The proliferation of wireless devices and the surge of wireless traffic due to the increasing data demand from novel services and applications will have a profound impact on the communications industry. The next generation network evolution considers higher frequencies with new spectrum including the millimeter-wave and the optical range of the spectrum. The vast majority of research efforts so far have been dedicated to individual deployments of radio and optical networks. Toward providing high quality of service and experience over a diverse spectrum, there is a rapidly growing interest in coexisting radio and optical wireless technologies. The development of a radio-optical paradigm can significantly enhance data rates, communication range, reliability and operation under interference and congestion. According to the distance between the transmitter and receiver, such radio-optical systems can be classified into long-range systems for outdoor deployments and short-range systems for both outdoor and indoor environments. For the design of such systems, indoor and outdoor propagation environments are inherently different from each other and pose unique challenges which need to be carefully considered.
There is one major challenge for outdoor optical wireless and that is the atmospheric attenuation. The attenuation occurs due to many factors such as: (1) Absorption, (2) Scattering, and (3) Shimmer. The effect of all these factors on the received signal power and the availability of the link is uncontrollable in an outdoor environment. A practical solution to this problem would be a hybrid free space optical (FSO) communication/RF system; to back up the FSO link with a lower data rate RF link. Indoors, high data rate capabilities coupled with the directionality of the optical medium allow visible light communications (VLC) small cells to provide very high bandwidth density (b/s/m2). Accordingly, densely distributed optical wireless small cells have the potential to provide additional wireless capacity in the indoor environments where it is needed most (e.g., office spaces, conference halls, urban apartments, coffee shops, etc.). Compared to traditional RF networks; these optical wireless deployments can provide very high aggregate capacity; however, densely distributed optical wireless small cells are challenged to accommodate highly dynamic environments. Specifically, the optical channel is susceptible to blocking conditions and the smaller coverage region of each cell implies that devices with high mobility will change connections frequently. In order to mitigate the impact of these limitations, heterogeneous networks (HetNets) have been proposed where optical wireless networks supplement traditional RF small cell networks – combining the aggregate capacity gains of the former with the coverage and reliability of the later.
The intent of this workshop is to bring together researchers who are exploring analysis and implementation techniques for integration of diverse wireless communication networks through a coexistence HetNets framework. The primary focus of this workshop is related to integration of radio and optical wireless networks; but broader coexistence topics will also be considered. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
RF-FSO and RF-VLC systems
Modulation and coding techniques
MIMO transmission
Load balancing
Mixed relay systems
Multiple-access techniques
Resource allocation and aggregation methods
Coverage, mobility and reliability
Interference management
Network layout and architecture
Cross-layer optimization
Quality of service and experience
Devices and hardware integration
Information theory
Experimental testbeds and characterizations
Security and privacy
For a workshop submission to be considered by the IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking Special Issue, please send an interest note to [email protected]. Extended version of high-quality accepted papers will be recommended for publication at the IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking special issue. Special Issue: “COEXISTING RADIO AND OPTICAL WIRELESS DEPLOYMENTS” with the IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking
King Abdullah Univesity of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
Mohamed-Slim Alouini was born in Tunis, Tunisia. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, CA, USA, in 1998. He served as a faculty member in the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA, then in the Texas A&M University at Qatar, Education City, Doha, Qatar before joining King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Makkah Province, Saudi Arabia as a Professor of Electrical Engineering in 2009.
University of Oulu, Finland
Marcos Katz is a Professor at the Centre for Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Finland. He received his B.S. degree from Universidad de Tucumán, Argentina in 1987 and M.S. and doctoral degrees from the University of Oulu, Finland, in 1995 and 2002, respectively. He held different R&D positions at Nokia, Finland in 1987-2001. He was a Principal Engineer at Samsung Electronics, Korea, in 2003-2005 and Chief Research Scientist at VTT, the Technical Research Centre of Finland, in 2006-2009. His current research interests include theoretical and practical aspects of cooperative and cognitive networking as well as visible light communications. Prof. Katz has written and edited six books in different areas of mobile and wireless communications. He has written more than 160 publications and holds more than 50 patents.
Khalifa University, United Arab Emirates
Sami Muhaidat received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, in 2006. From 2007 to 2008, he was an NSERC postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Canada. From 2008-2012, he was an Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering Science, Simon Fraser University, BC, Canada. He is currently an Associate Professor at Khalifa University, and a Visiting Reader (Associate Professor) in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Surrey, UK. Sami's research focuses on wireless communications, optical communications, IoT with emphasis on battery-less devices, and machine learning. Sami is currently an Area Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications. He served as a Senior Editor for IEEE Communications Letters, an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications, and an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. He is also a member of Mohammed Bin Rashid Academy of scientists.
Detailed program coming soon!
Chicago State University, USA
University at Albany, USA
New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA
Boston University, USA
University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA
Raed Mesleh, German Jordanian University, Jordan
Hassan K. Al-Musawi, University of Kufa, Iraq
Siddhartan Govindasamy, F. W. Olin College of Engineering, USA
Alexandros-Apostolos A Boulogeorgos, University of Piraeus, Greece
George K. Karagiannidis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Hina Tabassum, York University, Canada
Thomas Kamalakis, Harokopio University of Athens, Greece
Majid Safari, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (Great Britain)
Jitender Singh Deogun, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA
Mohamed-Slim Alouini, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia
T. Aaron Gulliver, University of Victoria, Canada
Paul Anthony Haigh, University College London, United Kingdom (Great Britain)
Anna Maria Vegni, Roma Tre University, Italy
Jian Chen, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, P.R. China
Stefan Mangold, Lovefield Wireless GmbH, Switzerland
Zabih Ghassemlooy, Northumbria University, United Kingdom (Great Britain)
Qiang Wu, Northumbria University, United Kingdom (Great Britain)
Murat Yuksel, University of Central Florida, USA
Marcel Kyas, Reykjavik University, Iceland
For questions regarding the workshop, please contact Hany Elgala at: helgala (at) albany (dot) edu