Abstract: This talk will present an overview of our work laying the basic architectural and algorithmic principles for new approaches to design open, programmable, AI-driven, and secure next-generation cellular networks. We will cover in detail challenges and opportunities associated with the evolution of cellular system into cloud-native softwarized architectures enabling fine grained control of end-to-end functionalities. We will discuss architectural aspects, automation principles, and algorithmic frameworks enabling fine-grained end-to-end control of wireless system from low-level RAN functionalities to orchestration and management. We will also explore architectural and algorithmic aspects for data-driven control of functionalities including network slicing, spectrum sharing, security, and energy efficiency, and discuss the way forward.

Short Bio: Tommaso Melodia is the William L. Smith Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University in Boston. He is also the Founding Director of the Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things, and the Director of Research for the PAWR Project Office. He received his Laurea (integrated BS and MS) from the University of Rome - La Sapienza and his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2007. He is an IEEE Fellow and recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award. He received several best paper awards at major conferences, including at IEEE Infocom 2022. Prof. Melodia the Editor in Chief for Computer Networks and a co-founder of the 6G Symposium, the Technical Program Committee Chair for IEEE Infocom, and General Chair for ACM MobiHoc, among others. Prof. Melodia’s research on modeling, optimization, and experimental evaluation of wireless networked systems has been funded by many US government and industry entities.