Tutorial 1

By: 

• Dr Majid Butt, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
• Dr Irene Macaluso, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
• Prof Nicola Marchetti,  Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Abstract:

The main goal of the tutorial is to introduce the audience to a framework that draws on concepts from information theory and complex systems science (e.g., excess entropy, signalling complexity, neural complexity) to underpin a new approach to communication networks. Through this framework we will discuss possible modeling tools to expedite innovation throughout telecommunications, by revitalising thinking in this area through the influx of methods from complex systems science to revamp the conceptualization of wireless networks.

Development of our framework will proceed in a layered fashion, with a modelling layer forming the foundation of the framework, supporting an analysis layer. The modelling phase will introduce techniques to capture the significant attributes of telecommunications networks and the interactions that shape them through the application of tools such as agent-based modelling and graph theory abstractions to derive new metrics that holistically describe a network. The analysis phase completes the core functionality of our framework by linking the complex systems science inspired metrics to overall network performance. In order to maximize the relevance of our framework to the telecom research and industry communities, the scenarios and use cases we will discuss are rooted in the most relevant, near-future architectures and use cases in 5G communication networks, such as dense small cell deployments, cognitive mobile broadband networks, Internet of Things and sensor networks.

About the Speakers:

Dr Majid Butt received PhD and MS degrees in telecommunication from Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway and Christian Albrechts University, Kiel, Germany, respectively. He holds the position of research scientist at CONNECT center for future networks, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He is recipient of Marie curie Alain Bensoussan postdoctoral fellowship from European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM). He held ERCIM postdoc fellow positions at Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute, Germany, and interdisciplinary center for research in Security, Reliability and Trust at University of Luxembourg.

Dr Macaluso received her PhD in Robotics from the University of Palermo in 2007. Her current research interests are in the area of adaptive wireless resource allocation, with particular focus on the design and analysis of market-based mechanisms in the management and operation of reconfigurable wireless networks and the application of machine learning to radio resource sharing.

She has published more than 50 papers in internationally peer reviewed journals and conferences. She is Executive Editor of Transactions on Emerging Telecommunication Technologies (ETT) since 2016.

Dr Nicola Marchetti is Assistant Professor in Wireless Communications at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He received the PhD in Wireless Communications from Aalborg University, Denmark in 2007, and the M.Sc. in Electronic Engineering from University of Ferrara, Italy in 2003. He also holds an M.Sc. in Mathematics which he received from Aalborg University in 2010. He worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Ferrara in 2003-2004. He then was a PhD student in 2004-2007 and a Research and Teaching Post-Doc in 2007-2010 at Aalborg University.

His research interests include Adaptive and Self-Organizing Networks, Complex Systems Science for Communication Networks, PHY Layer, Radio Resource Management. He has authored in excess of 100 journals and conference papers, 2 books and 7 book chapters, holds 2 patents, and received 4 best paper awards. His collaborations include research projects in cooperation with Nokia Bell Labs and US Air Force Office of Scientific Research, among others.