Machine learning based context-predictive car-to-cloud communication using multi-layer connectivity maps for upcoming 5G networks

While cars were only considered as means of personal transportation for a long time, they are currently transcending to mobile sensor nodes that gather highly up-to-date information for crowdsensing-enabled big data services in a smart city context. Consequently, upcoming 5G communication networks will be confronted with massive increases in Machine-type Communication (MTC) and require resource-efficient transmission methods in order to optimize the overall system performance and provide interference-free coexistence with human data traffic that is using the same public cellular network. In this paper, we bring together mobility prediction and machine learning based channel quality estimation in order to improve the resource-efficiency of car-to-cloud data transfer by scheduling the transmission time of the sensor data with respect to the anticipated behavior of the communication context. In a comprehensive field evaluation campaign, we evaluate the proposed context-predictive approach in a public cellular network scenario where it is able to increase the average data rate by up to 194% while simultaneously reducing the mean uplink power consumption by up to 54%

Efficient Machine-type Communication using Multi-metric Context-awareness for Cars used as Mobile Sensors in Upcoming 5G Networks

Upcoming 5G-based communication networks will be confronted with huge increases in the amount of transmitted sensor data related to massive deployments of static and mobile Internet of Things (IoT) systems. Cars acting as mobile sensors will become important data sources for cloud-based applications like predictive maintenance and dynamic traffic forecast. Due to the limitation of available communication resources, it is expected that the grows in Machine-Type Communication (MTC) will cause severe interference with Human-to-human (H2H) communication. Consequently, more efficient transmission methods are highly required. In this paper, we present a probabilistic scheme for efficient transmission of vehicular sensor data which leverages favorable channel conditions and avoids transmissions when they are expected to be highly resource-consuming. Multiple variants of the proposed scheme are evaluated in comprehensive realworld experiments. Through machine learning based combination of multiple context metrics, the proposed scheme is able to achieve up to 164% higher average data rate values for sensor applications with soft deadline requirements compared to regular periodic transmission.Comment: Best Student Paper Awar

Towards Tactile Internet in Beyond 5G Era: Recent Advances, Current Issues and Future Directions

Tactile Internet (TI) is envisioned to create a paradigm shift from the content-oriented communications to steer/control-based communications by enabling real-time transmission of haptic information (i.e., touch, actuation, motion, vibration, surface texture) over Internet in addition to the conventional audiovisual and data traffics. This emerging TI technology, also considered as the next evolution phase of Internet of Things (IoT), is expected to create numerous opportunities for technology markets in a wide variety of applications ranging from teleoperation systems and Augmented/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) to automotive safety and eHealthcare towards addressing the complex problems of human society. However, the realization of TI over wireless media in the upcoming Fifth Generation (5G) and beyond networks creates various non-conventional communication challenges and stringent requirements in terms of ultra-low latency, ultra-high reliability, high data-rate connectivity, resource allocation, multiple access and quality-latency-rate tradeoff. To this end, this paper aims to provide a holistic view on wireless TI along with a thorough review of the existing state-of-the-art, to identify and analyze the involved technical issues, to highlight potential solutions and to propose future research directions. First, starting with the vision of TI and recent advances and a review of related survey/overview articles, we present a generalized framework for wireless TI in the Beyond 5G Era including a TI architecture, the main technical requirements, the key application areas and potential enabling technologies. Subsequently, we provide a comprehensive review of the existing TI works by broadly categorizing them into three main paradigms; namely, haptic communications, wireless AR/VR, and autonomous, intelligent and cooperative mobility systems. Next, potential enabling technologies across physical/Medium Access Control (MAC) and network layers are identified and discussed in detail. Also, security and privacy issues of TI applications are discussed along with some promising enablers. Finally, we present some open research challenges and recommend promising future research directions

Prediction-based techniques for the optimization of mobile networks

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorMobile cellular networks are complex system whose behavior is characterized by the superposition of several random phenomena, most of which, related to human activities, such as mobility, communications and network usage. However, when observed in their totality, the many individual components merge into more deterministic patterns and trends start to be identifiable and predictable. In this thesis we analyze a recent branch of network optimization that is commonly referred to as anticipatory networking and that entails the combination of prediction solutions and network optimization schemes. The main intuition behind anticipatory networking is that knowing in advance what is going on in the network can help understanding potentially severe problems and mitigate their impact by applying solution when they are still in their initial states. Conversely, network forecast might also indicate a future improvement in the overall network condition (i.e. load reduction or better signal quality reported from users). In such a case, resources can be assigned more sparingly requiring users to rely on buffered information while waiting for the better condition when it will be more convenient to grant more resources. In the beginning of this thesis we will survey the current anticipatory networking panorama and the many prediction and optimization solutions proposed so far. In the main body of the work, we will propose our novel solutions to the problem, the tools and methodologies we designed to evaluate them and to perform a real world evaluation of our schemes. By the end of this work it will be clear that not only is anticipatory networking a very promising theoretical framework, but also that it is feasible and it can deliver substantial benefit to current and next generation mobile networks. In fact, with both our theoretical and practical results we show evidences that more than one third of the resources can be saved and even larger gain can be achieved for data rate enhancements.Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Ingeniería TelemáticaPresidente: Albert Banchs Roca.- Presidente: Pablo Serrano Yañez-Mingot.- Secretario: Jorge Ortín Gracia.- Vocal: Guevara Noubi

Energy Efficiency in 5G Communications – Conventional to Machine Learning Approaches, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2020, nr 4

Demand for wireless and mobile data is increasing along with development of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and extended reality (ER) applications. In order to handle ultra-high data exchange rates while offering low latency levels, fifth generation (5G) networks have been proposed. Energy efficiency is one of the key objectives of 5G networks. The notion is defined as the ratio of throughput and total power consumption, and is measured using the number of transmission bits per Joule. In this paper, we review state-of-the-art techniques ensuring good energy efficiency in 5G wireless networks. We cover the base-station on/off technique, simultaneous wireless information and power transfer, small cells, coexistence of long term evolution (LTE) and 5G, signal processing algorithms, and the latest machine learning techniques. Finally, a comparison of a few recent research papers focusing on energy-efficient hybrid beamforming designs in massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems is presented. Results show that machine learningbased designs may replace best performing conventional techniques thanks to a reduced complexity machine learning encode