The research programme is concerned with communication networks and services, with the emphasis on wireless communications that in the last two decades penetrated all areas of life and society. The emerging 5G mobile networks and the Internet of Things with the increasing number of new technologies and connected devices will play a key role in digitalization in almost every economic and social field. However, the unprecedented growth of data traffic and the number of connections in the existing wireless and mobile networks as well as requirements for new classes of services revealed some limitations with respect to the management of diverse resources that are either scarce by nature, restricted by the design or physical phenomena, and/or limited by techno-economic considerations. Future wireless communication networks thus require novel, more efficient approach to the management of resources. Thus, the aim of the programme is to reduce the amount of data sent to the cloud, decrease latency, increase the number of connections and improve overall system capacity, with the main goal to develop advanced resource management techniques that will support the provision of new basic classes of services.
As part of the programme, we will design new methods, models, techniques, strategies and tools that will contribute to technical knowledge, understanding and progress in the field of wireless communications. Through the design of new and the adaptation of existing advanced signal and data processing techniques, we will come to new insights on radio environment sensing, indoor radio localization and environment characterization, accurate channel modelling and edge computing. We will advance the knowledge in the field of flexible and efficient use of radio resources, in particular in radio propagation at mmWave bands, and novel satellite propagation models. In flexible network infrastructure, new scientific achievements are expected by the adoption of artificial intelligence techniques for adaptive network configuration and optimization, in automatic labelling of wireless spectrum data and in management of communication and computation resources between cloud and edge.
The programme will make use of analytical and numerical investigations for the initial problem formulation. Extensive performance evaluation will be supported by computer modeling and carried out by intense simulations. Investigations in controlled laboratory environment will be complemented with field measurements and experimentally-driven research and validation of research prototypes in real-world testbeds.
As the outcome of research work we expect important contributions to the area of communication networks and services with the emphasis on efficient resource management. The proposed procedures will be directly applicable in future wireless communications, and will contribute to the social, economic and cultural development of the entire society.