Program

Technical Program

  Sunday, May 21
9:00 ‑ 9:20 am Short Keynote Speech
9:20 ‑ 10:30 am Paper Presentation Session
10:30 ‑ 11:00 am  Coffee Break
11:00 am ‑ 12:10 pm Paper Presentation Session
12:10 ‑ 12:30 pm Short Cadence Speech

Sunday, May 21

Sunday, May 21, 09:00 – 09:20

Short Keynote Speech: “Ultra-Agile Infrastructure for Ultra-Fast Connectivity”

by Halim Yanıkömeroğlu, Carleton University, Canada

Biography: Halim Yanikomeroglu (F’17) was born in Giresun, Turkey, in 1968. He received the B.Sc. degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, in 1990, and the M.A.Sc. degree in electrical engineering (now ECE) and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Toronto, Canada, in 1992 and 1998, respectively.

During 1993-1994, he was with the R&D Group of Marconi Kominikasyon A.S., Ankara, Turkey. Since 1998 he has been with the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, where he is now a Full Professor. His research interests cover many aspects of wireless technologies with a special emphasis on cellular networks. In recent years, his research has been funded by Huawei, Telus, Allen Vanguard, Blackberry, Samsung, Industry Canada, Communications Research Centre of Canada (CRC), and DragonWave. This collaborative research resulted in about 25 patents.

Dr. Yanikomeroglu is a Fellow of the IEEE. He is a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Communications Society (2015-2018) and a Distinguished Speaker for the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society in 5G wireless technologies. He has been involved in the organization of the IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC) from its inception in 1998 in various capacities including serving as a Steering Committee member, Executive Committee member and the Technical Program Chair or Co-Chair of WCNC 2004 (Atlanta), WCNC 2008 (Las Vegas), and WCNC 2014 (Istanbul). He was the General Co-Chair of the IEEE 72nd Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2010-Fall) held in Ottawa and is currently serving as the General Co-Chair of the IEEE 86th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2017-Fall) to be held in Toronto. He has served in the editorial boards of the IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, and IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials. He was the Chair of the IEEE’s Technical Committee on Personal Communications (now called Wireless Technical Committee).

Dr. Yanikomeroglu is a recipient of the IEEE Ottawa Section Outstanding Educator Award in 2014, Carleton University Faculty Graduate Mentoring Award in 2010, the Carleton University Graduate Students Association Excellence Award in Graduate Teaching in 2010, and the Carleton University Research Achievement Award in 2009. Dr. Yanikomeroglu spent the 2011-2012 academic year at TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Ankara, Turkey, as a Visiting Professor. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the province of Ontario, Canada.

Sunday, May 21, 09:20 – 10:30

Paper Presentation Session

#1 Backhaul-aware Robust 3D Drone Placement in 5G+ Wireless Networks
Elham Kalantari (University of Ottawa, Canada); Muhammad Zeeshan Shakir (University of the West of Scotland, United Kingdom); Halim Yanikomeroglu (Carleton University, Canada); Abbas Yongacoglu (University of Ottawa, Canada)
Using drones as flying base stations is a promising approach to enhance the network coverage and area capacity by moving supply towards demand when required. However deployment of such base stations can face some restrictions that need to be considered. One of the limitations in drone base stations (drone-BSs) deployment is the availability of reliable wireless backhaul link. This paper investigates how different types of wireless backhaul offering various data rates would affect the number of served users. Two approaches, namely, network-centric and user-centric, are introduced and the optimal 3D backhaul-aware placement of a drone-BS is found for each approach. To this end, the total number of served users and sum-rates are maximized in the network-centric and user-centric frameworks, respectively. Moreover, as it is preferred to decrease drone-BS movements to save more on battery and increase flight time and to reduce the channel variations, the robustness of the network is examined as how sensitive it is with respect to the users displacements.
#2 Joint Optimization of Path Selection and Link Scheduling for Millimeter Wave Transport Networks
Diego Huerfano (Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya, Colombia); Ilker Demirkol (Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain); Peter Legg (Blu Wireless Technology, United Kingdom)
In future mobile networks, the wireless transport networks are expected to carry traffic flows with different throughput and delay requirements due to the introduction of Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) and different functional splits that can be used, e.g., as defined by Next Generation Fronthaul Interface (NGFI). A promising wireless technology to support the high throughput requirements of C-RAN splits is Millimeter Wave (mmWave) band technologies also being standardized as IEEE 802.11ad. Our target here is to derive the mathematical formulation of the path selection and link scheduling problem for mmWave transport networks, where the backhaul and fronthaul flows will co-exist, by defining the constraints brought by different functional splits and the IEEE 802.11ad standard. We present two objective functions that can be used for this problem: load balancing and minimization of the use of air time. We implemented the derived formulations in an Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) solver and evaluated realistic scenarios of wireless fronthaul/backhaul networks assessing the splits defined by NGFI for LTE.
#3 Joint Optimization of Power Consumption and Load Balancing in Wireless Dynamic Network Architecture
Inosha Sugathapala (University of Oulu & Centre for Wireless Communication, Finland); Savo Glisic and Markku Juntti (University of Oulu, Finland); Le-Nam Tran (Maynooth University, Ireland)
The concept of the wireless dynamic network architecture (DNA) stands for a system design, which allows terminals to convert into temporary access points (APs) when necessary. In this paper, we propose a framework to solve the problem of load balancing in DNA. Particularly, the user association in DNAs is optimized to minimize the number of active APs and the network cost in terms of tradeoff between power and load, while ensuring users’ quality of service (QoS). In general, such a problem is a non-convex mixed integer nonlinear program in the sense that its continuous relaxation is a non-convex problem. To solve this optimization, we use the standard continuous relaxation method and approximate the relaxed problem by a series of second order cone programs with the aid of successive convex approximation (SCA) framework. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm converges within a few iterations and jointly minimizes the network cost and the number of APs in the network.
#4 Flexible dynamic Coordinated Scheduling in Virtual-RAN deployments
Niccolò Iardella, Giovanni Nardini, Giovanni Stea, Antonio Virdis, Antonio Frangioni and Laura Galli (University of Pisa, Italy); Dario Sabella (Intel, Germany); Francesco Mauro (Telecom Italia, Italy); Gian Michele Dell’Aera (Mobile Communication, Italy); Marco Caretti (Telecom Italia, Italy)
Using Coordinated Scheduling (CS), eNodeBs in a cellular network dynamically agree on which Resource Blocks (not) to use, so as to reduce the interference, especially for celledge users. This paper describes a software framework that allows dynamic CS to occur among a relatively large number of nodes, as part of a more general framework of network management devised within the Flex5Gware project. The benefits of dynamic CS, in terms of spectrum efficiency and resource saving, are illustrated by means of simulation and with live measurements on a prototype implementation using virtualized eNodeBs.
#5 Optimized Asymmetric Cooperation for Downlink Cloud Radio Access Network under per-Base Station Data Transfer Constraint
Fehmi Emre Kadan (Middle East Technical University, ASELSAN); Ali Özgür Yılmaz (Middle East Technical University, Turkey)
Using multicell cooperation between several base stations (BSs) connected to a central processor (CP) via finite capacity digital backhaul links, the inter-cell interference, which is known to limit the standard cellular systems, can be mitigated. When all user data is sent to each BS through the CP, which is referred as the full cooperation, the interference can be perfectly eliminated, however, this may cause the capacity of backhaul links to be exceeded. In this study, it is aimed to find the optimal asymmetric cooperation strategy for downlink cloud radio access network (C-RAN) which minimizes the total transmitted power from BSs where each user’s signal-to-interference-and-noise ratio (SINR) is lower bounded and the number of user data streams sent by each BS is limited. The original problem is NP-hard and requires a combinatorial search. In this paper, we propose two sub-optimal cooperation methods. The first method is based on iteratively increasing the number of users served by the BSs until all users are chosen, and the second is based on iteratively adding a user data stream to be sent to a BS. We also consider a known method, iterative link removal, which is based on iteratively removing a user data from a BS by starting the full cooperation scheme, and a modified version of this method as a comparison. The simulation results show that the proposed methods can provide better performance in comparison to other methods in the literature.

Sunday, May 21, 11:00 – 12:10

Paper Presentation Session

#1 Evolution of Bio-Socially Inspired Strategies in Support of Dynamic Spectrum Access
Mohammad Abu Shattal and Ala Al-Fuqaha (Western Michigan University, USA); Bilal Khan and Kirk Dombrowski (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA); Anna Wisniewska (The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA)
Human and animal societies exhibit complex cognitive and social processes of coordination, cooperation, and competition among their members. Among other functions, these processes can facilitate fairer sharing of resources among community members and enhance individual survival outcomes. In this work, three bio-socially inspired models for secondary users of spectrum in cognitive radio networks are defined and compared to one other within an evolutionary framework. The proposed models reflect successively more sophisticated capabilities of secondary users in distributed spectrum access. The simplest of the three, blind channel access, is shown to be evolutionarily dominant when residual channel capacities are homogeneous. The second more advanced model assumes a capability to sense channel utilization; this model is shown to dominate when the channels have intermediate load and heterogeneous capacities. Finally, the most complex model (additionally) allows for social coalitions and within-group deference; this model is seen to dominate in high load heterogeneous resource settings. We explore the long term evolutionary pressures within societies whose members choose between these three schemes, with natural selection operating via a utility-based fitness function. Our research is based on systematic ns-3 simulation experiments of heterogeneous societies under a range of assumed channel conditions, population sizes, resource demands, and initial user attributes. Our results demonstrate that the secondary user population always evolves to adopt a unique and stable strategy, but that the winning strategy selected depends strongly on channel conditions. Our results further show that this kind of leaderless evolution leads to a significant 29-116% overall improvement in performance compared to systems in which a fixed strategy is deployed. In summary, we conclude that evolving bio-social behavioral models can be applied to great advantage in understanding dynamic environments such as those envisioned by distributed spectrum access.
#2 Flexible Duplex in FDD Spectrum
Krishna Balachandran, Joseph Kang and Mehmet Kemal Karakayali (Nokia Bell Labs, USA); Kiran M Rege (Nokia Bell Laboratories, USA)
In this paper, flexible frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD) schemes are considered in FDD spectrum. With FDD spectrum, there is a paired uplink (UL) carrier with each downlink (DL) carrier, each carrier with the same bandwidth. Because equal resources are provisioned for the DL and UL, FDD spectrum is not well suited for asymmetric DL/UL traffic. While the FDD UL-paired carrier typically supports only UL traffic, flexible duplexing allows DL traffic to additionally be served in instances when the DL traffic exceeds the UL traffic. The challenge in such cases is to overcome the base station to base station interference that arises, particularly because base stations typically operate at higher powers and employ higher gain antennas than mobile stations. If ignored, this interference may overwhelm the power received for UL transmissions at neighboring base stations and impact UL performance. In this paper, we investigate flexible duplexing paired with power control and network-based interference cancellation to provide DL and UL resources that are matched to the ratio of their respective traffic, with minimal impact to the scaled UL throughput.
#3 Performance Evaluation of Single-Tier and Two-Tier Cloudlet Assisted Applications
Çağatay Sönmez (Bogazici University, Turkey); Atay Ozgovde (Galatasaray University, Turkey); Cem Ersoy (Bogazici University, Turkey)
As the usage of the mobile devices increases, the user expectations for the performance of the smart applications grow as well. One of the basic criteria of the performance is the seamless user experience. Edge Computing approaches are becoming popular for supporting real time applications for which the traditional cloud based solutions do not suffice. For time-sensitive applications such as the real time speech-to-text conversion, face recognition and simultaneous translation, users require fast responsivity while communicating with the remote servers. High latency during this communication will yield to poor user experience. To overcome this major bottleneck, the cloudlet which is a specific form of Edge Computing bring opportunities. The cloudlets provide better performance by faster service compared to the conventional remote cloud connections. The cloudlets are used for different purposes on different architectures to solve domain specific problems such as caching, reducing delay, taking real-time decisions and bringing the cloud resources to closer. In this paper, the performance of three possible cloudlet-assisted Edge Computing architectures are evaluated by considering a generic delay-intolerant application.
#4 vIoT: A First Step Towards a Shared, Multi-tenant IoT Infrastructure Architecture
Muneeb Ahmad (National University of Sciences and Technology, Pakistan); Jalal Alowibdi (University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia); Muhammad Usman Ilyas (National University of Sciences and Technology & School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS), Pakistan)
This paper describes a virtualized Internet of Things (vIoT) testbed. We argue in favor of an IoT Infrastructure-as-a-Service as a possible deployment model for future IoTs. The vIoT testbed is being built from open source components, most notably comprising of OpenStack, Linux containers and Raspberry Pi computers. Results demonstrates vIoT infrastructure configured to be shared by multiple users using with LXC/LXD running containers of Ubuntu Trusty Tahr, Ubuntu Xenial Xerus and CirrOS.
#5 Delay Optimization of Computation Offloading in Multi-Hop Ad Hoc Networks
Mengyuan Wang (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, P.R. China); Hao Jin (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications & Wireless Signal Processing and Network Laboratory, P.R. China); Chenglin Zhao and Dong Liang (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, P.R. China)
In recent years, computation-intensive mobile applications are rapidly developed such as Augmented Reality(AR), which will become one of the most popular services. However, mobile devices are resource-limited in memory, bandwidth and process capacity. To relieve the computation burden of mobile devices, computation offloading appears. Offloading computation to remote cloud can take advantage of the rich resource of core network, but it also introduces long delay which has effects on user experience especially for delay-sensitive application. Computation offloading based on ad hoc network reduces the delay of computation offloading and makes good use of the computation resource of mobile devices. In this paper, the average delay minimization of component-based linear applications is investigated in multi-hop ad hoc networks. The optimization problem is formulated as a general integer linear programming with the constraints of processing capacity of nodes, which is a NP-hard problem. In order to get the optimized result, a delay-optimization based ant colony optimization algorithm (DoACO) is proposed. Simulations show that the DoACO has a better performance compared with traditional ant colony optimization algorithm(ACO), simulated annealing algorithm, random offloading algorithm and local execution algorithm.

Sunday, May 21, 12:10 – 12:30

Short Cadence Speech: “On the road to the next generation networks: What to expect?”

by Cem Ersoy, Boğaziçi University, Turkey

Biography: Cem Ersoy received his BS and MS degrees in electrical and electronics engineering from Bogazici University, Istanbul, in 1984 and 1986, respectively. He worked as an R&D engineer in Northern Telecom subsidiary NETAS A.S. He received his PhD in electrical engineering from Polytechnic University, New York in 1992. Since then, he has been a professor and currently the chairman of the Computer Engineering Department and the leader of the Wireless Sensor Networks Research Group in Bogazici University. His research interests include wireless sensor networks, activity recognition and ambient sensing for healthcare, multi-tier cloud, SDN/NFV, IoT and green networking. Prof. Ersoy was the chairman of the IEEE Communications Society Turkish Chapter during the last 6 years.