Keynote Speakers

Internet of Space: Communication Systems for Future Space-based Internet Services

Abstract: Since the first commercial satellite, launched in 1965, satellite communications have evolved to provide low latency services based on constellations of small LEO satellites, and high data rate services based on High Throughput GEO Satellites (HTS) capable of managing flexible multiple ‘spot beams’ covering desirable service areas. Based on HTS and LEO constellations, the next step to boost the usage of satellite networks passes by its integration with terrestrial cellular networks, as 5G, and other non-terrestrial networks, such as high altitude pseudo-satellites. However, to achieve a full Internet of Space, there is the need to define a unifying networking framework able to sustain the specific properties of dynamic scenarios, which include heterogeneous physical layers, frequent changes in network topology, high propagation delays, and intermittent connectivity.

Biography: Paulo Mendes is Senior Scientist for Wireless Communications at Airbus. Before joining Airbus, he was associated professor at University Lusofona, where he was director of the Ph.D program on Informatics until 2018. Paulo was also the co-founder of the COPELABS research center, as well as co-founder and CTO at Senception Lda. In 2004, Paulo Mendes got his Ph.D. degree in Informatics Engineering from the University of Coimbra, while being a visiting scholar at Columbia University. He is an IEEE senior member and ACM member. His research interests are in the area of cooperative wireless communications, self-organized wireless networks, information-centric networking and distributed edge computing.


Enabling reliable communications for aerial vehicles through cellular networks

Abstract: Due to safety concerns, a reliable radio communication link is a key component in the future application of aerial vehicles, as it will enable beyond visual line-of-sight operations, opening new and attractive use cases. In terms of cost and deployment time, radio communication for aerial vehicles will greatly benefit from the ready to market infrastructure and ubiquitous coverage of cellular networks. However cellular networks are optimized for terrestrial users, and the different propagation environment experienced by aerial vehicles poses some interference challenges, as has been shown by measurements in live LTE networks. In the downlink this means it is difficult to provide a reliable radio communication link at times of medium or high network load. In the uplink high throughput application communications from an aerial vehicle may disturb the uplink of the users in a wide area. System level simulations are used to assess interference mitigation solutions that can improve aerial link reliability. They show that practical, and relatively low complexity, interference mitigation techniques such as interference coordination, beam steering and hybrid access may well lead to a reliable C2 link even in highly loaded cellular networks in urban and rural areas. These solutions are compared to using a dedicated carrier deployment scenario for aerial vehicles.

Biography: Jeroen Wigard received the M.Sc. degree electrical engineering from Technische Universiteit Delft, Netherlands, in 1995 and the Ph.D. degree on the topic of handover algorithms and frequency planning in frequency hopping GSM networks from Aalborg University, Denmark, in 1999. He joined Nokia Aalborg, Denmark, where he was on radio resource management related topics for 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G. He also has been studying several network deployment aspects related to LTE network evolution. He is currently with the Nokia Denmark Bell Labs, Aalborg (former Nokia Networks Aalborg) and involved in several IoT related topics, including drones and non terrestrial networks. He has authored and co-authored over 40 journal and conference papers.

Design and applications for reliable and ultra-reliable wireless access networks

Abstract: Mainly driven by the Internet-of-Things, the use and expectation of the Internet is changing rapidly and many of the new applications requires a far more reliable and secure infrastructure than usually demanded. This talk will address the requirements and how we might define key performance parameters in relation to specific cases in critical infrastructures, eHealth, industrial automation etc. The talk will focus on the end-to-end requirement from a communication network perspective and discuss how core and access networks will have to be designed in an integrated way to enable proper security and resiliency concepts.

Biography: Lars Dittmann was born in 1962 and received the M.Sc. EE and Ph.D. from the Technical University of Denmark in 1988 and 1994. He is currently Professor at the Technical University of Denmark within the area of integrated networks. In 1999 he build the network technology research group at DTU, that he has been heading since – renamed today to the “The Networks Technology and Service Platforms Group”. In parallel, he is strategically responsible for the whole communication technology section at DTU (about 85 faculty, researchers and phd students) and is head of the PhD school. His main research interest is covering both wired and wireless networks with focus on enabling network-infrastructures for highly demanding application for example within eHealth, transportation, automation.