of Hardware Impairments,'' work accepted by IEEE VTC2022-Spring, Helsinki, Finland, 2022. congratulation Emad and Dr. Malek.  

• [Jan. 28th 2022] I got the Merit Award for exceptional performance in research for the period 2019 to 2021, at Lakehead University.

• [Jan. 21st 2022] Congratulations to Ahmed Cheema for obtaining his Ph.D. degree, well done Dr. Cheema.

Research Interests

• • Orthogonal Time Frequency Space Modulation (OTFS)

  • Millimeter-Wave Communications.

  • Resource Allocation in 5G networks.

  • UAV Communications and Networks.

  • Estimation and detection. 

  • Full-duplex communications. 

  • Localization and Positioning.

  • Visible Light Communications (VLC).

  • Rate Splitting Multiple Access (RSMA).

Brief Biography

Salama S. Ikki received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Memorial University, St. Johns, NL, Canada, in 2009. From February 2009 to February 2010, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Waterloo, ON, Canada. From February 2010 to December 2012, he was a Research Assistant with the INRS at the University of Quebec, Montreal, QC, Canada. He is currently a Professor of Wireless Communications at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada. He is the author of more than 100 journal and conference papers, has more than 6000 citations, and has an H-index of 39. His research interests include cooperative networks, multiple-input-multiple-output, spatial modulation, and wireless sensor networks. Dr. Ikki served on the Editorial Board for IEEE Communications Letters and the Institution of Engineering and Technology Communications. Furthermore, he also served as a Technical Program Committee member for various conferences, including the IEEE International Conference on Communications, the IEEE Global Communications Conference, the IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference, the IEEE Spring/Fall Vehicular Technology Conference, and the IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor, and Mobile Communications. Dr. Ikki received the Best Paper Award for what he published in the EURASIP Journal on Advanced Signal Processing. He also received IEEE Communications Letters, IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology and IEEE Transactions on Communications exemplary reviewer certificates for 2012, 2012 and 2014, respectively.

Education

• BSc, Electrical Engineering, Al-Isra Jordanian University, Amman, Jordan.

• MSc, Electrical Engineering, The Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport, Alexandria, Egypt.

• Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Memorial University.

Work Experience

• • 1/5/2023--: Full Professor, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Canada.

  • 1/9/2016-30/4/2023: Associate Professor, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Canada.

  • 1/9/2013-1/9/2016: Assistant Professor, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Canada.

  • 1/9/2011--1/9/2013: Lecturer at Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.

Grants

• • Mitacs 2025, 10,000 CAD$: Title: Autonomous UAV Search and Rescue Using Deep Learning for Emergency Response in Remote and Infrastructure-Free Regions, (L2M – AutoSAR). 

  • NSERC Alliance International 2024, 25,000 CAD$, Title: Spatial and Temporal Prediction of Wireless Communication Channels for 5G+ Communication Systems.

  • NSERC Alliance International 2024, 25,000 CAD$, Title: Quantum Entanglement: Unravelling Full Duplex Communication.

  • NSERC Alliance 2020, 50,000 CAD$, Title: Early identification and monitoring of the 2019 novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease community spread, (In partnership with Onica.).

  • Mitacs Globalink Research Internship  2023: Title: "Cognitive Machine-Type Communications for Massive IoT".

  • Mitacs 2022, 110,000 CAD$, Title: Low-Cost Sensor System for Remote COVID-19 Patient Monitoring. 

  • NSERC-DG 2020, 205,000 CAD$ (Two parts: LU 7000 CAD$ + NSERC DG, 200,000 $CAD). Title: Combined Massive MIMO and Interference Alignment for Future Wireless Networks Involving Machine Type Communications.

  • NSERC-DG: 2014--2019, 125,000 CAD$. Title: High spectral and energy Efficient Multi-user Large MIMO Wireless Systems.

  • NSERC-ENGAGE: 2016--2017, 50,000 CAD$. Title: LTE-advanced Machine Type Communication for Internet of Things (In partnership with WiMatek Systems).

  • NSERC-ENGAGE: 2017--2018 40,000 CAD$. Title: Quadrature Spatial Modulation for Large-Scale MIMO Systems (In partnership with Ericsson).

  • NSERC-ENGAGE: 2017--2018 45,000 CAD$. Title: Mine Safety System Using Wireless Sensor Networks (In partnership with Goldcorp Inc.).

  • NSERC-ENGAGE: 2018--2019 46,600 CAD$. Title: Machine Learning-Based Cyber Threat Intelligence and Detection in the Smart Grid (In partnership with N-Dimension Solutions Inc.).

Awards:

•  IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering 2024 BEST PAPER AWARDS: "Impact of Hardware Impairments on Physical Layer Security of Cell-Free Massive MIMO".

• IEEE BLACKSEACOM 2023 BEST PAPER AWARDS: "An End-To-End Auto-Encoder Algorithm for Hardware-Impaired Transceivers".

• Outstanding Volunteer Award: Outstanding volunteer contributions as Track Chair to the IEEE Canadian Conference for Electrical and Computer Engineering 2024.

• Merit Award for exceptional performance in research, Lakehead University, 2013-2015, 2015-2017, 2017-2019, and 2019-2021, 2021--2023.

• Exemplary Reviewer Certificates: (a) IEEE Communications Letters, 2013. (b) IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, 2013. (c) IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 2015. (d) IEEE Transactions on Communications, 2016.

• EURASIP Best Paper Award:  Salama Ikki and Mohamed H. Ahmed, “Performance of Multiple-Relay Cooperative Diversity Systems with Best-Relay Selection over Rayleigh Fading Channels," EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, vol. 2008.

• IEEE ComSoc Technology News: IEEE ComSoc Technology News is a web-based publication bringing the top 0.5% of the most interesting, timely, and newsworthy articles to ComSoc members and the entire global community. Salama Ikki and R. Mesleh, “A General Framework for Performance Analysis of Space Shift Keying (SSK) Modulation in the Presence of Gaussian Imperfect Estimations," IEEE Communications Letters, vol. 16, no. 2, 2012.

• School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Newcastle University, Annual Research Conference, 2014. Second place for “Best Poster".

Tutorials

• IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC 2025, Flag Conference) Advancing Optical Communication: Visible Light Communication and Multi-Layer Airborne Backhaul Networks, Maysa Yaseen, Mohammed Elamassie and Salama Ikki.

• International Symposium on Networks, Computers and Communications (ISNCC'23, Doha, Qatar), An Overview of Signal Processing for Massive MIMO and Localization with non-ideal transceivers. Salama Ikki, Ayse E. Canbilen and Deeb Tubail.

• IEEE International Black Sea Conference on Communications and Networking, (4–7 July 2023, Istanbul, Türkiye), An Overview of Signal Processing for Massive MIMO and Localization with Non-ideal Transceivers. Salama Ikki, Ayse E. Canbilen and Deeb Tubail.

• 28th Biennial Symposium on Communications (BSC) Kelowna, British Columbia, June 5-8, 2016, Quadrature Spatial Modulation, Ali Afana, Salama Ikki and Raed Mesleh. 

Editorial Activities

• • Editor: IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, 2025--.

  • Editor: IEEE Communications Letters, 2012--2018.

  • Editor: IET Communications Proceedings, 2012--2018.

  • Editor: Telecommunications (New Journal), MDPI, 2018.

  • Reviewer: IEEE Transactions on Communications

  • Reviewer: IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology.

  • Reviewer: IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.

  • Reviewer: IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing.

  • Reviewer: IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications.

  • Reviewer: IEEE Communications Letters.

  • Reviewer: IEEE Wireless Communications Letters.

  • Reviewer: IEEE Signal Processing Letters.

  • Reviewer: IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine.

  • Reviewer: IET Communications.

  • Reviewer: Elsevier Physical Communications. 

  • Reviewer: Elsevier Ad-Hoc Networks Journal.

Patents

1. (Published) Quadrature spatial modulation system, (Link)

   • Inventors: Raed Mesleh, Salama Ikki, and El Hadi Aggoune.

   • Assignee: Sensor Networks and Cellular System, University Of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

   • Patent Application No: 14/972379. 

   • Application date:  17 December 2015.

   • Publication Date: 7 November 2017.

   • Document Type and Number: United States Patent 9813278.

2. (Published) Retransmission Scheme for OFDM-Index Modulation and Spatial Modulation (Link)

   • Inventors: Ali Afana, A. Bin Sediq, Salama Ikki and Alex Stephenne.

   • Assignee: Ericsson, Ottawa, Canada.

   • Patent Application No: WO/2019/069168. 

   • Publication Date: 11/4/2019.

   • International Filing Date: 20/9/2018.

3. (Published) System and Methods for Collecting and Processing Data on one or more Physiological Parameters of Monitored Subject  (Link)

   • United States Patent Application 20220296169.

   • Inventors: Yahia  Alghorani and Salama Ikki.

   • Assignee: Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.

   • Patent Application No: 17/695311. 

   • Publication Date: 22/9/2022.

   • Filing Date: 15/3/2022.

Professional Activities

1. Track Chair: for the “Communications, Networking, and Signal Processing IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, (IEEE CCECE), 2025.

2. Track Chair: for the “Communications, Networking, and Signal Processing IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering, (IEEE CCECE), 2024, Link. 

3. External Reviewer for Academic Promotion, Dr. Yaser Al Mtawa, Department of Applied Computer Science at the University of Winnipeg (2024), Dr. Elias Yaacoub, College of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Qatar University, (2023), Dr. Suliman Fati,  Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering King Saud University, Faculty of Engineering (2023), Dr. Mohammed Hanif, Department of Engineering, Thomsons River University, 2024, Dr. Yasin Mamatjan, Department of Engineering, Thomsons River University, 2024.   

4. Grant Reviewer, The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), 2024-2025. 

5. Grant Reviewer, MITACS, Canada, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

6. Grant Reviewer, NSERC-DG, Canada, 2024.

7. Grant Reviewer, Canada Research Chair (CRC), Canada, 2024.

8. NSERC-DG Committee Reviewer, NSERC-DG, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1520, 2023-2027.

9. External Ph.D. Examiner: Student name: Mahmoud Elsanhoury, Thesis Title: Modeling, Design and Analysis of Spectral and Energy-Efficient Spatial Modulation, University of Vaasa. School of Technology and Innovations, Computer Science, Finland, 2024.

10. External Ph.D. Examiner: Student name: Iman Abu Sulayman, Thesis Title: Smart Authentication Mechanisms: Utilizing Big Data For Dynamic and Personalized Security Solutions, The University of Western Ontario, Canada, 2024.

11. External Ph.D. Examiner: Student name: Insha Amin, Thesis Title: Secure resource allocation in cooperative NOMA with untrusted users, Indian Institute of Technology Jammu,  India, 2024.

12. External Ph.D. Examiner: Student name: Mohammad Irfan, Thesis Title: Modeling, Design and Analysis of Spectral and Energy-Efficient Spatial Modulation, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC, 2020.

13. External Ph.D. Examiner: Student name: Zeeshan SATTAR, Thesis Title: On the Design and Performance Analysis of mmWave-enabled Next Generation of Wireless Networks, ÉCOLE DE TECHNOLOGIE SUPÉRIEURE, UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC, 2020.

14. Internal Ph.D. Examiner: Student name: Mohannad Adel Al-Mousa, Thesis Title: A Knowledge-based Approach for Semantic Similarity, Relatedness, and Word Sense Disambiguation using WordNet, Electrical Engineering Department, Lakehead University,  2020.

15. External Ph.D. Examiner: Student name: Alaa Hassan, Thesis Title: Efficient Algorithms for Polar Codes, Carleton University, 2018.

16. External Ph.D. Examiner: Student name: Mohammed Zourob, Thesis Title: Novel Channel Estimation Techniques for Next Generation MIMO-OFDM Wireless Communication Systems: Design and Performance Analysis, University of Western Ontario, 2018.

17. External Ph.D. Examiner: Student name: Imene Trigui, Thesis Title: Capacity and Performance Analysis of Advanced Relay-Assisted Communication Systems, University of Quebec, INRS, 2015.

18. Internal Ph.D. Examiner: Student Name: Mohannad AlMousa, Lakehead University, 2015.

19. Internal Ph.D. Examiner: Student Name: Ayman Alahmar, Lakehead University, 2018.

20. Internal Ph.D. Examiner: Student Name: Mohamed Ahwiadi Mahwiadi, Lakehead University, 2018

Teaching

• • Digital Communication Systems (Graduate Class), EELE  5132.

  • Statistical Signal Processing (Graduate Class), EELE  5631.

  • Advanced Wireless Communication Networks, (Graduate Class), EELE  5631.

  • Wireless Communications (Undergraduate Class), EELE  0578.

  • Communications Systems (Undergraduate Class), EELE  4053.

  • Digital Signal Processing (Undergraduate Class), EELE 4631.

  • Electronic Communications I (Undergraduate Class), EELE  2133.

  • Linear Algebra and Probability Theory (Foundation Class), EELE  5631.

  • Advanced Engineering Analysis II, (Undergraduate Class), ENGI 3022.

  • Electric Circuits Theory II, (Undergraduate Class), EELE  1536.