Muriel Médard
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Title: Guessing Random Additive Noise Decoding (GRAND) or how to stop worrying about error-correcting code design
Abstract: To maintain data integrity in the face of network unreliability, systems rely on error-correcting codes. System standardization, such as has been occurring for 5G, is predicated on co-designing these error-correcting codes and, most importantly, their generally complex decoders, into efficient, dedicated and customized chips.
In this talk, we show that this assumption is not necessary and is has been leading to significant performance loss. We describe “Guessing Random Additive Noise Decoding,” or GRAND, by Duffy, Médard and their research groups, which renders universal, optimal, code-agnostic decoding possible for low to moderate redundancy settings. Moreover, recent work with Yazicigil and her group has demonstrated that such decoding can be implemented with extremely low latency in silicon. GRAND enables a new exploration of codes, in and of themselves, independently of tailored decoders, over a rich family of code designs, including random ones.
Surprisingly, even the simplest code constructions, such as those used merely for error checking, match or markedly outperform state of the art codes when optimally decoded with GRAND. Without the need for highly tailored codes and bespoke decoders, we can envisage using GRAND to avoid the issue of limited and sub-optimal code choices that 5G encountered, and instead have an open platform for coding and decoding.
Paolo Monti
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Title: Optical Transport Networks in the 5G Era
Abstract: Optical technologies are the de-facto choice for transport networks in several 5G scenarios.
The talks will address some open issues in the design and operation of optical transport networks. The topics will include but will not be limited to multi-technology network design and service provisioning, network slicing, network programmability, and network automation. Finally, the talk will conclude with an overview of the challenges we can expect when looking at beyond 5G scenarios.
Susana Sargento
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Title: How Vehicular Networks can be used to improve the safety on roads: examples from a city-scale digital open laboratory
Abstract: The World Health Organization reports the continued growth of deaths in road accidents, which have reached 1.35 million people in 2016. Increasing the safety in roads requires the reduction of the number of accidents and the delay in the response time of an emergency vehicle. Smart cities contain new mechanisms to collect information regarding the traffic status, congestion places, or the speed of vehicles in real-time. The evolution of wireless communications, particularly Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs), allows vehicles to communicate with each other and with infrastructures located near the roads. The possible use of this type of communication and the consequent information exchange encouraged governments, the automobile industry, and the academy to invest in research projects around VANETs and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITSs). Those projects have as their primary goal to improve the road safety and vehicular traffic efficiency. Beyond the communication information, mobility sensors such as Lidars, RADARs, video cameras and traffic counters in the roads, are able to get mobility information in specific areas of the city, which complements the communication data.
In this talk we address the challenges of the vehicular communication in the roads to improve their safety, and include some examples that are being tested in real environments. We specifically address examples from the Aveiro Tech City Living lab, the safety services it can support, and how the interaction with citizens has been achieved.
Miguel Rodrigues
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Title: Recent Advances in Machine Learning for Signal and Image Processing
Abstract: This talk will overview recent advances in the area of machine learning — including deep learning — for signal and image processing. It will also overview algorithm unfolding techniques that are currently delivering state of the art results in a wide range of challenges, including image reconstruction, image super-resolution, and various others.
Emil Björnson
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Title: Multi-Mode MIMO Communications Beyond Beamforming
Abstract: Traditional wireless receivers operate in the far-field of the transmitter and the channels only involve a few angular directions. Under these conditions, the main role of antenna arrays is beamforming: to focus the transmitted signals in the strong angular directions and focus the reception correspondingly. This feature can be realized using classical phased-array technology.
Several research developments towards 6G will change the status quo. Firstly, the carrier frequency is increasing towards the THz range, which proportionally increases the far-field limit. Secondly, the antenna array dimensionalities are increasing, particularly at the base stations, which further extends the far-field limit. Thirdly, the network densification shortens the propagation distances and increases the number of impactful propagation paths. These three factors will fundamentally change how point-to-point MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) links must be designed in the future. We need to go beyond traditional phased-array-inspired far-field beamforming and consider the near-field focusing regime, where multiple parallel spatial layers can be transmitted using different spatial modes, even in line-of-sight scenarios with only a single angular path.
In this keynote, we will revisit the fundamentals of point-to-point MIMO communications and explore the new features that arise when operating in the radiative near-field. The relation between spatial modes, spherical wavefronts, and array geometries will be described and illustrated. The hardware requirements for exploiting spatial modes will be analyzed. Are the spatial modes the next untapped signal dimensions that can sustain the capacity growth in future networks?.
