Tutorials

Two tutorials will be presentetd during ISNCC 2023:

Tutorial 1:

Title: Mobile Edge Computing for Massive IoT (MIoT) Systems

Abstract: The next generation Massive Internet of Things (MIoT) is an emerging field that promises to connect billions of devices and sensors, enabling a wide range of applications in various domains such as healthcare, agriculture, transportation, and smart cities. With a projection of over 75 billion connected devices by 2025 [1], the number of devices and data generated far exceeds the capacity of traditional cloud computing architectures. Thus, MIoT faces several challenges including scalability, reliability, and security. Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) is a new computing paradigm that brings data storage and computing resources closer to the end-users (i.e., at the network edge). The proximity between end users and the edge servers enables efficient access to data storage and faster processing, reduced network latency, and improve the Quality of Service (QoS). The integration of MEC with the MIoT has the potential not only to solve these challenges but also enables unprecedented novel use cases. This tutorial aims at providing a comprehensive understanding of the topic by discussing various inter-related concepts in this area, including fundamnetal concepts of edge computing and edge intelligence, massive IoT and its challenges, principle of network slicing, and a rigorous understanding of research efforts and the most significant contributions to the state-of-the-art in this area.

Speakers:

• Dr. Muhammad Asif Khan (Qatar Mobility Innovations Center (QMIC), Qatar):  An IEEE Senior Member, he received the B.Sc. degree in Telecommunication Engineering from University of Engineering and Technology Peshawar, Pakistan (2009) and M.Sc. in Telecommunication Engineering from University of Engineering and Technology Taxila, Pakistan (2013). He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Qatar University in 2020. He was a Researcher Assistant at Qatar University (2014-2015) and at Qatar Mobility Innovation Center (2016-2017). He is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at Qatar University. His current research interests include wireless communication, mobile computing, distributed ML, and computer vision. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and a Member of IET. For more detailed information.

• Dr. Emna Baccour (Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar):  She received a Ph.D. degree in computer science from the University of Burgundy, France, in 2017. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Qatar University on a project covering the interconnection networks for massive data centers, and then on a project covering video caching and processing in mobile edge computing networks. She currently holds a postdoctoral position at Hamad Ben Khalifa University. Her research interests include data center networks, cloud, edge, and mobile computing, and distributed systems. She is also interested in distributed machine learning with applications to IoT systems.

• Prof. Ridha Hamila (Qatar University, Qatar): An IEEE Senior Member, he received the MSc, LicTech with distinction, and PhD degrees from Tampere University, Tampere, Finland, in 1996, 1999, and 2002, respectively. Dr. Hamila currently a Full Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Qatar University, Qatar. From 1994 to 2002 he held various research and teaching positions at TUT within the Department of Information Technology, Finland. From 2002 to 2003 he was a System Specialist at Nokia research Center and Nokia Networks, Helsinki. From 2004 to 2009 he was with Emirates Telecommunications Corporation, UAE. Also, from 2004 to 2013 he was adjunct Professor at the Department of Communications Engineering, TUT. His current research interests include mobile and broadband wireless communication systems, Mobile Edge Computing, Internet of Everything, and Machine Learning. In these areas, he has published over 200 journal and conference papers most of them in the peered reviewed IEEE publications, filed seven US patents, and wrote numerous confidential industrial research reports. Dr. Hamila has been involved in several past and current industrial projects, Ooreedo, Qatar National Research Fund, Finnish Academy projects, EU research and education programs. He supervised a large number of under/graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. He organized many international workshops and conferences. He is a Senior Member of IEEE.

• Prof. Aiman Erbad (Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar):  An IEEE Senior Member, he received the MSc degree from the University of Essex (2005), and the Ph.D degree from the University of British Columbia (2012). He is currently an Associate Professor with the College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU). His research interests include cloud computing, edge computing, the IoT, private and secure networks, and multimedia systems. He received the Platinum award from H. H. Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the Education Excellence Day 2013 (Ph.D. category). He also received the 2020 Best Research Paper Award from Computer Communications, the IWCMC 2019 Best Paper Award, and the IEEE CCWC 2017 Best Paper Award. His research interest spans cloud computing, edge computing, IoT, distributed AI algorithms, and private / secure networks. Aiman is currently an editor in the International Journal of Sensor Networks (IJSNet), an editor in KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems, and served as a guest editor in IEEE Networks.

Tutorial 2:

Title: An Overview of Signal Processing for Massive MIMO and Localization with non-ideal transceivers.

Abstract: Wireless technologies have proliferated every aspect of human activity, playing an integral role in national infrastructures and enabling pervasive mobile computing, e-commerce, multimedia communications, health monitoring, and others. To this end, several maturing technologies have emerged in recent years to enhance the capacity of wireless networks, particularly cellular networks. Quadrature Spatial modulation (QSM) has been recently proposed as a promising multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technique that utilizes spatial information in a novel fashion. At each instance, only a single transmit antenna is activated among the set of existing transmit antennas. The activated antenna index is implicitly used to convey information besides the well-known M-ary modulation schemes. As compared to other conventional MIMO techniques, QSM is shown to have several advantages among which are, complete avoidance of inter-channel interference (ICI), relaxed inter-antenna synchronization requirements, low receiver complexity, use of a single RF chain at the transmitter, enhanced error performance with a moderate number of transmit antennas. It has been shown that QSM increases the spectral efficiency of conventional spatial modulation (SM) system while retaining all SM’s inherent advantages. This tutorial will cover the basic concepts and the benefits, challenges and complex issues of QSM to gain a deeper insight into the operation, performance and feasibility of QSM in practice.

Speakers:

• Prof. Salama S. Ikki (Lakehead University, Canada): An IEEE Senior Member, he is currently a Visiting Research Professor (Nokia Scholarship) with Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland, in 2022. He is currently an Associate Professor and the Research Chair of wireless communications with Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada. His research group has made substantial contributions to 4G and 5G wireless technologies. He is the author of more than 100 journals and conference papers and has more than 5500 citations and an H-index of 36. His group’s current research interests include massive MIMO, cell-free massive MIMO, visible light communications, and wireless sensor networks. He was the recipient of several awards for his research, teaching, and services.

• Dr. Ayse E. Canbilen (Lakehead University, Canada): An IEEE Member, She received her Ph.D. degree from Konya Technical University in 2019. From 2017 to 2018, she was with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada, as a Visitor Researcher. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Konya Technical University, Konya, Turkey. Her primary research interests include beyond 5G systems, index modulation techniques, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces and visible light communications. She has been serving as a Reviewer for many of the IEEE journals, such as IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Communications Letters, and IEEE Access.

• Deeb Tubail (Lakehead University, Canada): An IEEE Student Member,  he received his B.S. degree (Hons.) in electrical engineering and his M.Sc. degree (Hons.) in telecommunication from the Islamic University of Gaza, Palestine, in 2009 and 2014, respectively. He performed his master’s research in the Microwave area in coupled-resonators circuits and microwave devices field. After that, his research fields were wireless communication in physical-layer security, interference alignment, multiuser MIMO systems, and optimization. Later, he became a Ph.D. student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Lakehead University, Canada, in 2020, where he is performing his research in wireless communication in MIMO systems, estimation, localization and performance analysis.