W14: Towards an AI-native 6G Network
Co-chair: Juho Lee, Samsung Electronics, IEEE Fellow
Co-chair: Yue Wang, Samsung Research, UK
Panel
Panel Moderator: Dan Warren, Samsung Research , UK
Panelist: Maria Cuevas, BT, UK
Panelist: Simone Mangiante, Vodafone
Panelist: Muhammad Ali Imran, University of Glasgow, UK
Panelist: Howard Benn, Samsung, UK
Date: 26th of September 2022, workshop starts at 2pm
Venue: Imperial College of London – City and Guilds Building. Room: 329 lecture
Abstract: The industry has come to a consensus that 6G network is going to be AI native – this not only means ubiquitous intelligent experience that will be accessible from people, devices, sensors and things, but also the large scale data and AI/ML models applied everywhere in the network for optimised operation and management. In 6G, network is no longer just about connectivity, it will also integrate communication, sensing, and computing resources, supporting data and AI model compute and exchange, and facilitating the collaboration of the intelligent agents everywhere in the network.
Many challenges remain in order to achieve the full vision of an AI-native 6G network. Moving from a model by model, use case by use case design, a 6G network needs to support collaborative intelligence and consider system (or rather, multiple systems) as a whole. We envisage that an AI-native 6G network will host intelligence, computational and network resources in a unified architecture, facilitate the orchestration of data, AI models, computation and network resources – including virtualised network functions – in an end-to-end fashion, among end users, edge and cloud. In this context, the aim of this workshop is to explore and stimulate discussions on 6G network architecture and advanced technologies. Topics includes, but not limited to: 6G network architecture, advanced AI/ML for 6G, and communication and computation network convergence.
Program outline:
The workshop consists of four invited keynote speeches highlighting some of the pioneering relevant work, and a set of scientific papers presented in two sessions reporting recent results related to the various workshop topics.
The agenda for the half-day workshop is the following:
14:00 Workshop starts
14:00-14:10 Welcome from the organizers and workshop overview (10 min)
14:10-14:30 Title TBC (15 min + 5 min Q&A)
Speaker: Howard Benn – Samsung Research UK
14:30-14:50 Title TBC (15 min + 5 min Q&A)
Speaker: Maria Cuevas – BT
14:50-15:10 Title TBD (15 min + 5 min Q&A)
Speaker: Simone Mangiante – Vodafone
15:10-15:30 Title TBD (15 min + 5 min Q&A)
Speaker: Muhammad Ali Imran – University of Glasgow
15:30-16:00 Break (20 min)
16:00-16:50 Panel discussion with all speakers.
Moderator: Dan Warren (Samsung)
16:50-17:00 Closing
Co-chair Bios:
Junho Lee
Bio: Juho Lee is currently a Fellow (EVP of Technology) at Samsung Research, Samsung Electronics and is working on the research and standardization for mobile communications. He joined Samsung Electronics in 2000 and has worked on multiple generations of mobile communications, i.e., WCDMA and HSPA in 3G, LTE, LTE-Advanced, and LTE-Advanced Pro in 4G, and 5G NR technologies. His current research focus is on preparation of future technologies such as 5G evolution (e.g., 5G-Advanced in 3GPP) and 6G. He was a vice chairman of 3GPP RAN WG1 from February 2003 to August 2009 and chaired LTE/LTE-Advanced MIMO sessions. He received his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea, in 2000. Dr. Lee is a Fellow of IEEE.
Yue Wang
Bio: Yue Wang currently leads Network AI research in Samsung UK. Her team delivers advanced research, standard contributions, and proof-of-concepts of AI applications in RAN, Core Networks, and more recently on network data, edge intelligence, AI framework, and AI for 6G. At Samsung, she has also participated in multiple SDOs, including O-RAN and ETSI ENI (Experiential Networked Intelligence), and has been the Secretary and Rapporteur of ETSI ISG ENI in 2017-2020. She is currently the Industry Advisory Board member of King’s College of London, Loughborough University, and University of Sussex.
Prior to joining Samsung, Yue held various roles in the US and the UK, all on wireless communications research and standards. She is the recipient of ETSI ENI Award for her ‘extraordinary contributions’ in 2019, and Cambridge Wireless Technology and Innovation Award – Outstanding Woman Engineer of the Year – in 2020. Yue received her PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Victoria, Canada.
Panel Bios:
Panel Moderator: Dan Warren
Bio: Dan Warren is Director of Advanced Network Research at Samsung Research UK. He leads a team of researchers working on cutting-edge mobile telecoms technology innovation, in the fields of Beyond 5G, 6G and the application of Artificial Intelligence. Dan applies his broad experience in the industry across technical, commercial, strategic and regulatory topics to steer Research towards relevant and commercially viable solutions. Dan is currently Chair of the Steering Board of the European Commission 5G-PPP, a Board member of 6G-IA and a member of a number of External Advisory Boards for academic research projects.
Prior to joining Samsung, Dan held senior roles at Capita, GSMA, Vodafone and Nortel. Dan is a widely respected authority on Telecoms, having been included in Global Telecoms Business Magazine ‘Top 40 Under 40’ list for three years, and in Capacity Magazine’s ’20 Innovators to Watch’ in 2018. Dan holds a Ph. D. in Applied Mathematics from Brunel University.
Panelist: Maria Cuevas
Bio: Maria leads the Networks Research department in BT’s Applied Research. Her team’s mission is to identify and co-develop new technologies to enhance BT’s networks and services in terms of capacity, efficiency, coverage, security and customer experience. The research work programme led by Maria underpins BT’s mid-to-long term best converged network vision. The role of her team is to develop new technologies to support future product and services, Maria also advices the business on the impacts of emerging network technologies, standards and regulation.
Maria has worked in BT for 22 years, she has played multiple roles across design, architecture, technology strategy and research. During that time, she has been involved in a number of key transformational programmes and projects including all-IP transformation, spectrum acquisition and platform procurement amongst many others. She has also played a key role in standards and industry bodies, including ETSI, the GSMA and more recently the Telcom Infrastructure Project, where she is member of the Technical Committee.
Maria holds a Telecoms Engineering degree, undertook an MSc in Telecoms as part of the Erasmus exchange programme and a Business Strategy & Leadership Master by Ashridge International Business School.
Maria was awarded the “Women in Telecoms” Award by the ITP and is now part of the Distinguished Engineers community within BT.
Panelist: Simone Mangiante
Bio: Dr. Simone Mangiante is a research and standards specialist in Vodafone Group R&D. His main research interests are network cloud architecture, edge computing and artificial intelligence for telco. He received his PhD in Computer Networks in 2013 from the University of Genoa, Italy, working on SDN for network management. He then spent three years with Dell EMC in Ireland as a senior research scientist, managing European projects on SDN and network transport. In Vodafone since 2017, he currently focuses on distributed cloud for telco networks, edge intelligence and AI for 6G.
Panelist: Muhammad Ali Imran
Bio: Muhammad Ali Imran – FRSE, FRSA, FIET, SFHEA, CEng, Senior Member IEEE, is serving as Dean University of Glasgow UESTC and a Professor of Wireless Communication Systems with research interests in self organised networks, wireless networked control systems and the wireless sensor systems. He heads the Communications, Sensing and Imaging (CSI) research group and Autonomous Systems and Connectivity division at University of Glasgow. He is serving as Director of Centre for Educational Development and Innovation.
He is the Principal Investigator for Scotland 5G Centre’s Urban Testbed in Glasgow and an advisory board member for UK5G. He has over 20 years of combined academic and industry experience with several leading roles in multi-million pounds funded projects. He has filed 15 patents; has authored/co-authored over 400 journal and conference publications; has authored 2 books, edited 8 books and authored more than 30 book chapters; has successfully supervised over 50 postgraduate students at Doctoral level. He has been a consultant to international projects and local companies in the area of self-organised networks.
He is passionate about sharing the benefits of technology equitably across society and is a strong supporter and mentor for young and early career talent. He is an Affiliate Professor at the University of Oklahoma, USA; Adjunct Research Professor at Ajman University, UAE and a visiting Professor at 5G Innovation Centre, University of Surrey, UK.
Panelist: Howard Benn
Bio: Howard started his career in the fixed telecommunication sector (Plessey) back in 1982, did his degree and PhD at Bradford University, moving into radio based communications in 1989. He started working in ETSI GSM standards committees in 1993, helping create 3GPP and chairing 3GPP RAN 4 from 1998 to 2007. He has been a board member of ETSI since 2008, a member of the ICANN Nomcom in 2013 currently advising the ICANN board on mobile technology, and a member of a number of advisory boards for UK universities and research programs. His current role is ‘Vice President Communications Research’ for Samsung Electronics R&D Institute in the UK, managing a team of engineers covering ETSI, 3GPP, and GSMA. His team are also very active in the EU Horizon 2020 program with a focus on the 5G PPP activities. He also sits on the UK5G government advisory committee looking at the future of communications technology in the UK, and an advisor to the UK government on international free trade agreements.