W13: Towards Net-Zero Energy Communication Networks

 

Co-chair: Christos Masouros, University College London, UK
Co-chair: Constantinos Papadias, American College of Greece, Greece
Co-chair: Jimmy Jessen Nielsen, Aalborg University, Denmark

 

Abstract: Net-zero energy systems have become central to the global sustainability policy, aiming to address the climate crisis. At the same time addressing the digital divide and offering connectivity in the developing world has been acknowledged as a key enabler for development, education and financial prosperity. While the issue of energy efficiency (EE) has been a key research topic for wireless communication for more than a decade, EE alone does not enable the reach of wireless networks beyond the reach of the power grid. Energy autonomous and portable networks are acknowledged as a key enabling technology, and while there has been certain consensus on the importance of their use-cases (remote areas, emergency communications, connectivity in the developing world, etc) and related business opportunities, there are still several key challenges that must be addressed before such technological and commercial promises can be kept.

Net-zero energy communications are key to i) enable 100% coverage in urban environments in a power-efficient manner ii) connect the remaining 3+ billion in areas with limited power grid infrastructure, iii) address network provisioning in emergency and disaster areas, and iv) materialize the identified global sustainability challenges and the climate crisis. This workshop aims at bringing together academic and industrial researchers, showcase key results in the area, and identify and discuss the major technical challenges, recent breakthroughs, and new applications related to energy autonomous communications towards a net-zero energy operation.

 

Workshop Program:

Time		Topic
9:00-9:10		Workshop Welcome and PAINLESS introduction Christos Masouros
9:10-9:50		Keynote 1 Ioannis Krikidis: “Wireless Information and Energy Transfer in the Era of 6G Communications”
9:50-10:30		Industrial Talk 1 Hardy Halbauer: “Towards Power Efficient Transmission for 6G Communication Systems”
10:30-11:00		Coffee and Poster Break
11:00-12:30		Technical Session 1: Communications beyond the reach of the power grid (5 papers – 18min each, incl. questions) Cost-Efficient Deployment of a Reliable Multi-UAV Unmanned Aerial System Nithin Babu, The American College of Greece Enabling On-Demand Cyber-Physical Control Applications with UAV Access Points Igor Donevski, Jimmy Jessen Nielsen, Aalborg University Optimizing IRS-Assisted Uplink NOMA System for Power Constrained IoT Networks Mahmoud AlaaEldin, University of Manchester; Emad Al-Susa, Manchester University; Karim Seddik, American University in Cairo; Mohammad Al-Jarrah, University of Manchester Resource Allocation Policies for Hybrid Power-Grid and Harvested Energy Communication Systems Iman, University College London Path Design for Portable Access Point in Joint Sensing Xiaoye Jing, UCL; Fan Liu, Southern University of Science and Technology, China; Christos Masouros, University College London
12:30-14:00		Lunch Break
14:00-14:45		Keynote 2 Mohamed-Slim Alouini: “Towards connecting the remaining 3+ billion”
14:45-15:30		Industrial Talk 2 Pete James: “Energy storage technologies for renewable energy powered communication networks”
15:30-16:00		Coffee and Poster Break
16:00-17:30		Technical Session 2: Energy Harvesting (5 papers – 18min each, incl. questions) Multi-Site Energy Harvesting for Battery-Less Internet-of-Things Devices: Prospects and Limits Morteza Esmaeili Tavana, Emil Björnson, KTH Royal Institute of Technology; Jens Zander, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden A Linear MMSE Receiver for SWIPT-enabled Wireless Network Yuan Guo, Christodoulos Skouroumounis, Ioannis Krikidis, University of Cyprus Black-box model for estimating efficiency curves in DC-DC converters for energy storage systems Marco Virgili, University of Manchester; Pete James, Lyra Electronics; Andrew Forsyth, University of Manchester Empirical Characterization of Solar Panel Outlay and Dimension for Net-Zero Energy IoT System Dr. Sudhakar Modem, Indian Institute of Technology Jammu; Deepak Mishra, University of New South Wales; Sudhakar Modem, Indian Institute of Technology Jammu PV-Powered Base Stations Equipped by UAVs in Urban Areas Mahshid Javidsharifi, Aalborg University; Hamoun Pourroshanfekr Arabani, Lund University; Tamas Kerekes, Aalborg University; Dezso Sera, Queensland University of Technology; Josep M. Guerrero, Aalborg University
17:30		Closing of workshop

 

Co-chair’s Bios:

Christos Masouros

Bio: Christos Masouros (SMIEEE, MIET) received the Diploma degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece, in 2004, and MSc by research and PhD in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Manchester, UK in 2006 and 2009 respectively. In 2008 he was a research intern at Philips Research Labs, UK. Between 2009-2010 he was a Research Associate in the University of Manchester and between 2010-2012 a Research Fellow in Queen’s University Belfast. In 2012 he joined University College London as a Lecturer. He has held a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship between 2011-2016.

Since 2019 he is a Full Professor of Signal Processing and Wireless Communications in the Information and Communications Engineering research group, Dept. Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University College London. His research interests lie in the field of wireless communications and signal processing with particular focus on Green Communications, Large Scale Antenna Systems, Integrated Sensing and Communications, interference mitigation techniques for MIMO and multicarrier communications. He was the co-recipient of the 2021 IEEE SPS Young Author Best Paper Award. He was the recipient of the Best Paper Awards in the IEEE GlobeCom 2015 and IEEE WCNC 2019 conferences, and has been recognized as an Exemplary Editor for the IEEE Communications Letters, and as an Exemplary Reviewer for the IEEE Transactions on Communications. He is an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, the IEEE Open Journal of Signal Processing, and Editor-at-Large for IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society. He has been an Associate Editor for IEEE Communications Letters, and a Guest Editor for a number of IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in Signal Processing issues. He is a founding member and Vice-Chair of the IEEE Emerging Technology Initiative on Integrated Sensing and Communications, Vice Chair of the IEEE Special Interest Group on Integrated Sensing and Communications, and Chair of the IEEE Special Interest Group on Energy Harvesting.

 

Constantinos Papadias

Bio: Dr. Papadias has been a member of the department of Information Technology at Deree and the Executive Director of ACG’s Research, Technology and Innovation Network (RTIN), since Feb. 2020. He is also Adjunct Professor at Aalborg University in Denmark and at the University of Cyprus. He was Dean (2014-2019) and Professor (2006-2019) at Athens Information Technology, Technical Manager (2001-2006) and Researcher (1997-2001) at Bell Labratories, Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University (2006-2011) and at Columbia University (2004-2005), post-doctoral researcher at Stanford University (1995-1997) and researcher at Institut Eurécom (1992-1995). His teaching and research interests include wireless communications, signal processing, antenna systems and machine learning, among others. He has published over 200 papers and 4 books, holds 12 patents and has received over 9000 citations and several recognitions for his work. He has attracted research grants whose total value exceeds 25M€. Ηe is a Fellow of the IEEE and of the European Alliance of Innovation.

 

Jimmy Jessen Nielsen

Bio: Jimmy Jessen Nielsen obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the Department of Electronic Systems, Aalborg University, Denmark. He obtained his Ph.D. in Wireless Communications from Aalborg University in 2011 and is currently associate professor in Reliable IoT Communications at the Department of Electronic Systems, Aalborg University. His research interests are on ultra-reliable communication and low latency communication (URLLC), internet of things (IoT) protocols, and drone communications. He has been involved in both FP7 and H2020 (5GPPP) projects, working on the topics of URLLC and mMTC in the context of smart grid, IoT and 5G systems. Currently, he is an ESR supervisor in the ITN project PAINLESS on the topic of drone communications. He was publications chair and co-organizer of the IEEE SmartGridComm 2018 conference, taking place in Aalborg, October 2018, and has co-organized several workshops and special sessions, latest in ISWCS 2018, WCNC 2019 and ISWCS 2019. In 2018, he presented a tutorial on URLLC for Machine-Type Communications in the ISWCS 2018 conference. He has authored and co-authored around 45 publications in conferences, journals, and books, and has served as reviewer for various IEEE journals and conferences.

 

For additional information, please visit: https://sites.google.com/view/painless-vtc-workshop/home

 

Deadlines:
Workshop paper submissions due: 14 August 2022
Acceptance notification: 20 August 2022
Final paper submission due: 24 August 2022

To submit a paper to this workshop, please visit:  https://vtc2022f-rr-wks.trackchair.com/track/2139