MASTEAM Talks - Application-aware User-centric Programmable Architectures for 5G multi-tenant networks

The Master's degree in Applied Telecommunications and Engineering Management (MASTEAM) organizes a weekly series of activities (talks, technical visits, discussion pannels) that complement the academic activities with real-world experiences from companies, research centres and institutions in the main topics of the master: Internet of Things. Smart Cities, 5G mobile communications, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Radio (SDR), cloud computing, augmented reality and audiovisual services, among others.

This week, we will have two short talks from researchers from the Horizon 2020 5GAuRA project.

When: May 22nd, 2019, 17:30h (duration 1h).

Where: Building C4, Classroom 021B, EETAC, Campus Castelldefels UPC. How to get there.

Speaker: Rakibul Islam Rony

Title: "5G backhaul networks: Challenges and Opportunities"

Abstract: 5G is preparing to meet thousand times system capacity, hundred times data rate and connected devices compared to Long Term Evolution (LTE). Ultra densification of cells is being considered as one of the best solution to meet such enormous demand. In such scenario, 5G will employ Centralized Radio Access Network (CRAN), where Fronthaul, the connecting link between central processor and access points will ask for a huge data rate. This stringent requirement limits the options for future FH and backhaul solutions, since wireless options are expected to dominate in the future transport network, which have the limitation in terms of capacity. Hence, design of future complex transport network composed with backhaul, fronthaul and midhaul will be very challenging in terms of required capacity and available budget. In this talk, we focus on 5G backhaul networks architecture and the challenges to design such complex heterogeneous network. Additionally, how to adapt with the stringent requirements of CRAN utilizing the functions splits at the PHY layer for different RATs are also discussed. 

Bio: Rakibul Islam Rony is from Bangladesh, and he was born in 1986. He received his B.Sc. Engg degree from Islamic University of Technology (IUT), Bangladesh in 2008 and completed his M.Sc (Tech) in “Communications Engineering – Radio Communications” from Aalto University, Espoo, Finland in January, 2014. At the beginning of his career, he worked as “RF Engineer II” in Huawei Technologies Bangladesh ltd for two years (2009 - 2011). He started his master studies in November 2011 and worked as Research Assistant in Aalto University to carry out his master’s thesis. After completing his M.Sc, he worked as “Senior Lecturer” in the department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) in Primeasia University, Bangladesh for two years (2014 – 2016). From June 2016 till October 2016 he served as “Assistant Professor” in Eastern University, EEE department.

In November 2016, he started working as “Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher (ESR)” for H2020 project 5GAuRA, in the Department of Network Engineering of Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), BarcelonaTECH. His research interest is focused on 5G, wireless communications, wireless technologies, backhaul, next generation wireless techniques, resource management and sharing, SDN.

Speaker: Akshay Jain

Title: "5G User Association: Current Scenario and Challenges"

Abstract: 5G Networks will be extremely dense and heterogeneous in terms of both the number and type of access points as well as the number of users and their associated application types. Further, the complexity of the network is further exacerbated through the need to provision stringent QoS for any given application type such as URLLC, eMMB and mMTC. Given the drastically divergent requirements, mobility of users will strain the existing user association methods, i.e., RSSI/SNR based methods with the assistance of periodic traffic steering/load balancing. Hence, there is a strong focus now to utilize ILP-MILP optimization, Regret based learning, Fuzzy logic, and other Mathematical decision criteria/tools for obtaining a much more efficient user association solution. These methods aim to utilize the fact that, given a network scenario with a set of small cells, macro cells, backhaul and access links, and users, there are a multitude of dimensions (or constraints) that can be exploited to obtain an optimum solution to user association. These decisions are of course subject to the objective that the operator aims to achieve. Hence, in this talk, we will discuss this extremely critical 5G network enabler, i.e., user association techniques in 5G networks, and chart out the current scenario as well as the various challenges the proposed techniques face. 

Bio:  Akshay Jain received his B.Tech degree in Electronics and Communications engineering from S.V. National Institute of Technology, Surat, India in 2013. He also received his MS degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Florida, USA in 2015. Akshay, during the period of 2011-2013, was also the recipient of the prestigious Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) fellowship awarded by the Dept. of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. Further, from July 2015 to September 2016, he was also the lead Communication systems engineer at a startup called Queen B Robotics in San Francisco, California, USA. Currently he is pursuing his Ph.D. degree in 5G communications at the Network Engineering department at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain. He is also a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher at the European Union Funded 5G-AURA project. Akshay’s current research interests include 5G, wireless networks, mobility management, optimization theory, numerical methods, machine learning, radars and array processing.