Communications

Recently, IEEE Communication Society has developed a strategic framework based on the principles that embrace Industry’s interests and priorities while integrating IEEE and ComSoc’s objectives. In order to engage industry members with high value and innovative technologies, IEEE Communication Society plans to hold a series of high impact one day Summits in emerging technology areas (e.g., SDN/NFV, 5G, IoT, Big Data, and Cybersecurity). The first summit was held at Princeton Univertity in May 2015 (see photos, slides, and videos).The upcoming IEEE Toronto 5G Summit is the second one in the series, and will be held at University of Toronto on Saturday, November 14, 2015. This one day summit will provide a platform for the industry leaders, innovators, and researchers from the industry and academic community to collaborate and exchange ideas in this emerging technology that may help in driving the standards and rapid deployment. The Summit is sponsored by IEEE Communications Society and co-sponsored by the IEEE Toronto Chapter. Keynote Speakers: Dr. Ivo Maljevic Telus Javan Erfanian Bell Canada Dr. Xavier Costa NEC Lab Europe Dr. Peiying Zhu Huawei Day & Time: Saturday, November 14, 2015 8:00 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. Location: Bahen Centre for Information Technology (BCIT), Auditorium BA1160 (1st floor) 40 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4 Building http://map.utoronto.ca/marker/bahen-centre Official Website & Registration: http://www.5gsummit.org/toronto/

Monday November 16, 2015 at 5:30 p.m. Marco Breiling, IEEE BTS distinguished lecturer, will be presenting “Terrestrial Broadcast vs. LTE-eMBMS: Competition and Cooperation”. Speaker: Marco Breiling IEEE BTS Distinguished Lecturer Chief Scientist of the Broadband & Broadcast (Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS), Germany Erlangen) Day & Time: Monday, November 16, 2015 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Location: Room BA7180 Bahen Centre for Information Technology, University of Toronto 40 St George St, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4 Organizer: IEEE Toronto Communications Society Contact: Eman Hammad, Email:eman.hammad.ca@ieee.org Abstract: While the broadcast world is reinforcing its armoury by introducing new and highly advanced standards like DVB-T2/-NGH and ATSC 3.0, the pressure by the mobile communications business is ever increasing. As users consume more unicast content or switch over to satellite TV or IPTV, the user base for terrestrial TV is shrinking, whereas the data rates requested by the users in mobile communications networks explode. Moreover, the mobile communications armoury now includes LTE-eMBMS as a broadcast mode, which can handle cases, where many users want to consume the same content. Consequently, the mobile network operators ask for a reallocation of the UHF broadcast bands to standards such as LTE (digital dividend II and more). If we assume that there is a future for broadcast over terrestrial transmission, this talk will shed some light about the question what technical (not commercial!) advantages conventional terrestrial broadcast standards like DVB have over eMBMS and vice versa. This leads to the question, whether the best aspects of both can be combined by having both networks cooperate. A final aspect discussed is the idea of distributing eMBMS content by satellite using, e.g., DVB-S2. Biography: After conducting studies at the Universität Karlsruhe/Germany (now Karlsruhe Institute of Technology – KIT), the Norges Tekniske Høgskole (NTH) in Trondheim/Norway, the Ecole Supérieure d’Ingénieurs en Electronique et Electrotechnique (ESIEE) in Paris and the University of Southampton/England, Marco Breiling graduated with a Dipl.-Ing. degree from KIT in 1997. He earned his PhD degree (with highest honor) for a thesis about turbo codes from Universität Erlangen/Germany in 2002. Since 2001, he has been working at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) in Erlangen in the field of satellite and terrestrial communications. He currently holds the position of the broadband & broadcast department’s chief scientist.

Wednesday November 25, 2015 at 1:00 p.m. Dr. Srikanth will be presenting “Free Spectrum – Unlicensed Options”. Speaker: Dr. Srikanth CKO, Nanocell Networks AU-KBC Research Centre, MIT Campus, Chennai, India Ryerson Communications Lab Day & Time: Wednesday, November 25, 2015 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Location: Room ENG 460 245 Church St., Ryerson University, Toronto Organizer: IEEE Toronto Communications Society Contact: Eman Hammad, Email:eman.hammad.ca@ieee.org Abstract: The use of unlicensed bands by operators has been looming for quite some time with no clear approaches prevalent across the globe. Wi-Fi technologies have been thought of as the only way for operators to use unlicensed band due to its popularity in devices. Recently, many companies have evinced interested in standardizing LTE-technologies in the unlicensed bands as this can solve the teething problems with respect to using Wi-Fi based technologies. The reaction from the Wi-Fi camp has been a challenge as it views LTE-unlicensed solutions as disruption to their business. The carrier community prefers LTE-unlicensed solutions as it gives them better control over operations in unlicensed band apart from better performance. In this course, we shall introduce the various unlicensed options available to carriers and others. Topics to be covered: • Why unlicensed bands for service providers • Wi-Fi, its evolution and its role including Wi-Fi calling • LTE in unlicensed bands – motivation • LTE-U; key points • 3GPP LAA; key approaches and status • 3GPP LWA; LTE-Wi-Fi aggregation • Qualcomm MuLTEfire Biography: Srikanth obtained his B.E., degree from College of Engineering, Anna University, Chennai, and MASc and PhD degrees from University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He worked as a scientist at the KBC Research Foundation/AU-KBC Research Centre, in Chennai, India and most of his work is focused on OFDM based technologies. From 2004-2007 he was awarded a Young Scientist Fellowship by the Government of India to work on technologies related to upgrades on 802.11 and 802.16 standards. He has closely monitored the progress of the 802.11 and 802.16 standards and is familiar with the various proposals which were submitted for consideration for the 802.11n extension. He is currently the chief knowledge officer of nanocell networks and is also a consultant to Airtight Networks while being a visiting faculty at MIT, Chennai. He is a co-investigator of a research project funded by Govt. of India with faculty from IIT, Chennai and IIT, Mumbai Srikanth began his career as a research associate at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada working in the area of DSL and CDMA Systems. After this Ph. D., he joined Harris Corporation and worked on baseband algorithms for various wireless standards including IS-136 and 1S-95 systems. He has consulted on various areas of OFDM systems and has also been involved in the setting up of a test lab for 802.11. He has 3 US patents issued in the area of WLANs, OFDM, and OFDMA systems. Srikanth trains global teams of corporates on the latest WLAN, cellular standards, and IOT. He has also been involved in the IEEE WCET course book preparation.

Monday April 4th, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. Dr. Alexander D. Gelman, Director of Standardization Programs Development, IEEE Communication Society, will be presenting “IEEE Standards Development EcoSystem and ComSoc Standards and Standards related Activities”. Speaker: Dr. Alexander D. Gelman Director of Standardization Programs Development IEEE Communication Society Day & Time: Monday, April 4th, 2016 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Location: BA 1230, Bahen Centre for Information Technology 40 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4 Refreshments in BA 1200 at 5:30 p.m. Contact: Eman Hammad Abstract: In this presentation the IEEE and ComSoc Standards Activities are positioned and explained as a part of the IEEE total value proposition and the IEEE role in technology evolution from a concept to R&D and to standards and deployment. IEEE Standards Activities ecosystem will be explained. We will address the role and modus operandi of IEEE Standards Association and the role of Technical Societies and Councils, Industry and Academia in the IEEE standardization activities. It will be a tutorial of how the IEEE Standardization cuisine works and how any materially or professedly interested party can participate in the standardization process. We will highlight the unique IEEE standardization process and IEEE standards-related policies. Sample communications and networking standardization and pre-standardization projects in such areas as PLC, Smart Grid, IoT, SDN, Big Data and 5G will be addressed. ComSoc standards–related technical activists, such as conferences and publications will be discussed. Biography: Alexander D. Gelman received M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the City University of New York. Presently he is CTO of NETovationsconsulting group that supports industry in competitive research and intellectual property management in areas of communications and networking. During 1998-2007 Alex worked the Chief Scientist of the Panasonic Princeton Research Laboratory, managing research programs in consumer communications and networking; during 1984-1998 worked at Bellcore, most recently as Director-Internet Access Architectures Research. Alex has numerous publications and several patents. He pioneered multi-point Multimedia Communications and DSL applications for managed services (IPTV). Alex holds some of the earliest system patents inVoDand DSL areas, e.g. on xDSLInternet Access Router. He managed research projects that included competitive industrial research as well as standardization in industry consortia and global standards development organizations. Alex is a seasoned IEEE and ComSocvolunteer. He is a cofounder the IEEE conference on Consumer Communications and Networking (CCNC), helped to acquire for ComSocthe International Symposium on Power Line Communications (ISPLC), the IEEE Conference on Peer-to-Peer Computing, IEEE-SIIT and IEEEBlackSeaComconferences; served on the inaugural Steering Committee for Transactions on Multimedia and the IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo (ICME) and IEEE-CSCN; initiated a Communications Standards Supplement to the IEEE Communications Magazine asan incubation phase for IEEE Communications Standards Magazine; chaired the Technical Committee on Multimedia Communications,served four terms as ComSocVice President. Alex initiated several standardization projects and initiated the ComSocStandards Board, served as ComSocDirector of Standards. During his term ComSocreceived the IEEE Standards Association Entity Standards Sponsor award. Alex served on IEEE-SA BoGand on Standards Board and its New Standards, Standards Review, Patents and Industry Connections committees, e.g. representing TAB in 2008, 2010, and in 2012. In 2008 Alex chaired TAB’s Ad Hoc Committee on Standards. Alex architected ComSocStandards Activities Council and was elected the first ComSocVice President -Standards Activities. Alex is a recipient of MMC TC Distinguished Service award and ComSocDonald W. McLellan Meritorious Service Award. And IEEE-SA Standards Medallion.

Thursday April 28th, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. Dr. Nariman Farsad, Post-doc Fellow, Stanford University, will be presenting “Molecular Communication: Theoretical Limits and Experimental Implementations”. Speaker: Dr. Nariman Farsad Post-doc Fellow, Stanford University Day & Time: Thursday, April 28th, 2016 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Location: Room BA 1190 Bahen Centre for Information Technology University of Toronto, St. George Campus 40 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4 Contact: Eman Hammad Abstract: Molecular communication is a new and bio-inspired field, where chemical signals are used to transfer information instead of electromagnetic or electrical signals. In this paradigm, the transmitter releases chemicals or molecules and encodes information on some property of these signals such as their timing or concentration. The signal then propagates the medium between the transmitter and the receiver through different means such as diffusion, until it arrives at the receiver where the signal is detected and the information decoded. This new multidisciplinary field can be used for in-body communication, secrecy, networking microscale and nanoscale devices, infrastructure monitoring in smart cities and industrial complexes, as well as for underwater communications. Since these systems are fundamentally different from telecommunication systems, most techniques that have been developed over the past few decades to advance radio technology cannot be applied to them directly. In this talk, we first explore some of the fundamental limits of molecular communication channels. In particular, we explore the fundamental capacity limits of the molecular timing channels, where information is encoded in the time of release of chemical signals. We also evaluate how capacity scales with respect to the number of particles released by the transmitter. Then, optimal detection in molecular timing channels is briefly discussed. We conclude the talk by presenting some of the recent experimental implementations of molecular communication systems. Biography: Nariman Farsad received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science and engineering from York University, Toronto, Canada in 2010 and 2015, respectively. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, where he is a recipient of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Postdoctoral Fellowship. Nariman has won the second prize in 2014 IEEE ComSoc Student Competition: Communications Technology Changing the World, the best demo award at INFOCOM’2015, and was recognized as a finalist for the 2014 Bell Labs Prize. He has been an Area Associate Editor for IEEE Journal of Selected Areas of Communication–Special Issue on Emerging Technologies in Communications, and a Technical Reviewer for a number of journals including IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, and IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. He was also a member of the Technical Program Committees for the ICC’2015, BICT’2015, GLOBCOM’2015, and GLOBCOM’2016.

Friday May 6th, 2016 at 3:30 p.m. Prof. Wei Yu, IEEE Fellow, will be presenting an IEEE Distinguished Lecture, “Cloud Radio-Access Networks: Coding Strategies, Capacity Analysis, and Optimization Techniques”. Speaker: Prof. Wei Yu IEEE Fellow IEEE Information Theory Society Board of Governors (2015-17) IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Lecturer (2015-16) Day & Time: Friday, May 6th, 2016 3:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Location: Room BA 1230 Bahen Centre for Information Technology University of Toronto, St. George Campus 40 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 2E4 Contact: Eman Hammad Abstract: Cloud radio access network (C-RAN) is an emerging wireless cellullar architecture in which the base-stations (BSs) take advantage of high-capacity backhaul links to upload signal processing and computation to a cloud-computing based central processor. The C-RAN architecture offers an enabling platform for the centralized joint encoding and joint decoding of user messages and a capability for intercell interference mitigation across the BSs. In this talk, we address the capacity analysis and optimization technique for C-RAN while specifically taking into account the finite capacity constraint on the backhaul links. In the uplink, the C-RAN architecture can be modeled as a multiple-access relay channel. We analyze a compress-and-forward scheme in which the BSs quantize the received signals and send the quantized signals to the central processor using Wyner–Ziv coding. We also propose a successive convex optimization approach for optimizing the quantization noise covariance matrix. In the downlink, the C-RAN architecture can be modeled as a broadcast relay channel. We compare the message-sharing strategy versus compression-based strategy for this setting, and show how compressive sensing and weighted minimum mean-squared error (WMMSE) techniques can be used to solve a network utility maximization problem involving joint user scheduling, BS clustering and beamforming in a user-centric message-sharing C-RAN design. Biography: Wei Yu (S’97-M’02-SM’08-F’14) received the B.A.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering and Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada in 1997 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, in 1998 and 2002, respectively. Since 2002, he has been with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where he is now Professor and holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Information Theory and Wireless Communications. His main research interests include information theory, optimization, wireless communications and broadband access networks. Prof. Wei Yu currently serves on the IEEE Information Theory Society Board of Governors (2015-17). He is an IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Lecturer (2015-16). He served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (2010-2013), as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications (2009-2011), as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (2004-2007), and as a Guest Editor for a number of special issues for the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications and the EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing. He was a Technical Program co-chair of the IEEE Communication Theory Workshop in 2014, and a Technical Program Committee co-chair of the Communication Theory Symposium at the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) in 2012. He was a member of the Signal Processing for Communications and Networking Technical Committee of the IEEE Signal Processing Society (2008-2013). Prof. Wei Yu received a Steacie Memorial Fellowship in 2015, an IEEE Communications Society Best Tutorial Paper Award in 2015, an IEEE ICC Best Paper Award in 2013, an IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award in 2008, the McCharles Prize for Early Career Research Distinction in 2008, the Early Career Teaching Award from the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, University of Toronto in 2007, and an Early Researcher Award from Ontario in 2006. He is recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher by Thomson Reuters. Prof. Wei Yu is a Fellow of IEEE. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario.