9:00-9:40 Keynote 1: Network Management and Machine Learning Architecture Beyond 5G

Session Chair:  Prof. Paul Harvey, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
Keynote Speaker: Kwang-Cheng Chen, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA

Abstract:
Machine learning technology introduces a paradigm shift in 5G and beyond mobile communications and networking. Together with software defined network and network function virtualization technology, it suggests numerous technological opportunities regarding automated network management and network architecture supporting diverse network traffic needs and service requirements. Looking current and future trends of new and diverse applications in mobile communications and SDN/NFV, we examine machine learning network architecture and subsequent network management from different aspects to satisfy the needs of users, operators, and network systems. Technology roadmap toward automated network management in 6G mobile communications is therefore high-lighted. 

Speaker’s Biography: Kwang-Cheng Chen has been a Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Florida, since 2016. From 1987 to 2016, Dr. Chen worked with SSE, Communications Satellite Corp., IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, National Tsing Hua University, HP Labs., and National Taiwan University in mobile communications and networks. He visited TU Delft (1998), Aalborg University (2008), Sungkyunkwan University (2013), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2012-2013, 2015-2016). He founded a wireless IC design company in 2001, which was acquired by MediaTek Inc. in 2004. He has been actively involving in the organization of various IEEE conferences and serving editorships with a few IEEE journals, together with various IEEE volunteer services to the IEEE, Communications Society, Vehicular Technology Society, and Signal Processing Society, such as founding the Technical Committee on Social Networks in the IEEE Communications Society and founding series editor of AI and Data Science for Communications in the IEEE Communications Magazine. Dr. Chen also has contributed essential technology to various international standards, namely IEEE 802 wireless LANs, Bluetooth, LTE and LTE-A, 5G-NR, and ITU-T FG ML5G. He has authored and co-authored over 350 IEEE publications, 4 books published by Wiley and River (most recently, Artificial Intelligence in Wireless Robotics, 2020), and more than 26 granted US patents. Dr. Chen is an IEEE Fellow, AAIA Fellow, and has received a number of awards including 2011 IEEE COMSOC WTC Recognition Award, 2014 IEEE Jack Neubauer Memorial Award, 2014 IEEE COMSOC AP Outstanding Paper Award, and paper awards in IEEE conferences. Dr. Chen’s current research interests include wireless networks, quantum communications and computing, multi-agent systems and social networks, machine learning and AI, and cybersecurity.

9:40-10:30 TS 1: Intent-Based Networking for autonomous networks

Chair:  Prof. Miguel Camelo

An Intent-Based Networking mechanism: A study case for efficient path selection using Graph Neural Networks

Javier Jose Rivera, Jeju National University, Jeju, Republic of Korea - Presenter

Mir Muhammad, Suleman Sarwar, Jeju National University, Jeju, Republic of Korea

Sajid Alam, Jeju National University, Jeju, Republic of Korea

Talha ahmed Khan, Jeju National University, Jeju, Republic of Korea

Muhammad Afaq, Jeju National University, Jeju, Republic of Korea

Wang-Cheol Song, Jeju National University, Jeju, Republic of Korea

Combining Autonomic and Intent-Based Networking

Alexander Clemm, Futurewei Technologies, California, USA

Toerless Eckert, Futurewei Technologies, California, USA

10:30-11:00 Break

11:00-12:15 TS 2: End-to-End management and trustworthiness for autonomous networks

Chair:  Prof. Paul Harvey, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

SDN-based Testbed for Emerging Use Cases in Beyond 5G NTN-Terrestrial Networks

Mario Minardi, Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg  - Presenter

Youssouf Drif, Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Thang X. Vu, Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Ilora Maity, Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Christos Politis, SES Techcom, Betzdorf, Luxembourg

Symeon Chatzinotas, Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Emergency and Infotainment Services through Mobility-based Dynamic and Predictive 5G Network Slicing

Gonçalo Perna, Instituto de Telecomunicações, Aveiro, Portugal  - Presenter

Pedro Rito, Instituto de Telecomunicações, Aveiro, Portugal

Carlos Martins Marques, Altice Labs, 3810-106 Aveiro, Portugal

Miguel Luis, Instituto de Telecomunicações, Aveiro, Portugal

Filipe Pinto, Altice Labs, 3810-106 Aveiro, Portugal

Susana Sargento, Instituto de Telecomunicações, Aveiro, Portugal

Enabling Auditable Trust in Autonomous Networks with Ethereum and IPFS

Jaime Fúster de la Fuente, Rakuten Mobile, Tokyo, Japan

Álvaro Pendás Recondo, University of Oviedo, Gijón, Spain

Leon Wong, Rakuten Mobile, Tokyo, Japan

Paul Harvey, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK  - Presenter

12:15-13:30 Lunch

13:30-14:10 Keynote 2: AI/ML management of 6G - opportunities and challenges

Chair: Miguel Camelo, University of Antwerp - IMEC, Belgium

Keynote Speaker: Sławomir Kukliński, Orange Polska and Warsaw University of Technology, Poland

Abstract: Currently, there are many research activities concerning the 6G network worldwide, which should be available commercially by 2030. These activities start with defining the 6G vision based on use cases and related requirements. According to many white papers, the 6G network should be deeply integrated with AI, leading to an ‘AI-native’ system in which AI will be used in multiple layers and deeply integrated. The use of AI for control loop-based management is nothing new. Such an approach has already been proposed for LTE-SON, 5G and other networking solutions to cope with management complexity, provide quick management reactions and implement so-called “self-functions” (self-configuration, self-healing, etc.).  There are, however, new requirements.

In the talk, synthetic requirements concerning 6G and their impact on management will be presented with the emphasized role of AI-native management operations, having FCAPS in mind. These new requirements will primarily deal with predictive management to provide high network reliability and with the Cloud Continuum and Network-of-Networks paradigms. The talk will include aspects of the AI-native implementation framework in the multistakeholder environment (towards AIaaS), discussing security and privacy issues. The use of Network Digital Twin and XAI will also be outlined, as well as the role of human-in-the-loop. A list of challenges related to the AI deployment cost (lightweight AI for resource-constrained devices), convergence time, multi-objective optimization, coordination, adaptability of AI to changing topologies and trust will be provided at the end of the talk.

Speaker’s Biography: In 1994, Sławomir received a PhD with honours from the Warsaw University of Technology, and since then, he has been an assistant professor. His PhD thesis concerned neural networks (now part of AI). For about 20 years, he also works for Orange Polska as Research Expert. At the beginning of his career, he was involved in digital signal processing for military (radar systems) and non-military applications (voice compression and recognition). Later, he worked on wireless mesh networks (MANET), VANET (V2X), and SDN. For about 15 years, he has been involved in research concerning autonomic network management and mobile networks. He is working on network slicing 5G, 6G and autonomic and cognitive techniques applied to network management and control. As a principal investigator, he was involved in more than ten EU-funded projects, including FP6 MIDAS, FP7 4WARD, FP7 EFIPSANS, Celtic COMMUNE (Cognitive Network Management under Uncertainty), 5G!Pagoda, 5G-DRIVE, 5G!Drones, MonB5G and Hexa-X (6G flagship project in Europe). Actually, he is involved in the Hexa-X follow-up project, Hexa-X-II. He has also been engaged in ITU-T standardization concerning future networks (SG13). Slawomir Kukliński has published more than 90 scientific papers, has been a TPC member of many conferences and has given several invited keynotes.

14:10-15:00 Poster session on resource allocation and traffic analysis in autonomous networking and future internet

Chair: Miguel Camelo, University of Antwerp - IMEC, Belgium

Dynamic and Multiprovider-based Resource Infrastructure in the NFV MANO Framework
Sławomir Kukliński, Orange Polska, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland  - Presenter
Jordi Mongay Batalla, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
Janusz Pieczerak, Orange Polska, Poland

Componentized Task Scheduling in Cloud-Edge Cooperative Scenarios Based on GNN-enhanced DRL

Jingchun Li, State Key Laboratory of Networking and Switching Technology, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China

Fanqin Zhou, State Key Laboratory of Networking and Switching Technology, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China

Wenjing Li, State Key Laboratory of Networking and Switching Technology, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China

Mingyu Zhao, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Shanghai, 201206, China

Xueqiang Yan, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Shanghai, 201206, China

Yan Xi, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Shanghai, 201206, China

Jianjun Wu, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Shanghai, 201206, China

SDN-based GTP-U Traffic Analysis for 5G Networks

Diana Pineda, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, USA  - Presenter

Ricardo Harrilal-Parchment, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, USA

Kemal Akkaya, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, USA

Alexander Perez-Pons, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Florida International University, Miami, USA

15:00-15:30 Break

15:30-16:20 : TS 3: Human-centered computing and future internet

Chair: Prof. Edmundo Madeira, UNICAMP - University of Campinas, Brazil

Towards an Edge Cloud Based Coordination Platform for Multi-User AR Applications Built on Open-Source SLAMs 

Balázs Sonkoly, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, MTA-BME Network Softwarization Research Group, Hungary

Bálint György Nagy, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, MTA-BME Network Softwarization Research Group, Hungary

János Dóka, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, MTA-BME Network Softwarization Research Group, Hungary

Zsófia Kecskés-Solymosi, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, MTA-BME Network Softwarization Research Group, Hungary

János Czentye, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, MTA-BME Network Softwarization Research Group, Hungary  - Presenter

Bence Formanek, Ericsson Research, Hungary

Dávid Jocha, Ericsson Research, Hungary

Balázs Péter Geró, Ericsson Research, Hungary

Delay-bounded Topology Construction and Routing Integration for Time-critical Services 

Xiaofu Huang, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China  - Presenter

Guochu Shou, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China

Yaqiong Liu, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China

Zehua Gao, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China

Yihong Hu, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China

16:20-17:05 Best Paper Award & Closing