W8: Enabling Technologies for Terahertz Communications (ETTCOM)

Co-chair: C. Faouzi Bader, Technology Innovation Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Co-chair: Mohamed-Slim Alouini, King Abdullah Unviersity of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia
Co-chair: Maziar Nekovee, University of Sussex, UK
Co-chair: Mehmet Unlu, TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Ankara, Turkey

Keynote Speaker: Devin Brinkley
Keynote Speaker: Volker Jungnickel
Keynote Speaker: Mehdi Bennis
Keynote Speaker: Markku Juntti

Abstract: Sub-Terahertz technology, or what is more and more labelled by the scientific community as beyond 5G communication systems, has attracted great interest from academia and industry. This is due to several interesting features of sub-THz waves, including the tens and hundreds of GHz bandwidths available. Also, as millimetre-wave communication systems mature, the focus of research is, naturally, moving to the sub-THz range. With the increase in bandwidth requirements, the D bands (110-170 GHz) and then the H bands (220-330 GHz) are being increasingly studied for future communication applications. Broad bandwidth of the THz bands can be used for terabit-per-second (Tbps) wireless indoor communication systems.

With the attractive feature of ultra-broadband, the exploitation of sub-THz band for future wireless/optical communication has become a hot topic in last years. Although lots of research efforts have been undertaken with state-of the-art devices and channel propagation, sub-THz techniques are still not enough mature compared to microwave or photonics. As THz for wireless communication cannot be simply implemented with existing techniques, some key issues remain to be addressed before completing their deployment and commercialization. The first and most important is the availability of high-performance devices including powerful sub-THz sources, high gain antennas and sensitive THz detectors, for overcoming the physical attenuation from free-space link.

The THz band gives access to many applications in very diverse domains, ranging from Terabit WPAN to Terabit/s file transferring, small backhaul cells, server farms, or virtual and augmented reality applications. Nevertheless, there are many challenges from the device, communication, and networking perspectives, which require fundamentally new solutions.

Co-chair Bios:

C. Faouzi Bader

Bio: Faouzi Bader received his PhD degree (with Honours) in Telecommunications in 2001 from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Madrid-Spain. He joined the Centre Technologic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC) in Barcelona-Spain as research associate in 2002, and from 2006- to 2013 as Senior Research Associate. Since June 2013, he is as Associate Professor at CentraleSupélec in France. His research activities mainly focus on IMT-advanced systems as; THz wireless communications, 5G networks and systems, and Cognitive Radio communication environment. He has been involved in several European projects from the 5th-7th EC research frameworks (8 EU funded projects and 10 national projects), from 2012 to 2013 he has been the general coordinator and manager of the EC funded ICT “EMPhAtiC” project focusing on “Enhanced Multicarrier Techniques for Professional Ad-Hoc and Cell-Based Communications”. Since 2017, he is as Honorary Adjunct Professor at University of Technology Sydney (Australia), and since 2018 as the Head of Signals & Communications department at Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of Rennes (IETR), Rennes-France. From 2020 to end 2021, he took the position of the director of research at Institut Supérieur D’Electronique de Paris-ISEP (France). He has published over 40 journals and 136 papers in peer-reviewed international conferences, more than 13 book chapters, and 4 edited books. He served as Technical Program Committee member in major IEEE ComSoc and VTS conferences (ICC, PIMRC, VTC spring/fall, WCNC, ISWCS, GLOBECOM, ICT). He is IEEE Senior Member from 2007. Prof. F. Bader is actually the CS’s coordinator of BRAVE French national project (2017-2021), where the main goal is the achievement efficient waveform for THz/Terabits wireless communication devices.

 

Mohamed-Slim Alouini

Bio: Mohamed-Slim Alouini (Fellow of IEEE and OSA) 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 at 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. His current research interests include modelling, design, and performance analysis of wireless communication systems

Dr. Alouini has published more than 500 journal papers on the above subjects and he is the co-author of the best-selling textbook Digital Communication over Fading Channels published by Wiley. The impact of his work has continued to grow as evidenced by the enormous number of citations to his publications. He was elected to the Fellow grade of the IEEE in 2009, rather early in his career. With more than 46,000 citations, and an h-index of 78 by Google Scholar, it is not surprising that Prof. Alouini was been selected several times by the Thomson ISI Web of Knowledge as a Highly Cited Researcher. The nominee has had sustained remarkable contributions to wireless communications theory, practice, mentorship of students, and academic and professional service and leadership. He has been serving as an editor in three major IEEE journals (IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, and IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing).

 

Maziar Nekovee

Bio:  Prof. Maziar Nekovee is Dean of the AI Institute and Managing Director of the 6G Lab (https://6g-lab.org) at University of Sussex.  He is CTO of Quantrom Technologies, a start-up focusing on disruptive technologies for and investment in mobile communication and AI sectors. His current research focuses on THz communication for 6G and beyond, the applications of 5G/6G and AI in the health and other verticals, and sustainability. Prior to joining U. Sussex in 2017, he was Head of Samsung’s European research and collaboration in 5G, where he developed new radio access technologies operating in millimetre-wave bands. Prior to Samsung he was with BT, where he worked on a range of fixed and wireless technologies, including cognitive radio/dynamic spectrum sharing, WiFi based V2X, peer-to-peer and IP multicast.

From February 2017 to February 2019, he was also Head of Department of Engineering and Design at Sussex during which period he oversaw a threefold increase in Department’s research funding, significant clime in league tables, successful introduction of two undergraduate programs in Robotics and two new Masters, including one in 5G Mobile Communications, and the establishment of new teaching and research collaborations with China, the Middle East and Africa. Maziar sits (as the only UK academic) at the EU’s 5G Infrastructure Association, where he advises the EC on 5G and beyond-5G Strategic Research Agenda. He is also on the steering board of the EPSRC-funded ComNet2 consortium in mobile technologies and the US National Academy of Science (NSF) funded research coordination network on 5G communications and networks and is Vice Chair of NetWorld 2020 European Technology Platform in Telecommunication Networks and Services, and a member of the Alliance for Internet of Things Innovation (AIIOT) and Telecom Infra Project (TIP). Dr. Maziar Nekovee is the author of 120+ highly cited papers, 15 patents and one book. He has a PhD in Physics and a first degree in EEE, both from the Netherlands. He is co-chair of NetWorld Europe ETP, WG on Enabling Technologies and Vertical.

Mehmet Unlu

Bio: Mehmet Unlu received his B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey in 2001, 2003, and 2009, respectively. He served as a research scientist at Cornell Nanoscale Science and Technology Facility (CNF), Ithaca, NY between 2009 and 2011, while he was working for Utah State University, Logan, UT. He joined the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI in 2011 as a postdoctoral research fellow. Between 2012 and 2018, he was a faculty member at the Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University. He is currently serving as a faculty member at the TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Ankara, Turkey. His major research interests are integrated terahertz components, plasmonics, optoelectronics, photonic integrated circuits, and NEMS.
Prof. Unlu received the “The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) Ph.D. Scholarship” between 2003 and 2009, the “Prof. Mustafa N. Parlar Education and Research Foundation-METU Thesis of the Year Award” in 2009 for his Ph.D. dissertation, “Best Student Paper Award (2nd place) in IEEE Antennas and Propagation Symposium (AP-S)” and “Best Student Paper Award (3rd place) in IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS)” in 2013, “Prof. Mustafa N. Parlar Education and Research Foundation Research Encouragement Award” in 2013, “International Union of Radio Science (URSI) Young Scientist Award” in 2014, and “Turkish Academy of Sciences Outstanding Young Scientist Award” in 2015. Prof. Unlu is a Senior Member of IEEE.

Deadlines:
Workshop paper submissions due EXTENDED: 23 March 2022
Acceptance notification: 17 April 2022
Final paper submission due: 1 May 2022

To submit a paper to this workshop, please visit: https://vtc2022s-rr-wks.trackchair.com/track/2043