6G Wireless Foundations Forum 2023
July 2023, Monday 10th-Tuesday 11th

 

@ EURECOM SophiaTech campus

Campus SophiaTech, 450 Route des Chappes, 06410 Biot Sophia Antipolis, France

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DETAILED TECHNICAL PROGRAM

 

Monday 10th- DAY 1

 

KEYNOTE 1: Osvaldo Simeone (King’s College London)

 

Title: How To Know When You Don’t Know: AI for Engineering and 6G

 

Abstract: In complex engineered systems, data-driven decision making must rely on well-calibrated estimates of uncertainty to ensure safe and reliable operation. An example is given by digital twin platforms for the optimization and monitoring of 6G systems. However, conventional deep learning-based artificial intelligence (AI) solutions tend to be poorly calibrated, often failing to recognize when producing unreliable outputs. In this talk, I will argue that designing well-calibrated AI for engineering requires the development and implementation of new algorithmic frameworks that incorporate tools from statistics and information theory, along with innovative uses of emerging computing platforms that can efficiently control and represent randomness. Examples of algorithmic and methodological advances will be given from recent work by my group, encompassing Bayesian learning, conformal prediction, neuromorphic computing, and quantum machine learning.

 

Bio: Osvaldo Simeone is a Professor of Information Engineering with the Centre for Telecommunications Research at the Department of Engineering of King's College London, where he directs the King's Communications, Learning and Information Processing lab. He received an M.Sc. degree (with honors) and a Ph.D. degree in information engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, in 2001 and 2005, respectively. From 2006 to 2017, he was a faculty member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). His research interests include information theory, machine learning, wireless communications, neuromorphic computing, and quantum machine learning. Dr Simeone is a co-recipient of the 2022 IEEE Communications Society Outstanding Paper Award, the 2021 IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Jack Neubauer Memorial Award, the 2019 IEEE Communication Society Best Tutorial Paper Award, the 2018 IEEE Signal Processing Best Paper Award, the 2017 JCN Best Paper Award, the 2015 IEEE Communication Society Best Tutorial Paper Award and of the Best Paper Awards of IEEE SPAWC 2007 and IEEE WRECOM 2007. He was awarded an Open Fellowship by the EPSRC in 2022 and a Consolidator grant by the European Research Council (ERC) in 2016. Prof. Simeone is the author of the textbook "Machine Learning for Engineers" published by Cambridge University Press. He is a Fellow of the IET, EPSRC, and IEEE.

 

 

Talk 1: Volker Ziegler (Nokia Bell Labs)

 

Title: Path to Metaverse ready networks and 6G

 

Abstract: The world of the 2030s will be shaped by socio-economic, technology and user needs trends. These trends will drive requirements for the networks of the future and create new ecosystems. In this talk, a concise vision of the metaverse opportunities framed by the concepts of digital-physical fusion and human augmentation will be presented. The associated technology enablers will help unlock a myriad of new opportunity for consumer, enterprise and industry metaverses alike. Next generation networks and their advanced capabilities will be key to realize these opportunities. A key prerequisite to make the variety of metaverse related business model transformation options happen is Network-as-a- Service (NaaS). On the path to 6G, 5G advanced will boost experience, operability and usage of novel services. AI/ML technologies will help improve operability as well as radio access network energy efficiency. To bring the metaverse future to life fully, key technologies for 6G will be needed. Key 6G technologies will include AI-native air interface, new spectrum technologies and extreme connectivity, network-as-a-sensor, security, privacy and trust as well as elements of architectural transformation. These key technologies will be needed to fully deliver on the requirements of the most advanced use cases of the metaverses of the future.

 

 

Talk 2: Antti Tölli (University of Oulu)

 

Title: Enhancing Extended Reality Experience with Location-Dependent Multiantenna Coded Caching

 

Abstract: The next evolutionary step in human-computer interfaces will bring forward immersive digital experiences that submerge users in a 3D world while allowing them to interact with virtual or twin objects. Accordingly, various collaborative extended reality (XR) applications are expected to emerge, imposing stringent performance requirements on the underlying wireless connectivity infrastructure. In this talk, we examine how novel multi-antenna coded caching (CC) techniques can facilitate high-rate low-latency communications and improve users' quality of experience (QoE) in the envisioned multi-user XR scenario. Specifically, we discuss how the content relevant to wireless bottleneck areas can be prioritized in cache placement while enabling the cumulative cache memory of the users to be utilized as an additional communication resource. In this regard, we first explore recent advancements in multi-antenna CC that facilitate the efficient use of distributed in-device memory resources. Then, we discuss how the envisioned XR scenario relates to the foreseen use cases within the third-generation partnership project (3GPP) framework. Finally, we identify new challenges arising from integrating CC techniques into multi-user XR scenarios and propose novel solutions to address them in practice.

 

 

Talk 3: Marco Di Renzo (University Paris-Saclay – CNRS and CentraleSupelec)

 

Title: Spatial Multiplexing in Near Field MIMO Channels with Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

 

Abstract: In this talk, we consider a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel in the presence of a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS). Specifically, our focus is on analyzing the spatial multiplexing gains in line-of-sight and low-scattering MIMO channels in the near field. We prove that the channel capacity is achieved by diagonalizing the end-to-end transmitter-RIS-receiver channel, and applying the water-filling power allocation to the ordered product of the singular values of the transmitter-RIS and RIS-receiver channels. The obtained capacity-achieving solution requires an RIS with a non-diagonal matrix of reflection coefficients. Under the assumption of nearly-passive RIS, i.e., no power amplification is needed at the RIS, the water-filling power allocation is necessary only at the transmitter. We refer to this design of RIS as a linear, nearly-passive, reconfigurable electromagnetic object (EMO). In addition, we introduce a closed-form and low-complexity design for RIS, whose matrix of reflection coefficients is diagonal with unit-modulus entries. The reflection coefficients are given by the product of two focusing functions: one steering the RIS-aided signal towards the mid-point of the MIMO transmitter and one steering the RIS-aided signal towards the mid-point of the MIMO receiver. We prove that this solution is exact in line-of-sight channels under the paraxial setup. With the aid of extensive numerical simulations in line-of-sight (free-space) channels, we show that the proposed approach offers performance (rate and degrees of freedom) close to that obtained by numerically solving non-convex optimization problems at a high computational complexity. Also, we show that it provides performance close to that achieved by the EMO (non-diagonal RIS) in most of the considered case studies.

 

 

Talk 4: Luca Sanguinetti (Pisa University)

 

Title: Multiuser Holographic MIMO systems: What is the benefit of closely spaced antennas?

 

Abstract: Holographic MIMO refers to an array with a massive number of antennas that are individually controlled and densely deployed in a space-constrained factor form at the base station. Understanding the fundamentals of Holographic MIMO communications requires to take into account the mutual coupling that have been typically overlooked in the vast majority of past and recent MIMO literature. This is particularly true in the Massive MIMO literature, which is all about using physically large arrays. The aim of this talk is to shed a light on the benefit (if any) of closely spaced antennas in Holographic MIMO communications.

 

 

Talk 5: Petros Elia (EURECOM)

 

Title: VoD Folding in Networks

 

Abstract: In the setting of wireless but also wired networks, we describe a basic software solution –- installed at the VoD data source and the receiver-side caches -- that reduces the traffic volumes by a factor of more than 3x, without any further compression, and with no reduction in the QoS. The key principle is that properly cached data at the receivers can dramatically boost the performance of multi-rank networks, which includes modern wired as well as modern multi-user multiple input, multiple output (MU-MIMO) wireless networks. We show how, under relatively realistic assumptions, we can essentially fold data streams into much shorter streams, thus substantially reducing the volumes of VoD data that we must communicate, without altering a single bit consumed at any of the receiving nodes (consumers).

 

 

KEYNOTE 2: Stefan Parkvall (Ericsson)

 

Title: 6G – the intelligent network platform of 2030

 

Abstract: The first release of 5G NR have been successfully standardized by 3GPP and commercial networks are being rolled out around the globe. 5G will continue to evolve for many years to come with the recently completed releases 16 and 17 being the first steps and 5G Advanced around the corner.

 

In parallel, the research community have begun initial discussions on 6G and wireless communication in 2030 and beyond. At that point, society will have been shaped by 5G for 10 years, and new needs and services will have appeared. Even with the built-in flexibility of 5G, we are beginning to see the horizon where further capabilities are needed.

In this talk we will discuss fundamental drivers, possible use cases, basic capabilities, and potential key technologies for a future 6G system. Such a system will go beyond connectivity alone and will be a trusted platform for communication and compute, encouraging innovation and serving as the information backbone of society.

 

 

Bio: Stefan Parkvall is currently a Senior Expert at Ericsson Research working with research on 6G and future radio access. He is one of the key persons in the development of HSPA, LTE and NR radio access and has been deeply involved in 3GPP standardization for many years. Dr Parkvall is a fellow of the IEEE, served as an IEEE Distinguished lecturer 2011-2012, and is co-author of several popular books such as “3G Evolution – HSPA and LTE for Mobile Broadband”, “4G – LTE/LTE-Advanced for Mobile Broadband”, “4G, LTE Advanced Pro and the Road to 5G”, and “5G NR – The Next Generation Wireless Access”. He has more than 1500 patents in the area of mobile communication. In 2005, he received the Ericsson "Inventor of the Year" award, in 2009 the Swedish government’s Major Technical Award for his contributions to the success of HSPA, and in 2014 he and colleagues at Ericsson was one of three finalists for the European Inventor Award, the most prestigious inventor award in Europe, for their contributions to LTE. Dr Parkvall received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in 1996. His previous positions include assistant professor in communication theory at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, and a visiting researcher at University of California, San Diego, USA.

 

 

Talk 6: Carlo Fischione (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

 

Title: Computing Machine Learning and Other Functions Over-the-Air Using Digital Modulations

 

Abstract: In the recent years, the need of running machine learning (ML) services such as Federated Learning (FL) over wireless communication networks has promoted the design of new wireless communication protocols capable to efficiently support such ML services. In fact, in wireless networks, ML services face major challenges in terms of computation, bandwidth, scalability, privacy, and security. One proposal to overcome such challenges is Over-the-air computation (AirComp), which is a known technique where wireless devices transmit values by analog amplitude modulation so that a function of these values (e.g., FL gradient aggregation) is computed over the communication channel at a common receiver. AirComp would dramatically reduce communication energy use, amplify spectrum efficiency of several order of magnitudes, and achieve privacy protections. The physical reason is the superposition properties of the electromagnetic waves, which naturally return sums of analog values. Consequently, the applications of AirComp are almost entirely restricted to analog communication systems. However, the use of digital communications for over-the-air computations would have several benefits, such as error correction, synchronization, acquisition of channel state information, and easier adoption by current digital communication systems. Nevertheless, a common belief is that digital modulations are generally unfeasible for computation tasks because the overlapping of digitally modulated signals returns, in general, meaningless values. In this talk, wewill present a fundamentally new computing method, named ChannelComp, for performing over-the-air computations by any digital modulation. We will show how digital modulation formats allow us to compute a wider class of functions than AirComp can compute, and we propose a feasibility optimization problem that ascertains the optimal digital modulation for computing functions over the-air. We show by simulation the superior performance of ChannelComp in comparison to AirComp.

 

 

 

Talk 7: Xavier Costa-Pérez (ICREA)

 

Title: AI-driven O-RAN for 6G Systems: A Match Made in Heaven?

 

Abstract: While 5G is rolled-out, 6G is being defined with a focus on connecting intelligent systems. In parallel to this, Open Radio Access Networks (O-RAN) emerged as a new network disaggregation paradigm that considers leveraging AI agents for automation and optimization by design. In this talk we will review the O-RAN  developments expected to shape future 6G-enabled systems. Several topics will be covered comprising: AI-driven automation for cost-efficiency, smart surfaces and integrated sensing and communications. Early research results will be presented on these topics along with major joint academia-industry efforts.

 

 

Talk 8: Ana Perez (Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya)

 

Title: The revolution of New Space towards next G communication networks

 

Abstract: We imagine the future communication networks as 3-Dimensional, fully integrating the terrestrial and the satellite infrastructure, so that communication services can be everywhere and anytime available. We are most familiar with terrestrial radio communications, but what about satellite communications? They are currently experiencing the New Space revolution. This talk will explain what does this revolution really mean. It's goal is a democratization of space that suggests that access to launch, manufacturing of satellites, and/or leveraging Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) connectivity to deliver data transmission capability to remote locations is widely available because these services are commoditized and affordable, enabling them to be equitably distributed to diverse user groups, rich and poor alike. The reality, however, is that the delivery of space-based value-added services to remote locations around the world will require groundbreaking innovations. This talk will introduce a number of key technologies powering the New Space age and the integration with the terrestrial segment: i) advances in signal processing and computing on board satellites to enable edge in space, ii) the emergence of commoditised, high bandwidth optical Inter Satellite Links (ISL) that enable joint communication and computing, and iii) advances in antenna technology. The talk will pay special attention to this latter detailing the innovative possibilities that mega-constellations and swarm satellite offer for distributed spatial processing.

 

 

 

Talk 9: Björn Ottersten (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

 

Title: Low-Earth Orbit Satellite Constellations – A game-changer for global connectivity?

 

Abstract:

 

The satellite communications sector is experiencing an unprecedented revolution pushed by the popularity of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations for satellite Internet access. Satellite communication networks are evolving to become an integral part of terrestrial networks. With this integration comes the promise of wireless services to remote underserved areas and also backup connectivity in the presence of network failures or disaster events. We discuss broad trends that are changing the design of satellite communication networks fundamentally.  Specifically, signal processing advances will be addressed with focus on multi-antenna transmit precoding techniques to improve coverage and spectral/energy efficiency, as well as link reliability and security. Recent advances validating these technologies over satellite and bringing them closer exploitation will also be presented.

 

 

Tuesday 11th- DAY 2

 

 

KEYNOTE 3: Jean-Claude Belfiore (Huawei)

 

Title: 6G needs a toposic view of AI: languages, spaces of semantic information, equivariance, learning by concepts and logic

 

Abstract: Compared to humans and animals, “intelligent” machines are very slow to learn, require a large amount of data, do not understand what they are doing, make stupid mistakes, do not reason have no common sense. Moreover, how can we standardize techniques that give no guarantee, that cannot even be represented in a compact way. Energy consumption is also a main issue. All these drawbacks are critical for 6G. Is there a way to overcome them? All these issues are related to the absence of semantics in nowadays machine learning. Is it possible, for a new architecture of machine to learn as quickly as a baby? With very few data? To “understand”? To reason? We aim at giving some answers to these questions by developing a theoretical point of view and applying it to experiments to show the effectiveness of our theory. This theory is based on a mathematical notion proposed by Alexander Grothendieck in the 60’s, the notion of topos. I will present how this notion helped us to develop a new theory of semantic information, how a generalized notion of equivariance just corresponds, in the right topos, to regular functions, how it is possible to learn by concepts and approach the way a baby can learn and finally, how toposes are related to logics. All these aspects will be presented both theoretically and experimentally.

 

Bio: Jean-Claude Belfiore graduated from Ecole Supérieure d'Electricité (Supelec), got his PhD from Telecom Paris and the Habilitation from Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC). Until 2015, he has been with Telecom Paris as a full Professor in the Communications & Electronics department. In 2015, he joined the Mathematical and Algorithmic Sciences Lab of Huawei as the head of the Communication Science Department and now the Director of Wireless Technology Lab, Paris. Jean-Claude Belfiore has made pioneering contributions in modulation and coding for wireless systems (especially space-time coding) by using tools of number theory. He is also one of the co-inventors of the celebrated Golden Code of the Wi-Max standard. Jean-Claude Belfiore is author or co-author of more than 200 technical papers and communications and has served as an advisor for more than 30 Ph.D. students. He was Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory for Coding Theory and has been the recipient of the 2007 Blondel Medal. In Huawei, he has been involved in 5G standardization process, essentially in Channel Coding (Polar Codes for 5G). He is now working in wireless 6G, on artificial reasoning and future wireless networks for intelligent machines. Since July 2021 he is also the director of the Huawei Advanced Wireless Technology Lab. in Paris.

 

 

Talk 10: David Gesbert (EURECOM)

 

Title: Robot-augmented data harvesting, sensing, and localization for 6G networks

 

Abstract:

 

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Talk 11: Giovanni Geraci (Telefonica Research and UPF Barcelona)

 

Title: “What will it take for wireless communications to conquer the sky?”

 

Abstract: UAVs, or drones, could drive extraordinary societal transformations. Imagine a future where autonomous delivery drones, flying taxis, and air ambulances soar through the skies, taking mobility to new heights and redefining how we commute and where we live and work. In this talk, we will discuss how wireless networks could help make the fly-and-connect dream come true by shifting the current ground-focused paradigm and providing ultra-reliable 3D aerial connectivity.

 

 

Talk 12: Petar Popovski (Aalborg University)

 

Title: On Goal-Oriented Communications with Queries

 

Abstract: Communication-theoretic models are commonly based on push-based communications, in which the sender decides what and when is relevant for transmission. Differently from this, in pull-based communications, the data receiver pulls data from the sender through an appropriate query. The talk will introduce pull-based communication models and discuss its relation to information freshness, establishing the measure Query Age of Information (QAoI). Next, pull-based communication will be put in the context of goal-oriented communication, in which multiple clients with different, and potentially conflicting, objectives are pulling data from a set of sensors. We capture the goal-oriented aspect through the metric of Value of Information (VoI), which considers the estimation of the remote process as well as the timing constraints. We define different summary statistics, i.e., value functions of the state, for separate clients, and a diversified query process on the client side, expressed through the fact that different applications may request different functions of the process state at different times. It is shown that, a query-aware Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) solution based on statically defined VoI can outperform naive approaches by 15-20%.

 

 

Talk 13: Aylin Yener (Ohio State University)

 

Title: Semantic Text Classification for 6G and Beyond

 

Abstract: We study semantic compression for text where meanings contained in the text are conveyed to a source decoder, e.g., for classification. The main motivator to move to such an approach of recovering the meaning without requiring exact reconstruction is the potential resource savings, both in storage and in conveying the information to another node. Towards this end, we propose semantic quantization and compression approaches for text where we utilize sentence embeddings and the semantic distortion metric to preserve the meaning. Our results demonstrate that the proposed semantic approaches result in substantial (orders of magnitude) savings in the required number of bits for message representation at the expense of very modest accuracy loss compared to the semantic agnostic baseline. We further provide results over wireless channels. We observe generalizability of the proposed methodology which produces excellent results on many benchmark text classification datasets with a diverse array of contexts.

 

 

 

KEYNOTE 4: Mérouane Debbah (Technology Innovation Institute)

 

Title: Large Language Models for wireless: the next big thing?

 

Abstract: Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown remarkable success in natural language processing (NLP) tasks, such as language translation, text summarization, and sentiment analysis. They can also help in identifying network faults, improving network security, and facilitating spectrum sharing. LLM-based solutions can be trained on large-scale datasets to capture the heterogeneity and diversity of wireless networks. These models can be deployed on resource-limited devices, such as smartphones, to provide intelligent wireless services. Based on our recent announcement of FALCON LLM in march 2023 (https://www.itp.net/emergent-tech/uae-owned-ai-language-model-outperforms-chatgpt3), which is a foundational large language model (LLM) with 40 billion parameters, outperforming GPT 3, developed by the AI and Digital Science Research Center at TII, we will discuss our recent progress on LLM features and the potential of FALCON LLM in enabling intelligent wireless communication systems.

 

Bio: Mérouane Debbah is Chief Researcher at the Technology Innovation Institute in Abu Dhabi. He is a Professor at Centralesupelec (France) and an Adjunct Professor with the Department of Machine Learning at the Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence in Abu Dhabi. He received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, France. He was with Motorola Labs, Saclay, France, from 1999 to 2002, and then with the Vienna Research Center for Telecommunications, Vienna, Austria, until 2003. From 2003 to 2007, he was an Assistant Professor with the Mobile Communications Department, Institut Eurecom, Sophia Antipolis, France. In 2007, he was appointed Full Professor at CentraleSupelec, Gif-sur-Yvette, France. From 2007 to 2014, he was the Director of the Alcatel-Lucent Chair on Flexible Radio. From 2014 to 2021, he was Vice-President of the Huawei France Research Center. He was jointly the director of the Mathematical and Algorithmic Sciences Lab as well as the director of the Lagrange Mathematical and Computing Research Center. Since 2021, he is leading the AI & Digital Science Research centers at the Technology Innovation Institute. He has managed 8 EU projects and more than 24 national and international projects. His research interests lie in fundamental mathematics, algorithms, statistics, information, and communication sciences research. He holds more than 40 patents. He is an IEEE Fellow, a WWRF Fellow, a Eurasip Fellow, an AAIA Fellow, an Institut Louis Bachelier Fellow and a Membre émérite SEE. He was a recipient of the ERC Grant MORE (Advanced Mathematical Tools for Complex Network Engineering) from 2012 to 2017. He was a recipient of the Mario Boella Award in 2005, the IEEE Glavieux Prize Award in 2011, the Qualcomm Innovation Prize Award in 2012, the 2019 IEEE Radio Communications Committee Technical Recognition Award and the 2020 SEE Blondel Medal. He received more than 25 best paper awards, among which the 2007 IEEE GLOBECOM Best Paper Award, the Wi-Opt 2009 Best Paper Award, the 2010 Newcom++ Best Paper Award, the WUN CogCom Best Paper 2012 and 2013 Award, the 2014 WCNC Best Paper Award, the 2015 ICC Best Paper Award, the 2015 IEEE Communications Society Leonard G. Abraham Prize, the 2015 IEEE Communications Society Fred W. Ellersick Prize, the 2016 IEEE Communications Society Best Tutorial Paper Award, the 2016 European Wireless Best Paper Award, the 2017 Eurasip Best Paper Award, the 2018 IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award, the 2019 IEEE Communications Society Young Author Best Paper Award, the 2021 Eurasip Best Paper Award, the 2021 IEEE Marconi Prize Paper Award, the 2022 IEEE Communications Society Outstanding Paper Award, the 2022 ICC Best paper Award, the 2022 IEEE GLOBECOM Best Paper Award, 2022 IEEE TAOS TC Best GCSN Paper Award, the 2022 IEEE International Conference on Metaverse Best Paper Award as well as the Valuetools 2007, Valuetools 2008, CrownCom 2009, Valuetools 2012, SAM 2014, and 2017 IEEE Sweden VT-COM-IT Joint Chapter best student paper awards. He is an Associate Editor-in-Chief of the journal Random Matrix: Theory and Applications. He was an Associate Area Editor and Senior Area Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SIGNAL PROCESSING from 2011 to 2013 and from 2013 to 2014, respectively. From 2021 to 2022, he served as an IEEE Signal Processing Society Distinguished Industry Speaker.

 

 

Talk 14: Henk Wymeersch (Chalmers University of Technology)

 

Title: Radio Localization and Sensing towards 6G

 

Abstract: Increases in carrier frequencies and bandwidths, driven by high-rate communication applications have led to vastly improved capabilities for user positioning. With research underway towards 6G, opportunities for integrating positioning and sensing into the communication system have become even more apparent. The aim of this talk is to provide an overview of this evolution, focusing on 5G and 6G. After a brief introduction on the foundations of radio-based positioning and sensing, we go deeper into 5G positioning, covering both the standard approaches, as well as more forward-looking potential modifications. In the last part, we consider 6G from the perspective of positioning and sensing, highlighting some of the novel enablers, methods, potentials, but also the corresponding challenges.

 

 

Talk 15:  Stefano Buzzi (University of Cassino and Lazio Meridionale)

 

Title: Integrated Sensing and Communications aided by Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

 

Abstract: When performing integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) in high-frequency bands (mmWave and sub-THz), path loss and blockages may prevent reliable operation. In such situations, Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) may be helpful to overcome blockages and extend the operational range of the network infrastructure.

 

This talk will first provide an overview of the application and benefits of RISs, for sensing applications in general, and for ISAC systems in particular. The potential advantages coming from the combination of RISs and ISAC strategies will be discussed, identifying a unique gain of RIS-aided ISAC in terms of increased coupling between the dual functionalities of communication and sensing. The impact of the RIS usage on the energy efficiency of a RIS-aided ISAC system will be also discussed as a specific case study. Finally, the main signal processing challenges and future research directions which arise from the fusion of these emerging technologies will be briefly discussed.