Plenary Speakers
Mohamed-Slim Alouini
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
Mohamed-Slim Alouini (S'94, M'98, SM'03, F'09) was born in Tunis, Tunisia. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, CA, USA, in 1998. He served as a faculty member in the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA, then in the Texas A&M University at Qatar, Education City, Doha, Qatar before joining King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Makkah Province, Saudi Arabia as a Professor of Electrical Engineering in 2009.
Prof. Alouini is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a member of the Thomson ISI Web of Knowledge list of Highly Cited Researchers and of the Elsevier/Shanghai Ranking list of Most Cited Researchers, and an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Communications Society. He is a recipient of the Recognition Award of the IEEE ComSoc Wireless Technical Committee in 2016 and a co-recipient of best paper awards in ten IEEE conferences (including ICC, GLOBECOM, VTC, PIMRC, and DySPAN). His current research interests include the modeling, design, and performance analysis of wireless communication systems.
Paving the Way Towards 5G Wireless Communication Networks
5G wireless communication networks are expected to fulfill the demand for higher data rates, lower latency, and/or massive connectivity of a growing number of users/devices exploiting a variety of wireless applications. This envisioned rapid increase in the use of wireless services lead the wireless research community to start looking at new technologies to address problems related to the radio-frequency (RF) spectrum exhaustion. This includes the development of (i) new techniques and concepts such as massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems and heterogeneous networks to improve the spectral efficiency at the link and network layers, respectively, and (ii) novel schemes to better utilize the unregulated bandwidth in particular in the upper millimeter wave, THz, and optical portion of the spectrum. This talk will first go briefly over the vision and goals of 5G wireless communication networks. Then it presents some of these emerging enabling technologies that need to be developed to pave the way towards the successful roll-out and operation of these future wireless networks. Finally, the talk offers at the end an overview of some of the recent results in the areas of massive MIMO systems, full-duplex communication systems, and optical (Li-Fi) wireless communication systems.
Latif Ladid
University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Latif Ladid is a Senior Researcher at SnT. He works on multiple European Commission Next Generation Technologies IST Projects: 6INIT, www.6init.org - First Pioneer IPv6 Research Project; 6WINIT, Euro6IX, www.euro6ix.org ; Eurov6, www.eurov6.org ; NGNi, www.ngni.org ; Project initiator of SEINIT, www.seinit.org and SecurIST, www.securitytaskforce.org .
Latif initiated the new EU project u-2010 to research Emergency & Disaster and Crisis Management, www.u-2010.eu, re-launched the Public Safety Communication Forum, www.publicsafetycommunication.eu, supported the new IPv6++ EU Research Project called EFIPSANS, www.efipsans.org and the new safety & Security Project using IPv6 called Secricom, www.secricom.eu, and co-initiated the new EU Coordination of the European Future Internet Forum for Member States called ceFIMS: www.ceFIMS.eu.
IPv6-Based IoT, CC, SDN-NFV and 5G
The public IPv4 address space managed by IANA (http://www.iana.org ) has been completely depleted back in Feb 1st, 2011. This creates in itself a critical challenge when adding new things and enabling new services on the Internet. Without publicly routable IP addressing, the Internet , the Internet of Things and anything that's part of Internet of Everything would be greatly reduced in its capabilities and limit its potential success. Most discussions about IoT have been based on the illusionary assumption that the IP address space is an unlimited resource or it's even taken for granted that IP is like oxygen produced for free by nature.
Pv6 provides enhanced features that were not tightly designed or scalable in IPv4 like autoconfiguration, IP mobility, end to end connectivity and services; etc catering for the extreme scenario where IP becomes a commodity service enabling lowest cost networking deployment of large scale sensor networks, RFID, IP in the car, to any imaginable scenario where networking adds value to commodity.
The IPv6 deployment is now in full swing with some countries achieving over 50% penetration such as Belgium, the US with some 96 M users or Germany with 23 M IPv6 users using IPv6 without even the users knowing it. And even Greece is among the top v6 nations in the world. http://labs.apnic.net/dists/v6dcc.html Recently, Apple has required its apps developers to use IPv6 only for their apps staring June 1, 2016 which is a great shot in the arm of IPv6.
There are many inflections points happening this decade to influence the design of first tangible IoT, Cloud Computing and 5G . It will be a combination of IoT, SDN-NFV, Cloud Computing, Edge Computing, Big IoT Data and 5G to sift through to realising the paradigm shift from current research-based work to advanced IoT, 5G and Smart everything.
The IPv6 Forum (http://www.ipv6forum.com/ ) has been formed in 1999 by the IPv6 developers at the IETF IPv6 Task Force back in the 90s after the RFC 2460 was released in December 1998. It has some 90 chapters around the world and organised conferences around the world to garner support and train engineers to move from the old Internet protocol to the New Internet, which will be the base of all new technologies such as IoT, CC, 4-5G, etc.
This talk will be devoted to analyse the transformative impact of IPv6 on the potential mix of IPv6-based IoT, SDN-NFV, Cloud Computing, Big Data and 5G and its advanced features, highlighting the challenges and solutions moving forward.
Neophytos Papadopoulos
Director at Office of the Commissioner of Electronic Communications and Postal Regulation, Cyprus
Neophytos Papadopoulos has been the director of the Office of the Commissioner of Electronic Communications and Postal Regulation in Cyprus since its establishment in 2002. His extensive experience in Regulation, together with a strong technical background and business understanding, enable him to be heavily involved in the formulation of policy, regulatory strategy and its implementation.
Neophytos holds BEng (Electrical Engineering & Electronics) and PhD (Digital Communications) degrees from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UK), and an MBA degree from the Cyprus International Institute of Management.
A single digital market for Europe: The vision and the case for the electronic communications market in Cyprus
'The global economy is rapidly becoming digital. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is no longer a specific sector but the foundation of all modern innovative economic systems. The Internet and digital technologies are transforming the lives we lead, the way we work as individuals, in business, and in our communities as they become more integrated across all sectors of our economy and society. These changes are happening at a scale and speed that bring immense opportunities for innovation, growth and jobs ...'
Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: 'A Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe', Brussels, 6.5.2015 COM (2015) 192 final
With a focus on electronic communications, this keynote speech will look at the Commission initiatives since this communication, and discuss the challenges faced by the market in Cyprus in fulfilling the targets of the 'Digital Single Market Strategy for Europe'.