To handle the unprecedented demand for mobile data traffic, different vendors, operators and research have
aimed to develop radio access technologies (RATs) that boost physical-layer link capacity, utilize millimeter
wave radio, or further densify network topology. Notable steps have also been made towards shifting
baseband processing from the (currently) ultra dense network edge to a central location where coordinated
resource management will be performed. Nonetheless, the today’s mobile network ecosystem includes
vastly heterogeneous, evidently overlapping (in coverage) and fully isolated (in operation) attachment points
that still handle most of the functions necessary for mobile data communications independently.
Aiming to
meet and surpass the requirements set for the 5G and Beyond mobile data network, in SPOTLIGHT we will
create a fully-integrated and multi-disciplinary network of Early Stage Researchers (ESRs)
that will analyze,
design, and optimize the performance of a disruptive new mobile network architecture: the SPOTLIGHT
architecture.
This architecture promises to break performance limitations present to the currently loosely inter-connected,
resource-fragmented and isolated in operation mobile network ecosystem, by transforming the currently
loosely-coupled multitude of heterogeneous and multi-layered RATs to a flat coalition of massively distributed
antenna sub-systems that are optimally orchestrated by a cloud-empowered network core. Our primary
aim will be to support for the first time self-including yet ultra-reliable radio communications at the edge
network. To further reduce response time and enhance network resilience, all functions necessary for mobile
communications will be subject of i) massive parallelization in cloud platforms at the network core and ii) big
data analysis running on-top of a virtual pool of shared energy, radio, computing and storage resources at
the network.
Early Stage Researchers
Following the call for job positions as ESR in February 2017, all participating partners of the consortium have been recruiting applicants from all over the world. The recruitment process finished lately. All recruited ESRs have attended the first plenary meeting, except three with Skype. The short biography of ESR is presented here
Placido Mursia
ESR1
He obtained his B.Sc. in “Telecommunications Engineering” from Politecnico di Torino in 2015 and his M.Sc. (with honors) in “Communications and Computer Networks Engineering”, and “Mobile Communications” (Erasmus+, double degree program) from Politecnico di Torino and Eurecom in 2018, respectively. He carried out a research internship in the iCDG Department at Intel, Munich on channel estimation for 4G+/5G systems. Currently, he is an ESR within the Marie-Curie project SPOTLIGHT and a PhD candidate at the “Communication Systems” department of Eurecom. His research interests are massive MIMO networks, wireless communications and signal processing
Roya Gholami
ESR2
She was born in Shiraz,Iran, in 1992. She obtained BSc. degree in electrical engineering(communication)and MSc. degree in electrical engineering(communication systems) from shiraz university, Department of Communication and Electronics Engineering, in 2014 and 2017 respectively. Currently she is an ESR in SPOTLIGHT and a PhD candidate at the "Communication Systems" department of Eurecom.
Her research interests include wireless communication systems with special emphasis on massive MIMO Communications and MIMO-OFDM Systems, Stochastic Geometry, Signal Processing and Coding Theory.
Sumaila Mahama
ESR3
He
received
B.Sc. degree
in
telecommunications
engineering
from the
Kwame
Nkrumah
University
of Science and Technology, Ghana,
the M.S. degree in electronic engineering
from Hanbat National University,
South Korea, in 2013 and
2016 respectively. During 2017,
he was assistant lecturer in department
of electrical and electronic
engineering, KAAF University College,
Ghana. He is currently a
Marie-Curie ESR and PhD student
at the department of electronic
engineering, University of York,
UK. His research interests are in
wireless communications, particularly,
physical layer network coding,
relaying networks, multicarrier
modulation for 5G and beyond systems,
and wireless-powered communication
networks.
Michalis Eliodorou
ESR4
He was born
in Nicosia,
Cyprus, in
1990. He obtained
a degree
in Electrical
and Computer
Engineering
from
the National
Technical University of Athens, in
2016. He also received an M.Sc
degree in Embedded Systems from
the University of Southampton, UK,
in 2017. He is currently an Early
Stage Researcher under the SPOTLIGHT
project at MTN Cyprus and
studying towards a Ph.D in the
Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering at the University
of Cyprus. His research interests
focus on wireless communications
and include massively distributed
MIMO transmissions, distance
and angle of arrival estimation,
game theory on communication
systems and transmission profile
selection techniques.
Behnam Ojaghi Kahjogh
ESR5
He is an ESR
in this SPOTLIGHT
project
in WINE research
group
of Universitat
Oberta
de Catalunya
(UOC), Spain.
Before, he did
a master thesis in Department of
Computer Architecture at UPC
(February – August, 2017). He
was both a teaching assistant and
research assistant at TOBB University
of Economics and Technology,
Ankara, Turkey (2014-2017). His
research interests include wireless
sensor networks, network slicing,
5G, and network optimization.
Shammi Farhana Islam
ESR6
She obtained BSc and MSc. from
department of Applied Physics
and Electronic Engineering, University
of Rajshahi, Bangladesh.
Since graduation,
she
was lecturer
in the department.
She
was doing
research in
the field of
signal processing
and
wireless communications. Her
research interests are signal processing
and Wireless communication,
with special emphasis on
5G compatible mmWave communications,
advanced Radio Access
technology, massive MIMO
communications.
Armin Okic
ESR7
He re-
ceived his
BSc and MSc
degrees from
the University
of Sarajevo,
Faculty
of Electrical
Engineering
Sarajevo, Department
of
Telecommunications.
He was working in BS
Telecom Solutions company in
which he cooperated with network
operators maintaining different
telecommunication’s platforms.
Currently, he is a Ph.D. student
at the Polytechnic University of
Milan, Department of Electronics,
Information and Bioengineering in
the area of Telecommunications
and Early Stage Researcher at the
European Marie Curie Innovative
Training Network in the SPOTLIGHT
project. His research area
is covering Resource Management
in Heterogeneous networks as well
as an appliance of Machine learning
and Big data analytics in the
future 5G networks and beyond.
Bin Xiang
ESR8
He did his
BSc in Southwest Jiaotong University,
China, and graduate study
in Beijing University of Posts and
Telecommunications, China. Currently,
he is a PhD student in department of
electronics, information
and
bioengineering,
Politecnico
di Milano,
Italy. His research
interests
focus on
mobile edge
computing, radio resource management
and data analysis.
Ioannis Sarrigiannis
ESR9
He
was born
in Athens,
Greece,
in 1989.
He obtained
his
five-year
diploma
(MSc equivalent) in Information and Communication
Systems Engineering
in 2015 at the University of the
Aegean. Currently he is an ESR at
Iquadrat Informatica, in Barcelona,
Spain. His current research interests
include Software Defined
Networks, Virtual Network Functions
and Network Slicing, in the
scope of Cloud Radio Access Networks
towards 5G.
Umberto Fattore
ESR10
Umberto
was born in Naples (Italy),
in 1993. He received both
his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees
in Computer Engineering
from University of Naples "Federico
II", respectively in 2015
and 2018. During his master
studies, he joined NEC Laboratories
Europe in Heidelberg
(Germany)
for a sixmonths
internship
period,
within
the European
Erasmus+
Trainee
ship project. In February 2018,
he has been enrolled by NEC
as an Early Stage Researcher,
within the European ITN Spotlight
project. Currently, he is part of
the 5GN group of the lab, focusing
on enhanced routing for mobile
core networks and other next generation
mobile networks related
research topics.
George Datseris
ESR11
He received
his BSc
in "Computer
Network Management
And
Design" from
the University
of Portsmouth
and he did his
MSc in "Mobile
and Personal communications" in Kings
College London. He has many
years of industrial experience as he
has worked as a telecommunications
consultant for various network
operators around the globe. He
is currently an ESR within SPOTLIGHT
through the partner NESSOS.
His research interests focus
on the SotA platforms, programming
tools and prediction models
to enable high-performance computing
at the network edge.
Pedro Batista
ESR12
He is an
ESR at Ericsson
and a
Ph.D. candidate
in
the Electrical
Engineering
Graduate
Program at
Federal University of Pará, Brazil.
From where he also received his
B.S. and M.S. degrees. His research
interests are in the optimization
of future mobile networks,
mainly involving machine learning,
network function virtualization,
and cloud radio access network
functional split.
Santiago Sánchez Correa
ESR13
He graduated
from the
Universidad
Nacional
of Colombia
from my
bachelor’s
and master’s
degree both
in electrical
engineering, in these I gained
knowledge in Machine Learning
(ML), now hosted by the Open University
of Catalonia for the SPOTLIGHT
project, at this time of the
project we are evaluating strategies
of "Caching" for apply ML, due
to this we have studied issues such
as mobility and popularity of content,
which are challenges for the
Heterogeneous 5G networks.
Tadege M. Ayenew
ESR14
He
obtained his
BSc degree in
electrical engineering
from
Arba Minch University,
Ethiopia,
in 2009 and
MSc degree
in telecommunication engineering
from Universita degnli Studi Di
Brescia, Italy, late 2016. He also
attended a postgraduate MTech in
2012 from IIT-Delhi & Addis Ababa
University. Currently, he is an ESR
in this SPOTLIGHT project at UOA.
From 2009 to 2013, he has been
working as electrical engineer and
network specialist in Ethio Telecom.
In 2016, he was intern researcher
at TNO, The Netherlands. He
founded Tadom Technology Solutions
Ltd. Now, he is working
on popular content placement and
delivery techniques mainly on using
fountain codes for massively
distributed systems in the 5G and
beyond mobile networks.
Subin Narayanan
ESR15
He
obtained his BSc degree in electronics
and communication engineering
and MSc degree in
wireless
technology
from
Cochin University
of
Science
and Technology,
India,
in 2012
and 2015 respectively. He pursued
a professional doctorate
(PDEng) in antenna engineering
from Electromagnetic group, TU
Eindhoven in 2017. Currently, he
is a Marie Curie ESR in the SPOTLIGHT
project and a PhD student
at UOA. His area of research is
massive machine type communication
(mMTC) in 5G and beyond
cellular networks.
Seminars and Courses
After the meeting, the management and supervisory team went home on the next day but all ESRs remained in Athens to attend the seminar and the first transferable course, which was delivered by invited guests. This course is part of the transferable skill training, as a pivotal point of the ESRs career prospects. The SPOTLIGHT structures this training aspect through 4 courses.The first course, Scientific Writing and Communication Skills, was delivered on 6th and 7th March, 2018. The first part of the course covered aspects on writing of scientific papers, that the course allows ESRs to learn the basic structure of scientific papers and understand the differences between conference papers, journals, and magazines based on practical examples. The second part, which had strong practical examples and ESRs‘ practice, was focusing on techniques of effective communication to different target audiences. Three speakers, Prof.Lazaros Merakos, Dr. Ferran A. Freixer, and Prof. Luciano Baresi (out of the consortium) have participated in the speech.
Following the course, the first seminar of the consortium, 5G networks and beyond, took place on 8th and 9th March 2018. In the seminar, four invited guests participated where the roadmap of the 5G standardization process and existing architecture, and the evolution was delivered. The capabilities and challenges for core-driven DSP in 5G and beyond systems were thoroughly investigated and promising research directions were drawn, with practical deliverable examples.
