Call for Papers
Due to the ever-increasing demands on wireless communications and limited spectrum resources, spectrum sharing (SS) is being developed as a key solution to alleviate the spectrum scarcity problem in the current and next generation (NG) communication systems. Major notable SS systems include the 5G New Radio Unlicensed (NR-U), unlicensed LTE or License Assisted Access (LAA), Internet of Things (IoT), CBRS 3-tier access, LTE-WLAN Aggregation (LWA), Multefire, and others. They have used various unlicensed or license-assisted bands such as the ISM (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) bands, 6 GHz RF band, 3.5 GHz CBRS band, mmWave bands at 60 GHz, and others.
The 5G NR-U and the forthcoming 6G systems involve deployment of small cells or femtocells with ultra-dense configurations and traffic density, in coexistence with incumbent services and other unlicensed networks, such as WLAN. Due to the huge number of small cells which have been or to be deployed, proper design of SS policies and protocols and accurate evaluation of their impacts can save enormous amount of capital expenditures. To enhance coverage, the 5G and pre-6G systems will include Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) besides land mobile networks. The relevant system coexistence and interference problems deserve an in-depth research. In April 2020 FCC approved the 6 GHz band of 1.2 GHz bandwidth for unlicensed spectrum access. This brings a huge potential for commercial and scientific SS utilization. To efficiently utilize the 60 GHz mmWave band of about 12.96 GHz bandwidth, coexistence of IEEE 802.11ad/ay systems in a multi-operator environment as well as coexistence of 5G NR-U with IEEE 802.11ad/ay have become important research topics. Besides traditional measurement science and optimization techniques, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have found wide-spread applications in wireless SS systems. Yet, available AI/ML methods often have restrictions such as reliance on large training datasets, high computational power, and slow convergence. Searching for efficient AI/ ML techniques is a critical research topic. This workshop provides a venue to bring together standards developers, leading researchers and engineers from government, industry, and academia to present and discuss recent results on shared spectrum technology, and to promote its expedited development.
The topics include (but are not limited to):
• Recent policy and standardization progress on unlicensed access or spectrum sharing systems, such as pre-6G, 5G NR-U, IEEE 802.11ay/11ax/11be, CBRS, and others.
• Spectrum sharing issues in new system architectures, such as Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN), Cloud/Fog computing and Multi-access edge computing, related with 5G and pre-6G systems.
• New SS techniques and applications on the 3.5 GHz, 6 GHz, mmWave, and ISM bands.
• Intra- and inter-system spectrum sharing for pre-6G, 5G, 4G, IOT, WLAN and WPAN systems.
• Efficient AI techniques for adaptive measurement and spectrum sharing enhancement.
• Coexistence system modelling, analysis, and optimization, such as Multi-RAT multi-operator IEEE 802.11ad/ay, 5G NR-U with 802.11ad/ay, and CBRS PAL/GAA or GAA/GAA coexistence.
• Stochastic geometry, aggregate interference, and traffic models for system planning and optimization.
• Spectrum sensing and signal classification to support wireless coexistence.
• Methods to quantify measurement uncertainties related with SS system evaluation.
• Experiment and metrology for spectrum sharing and electromagnetic compatibility, such as testing results following procedures given by 3GPP, IEEE, ANSI C63.27, and others.
• Evaluation and mitigation of hardware imperfection, receiver susceptibility, interference, and noise, such as distributed techniques for in-field assessments, incumbent protection and receiver susceptibility, adjacent and co-channel interference, and LTE aggregate emission characterization.
Workshops Co-chairs
• Yao Ma, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA, yao.ma [at] nist.gov (yao[dot]ma[at]nist[dot]gov)
• Anirudha Sahoo, NIST, USA, anirudha.sahoo [at] nist.gov (anirudha[dot]sahoo[at]nist[dot]gov)
• Daniel Kuester, NIST, USA, daniel.kuester [at] nist.gov (daniel[dot]kuester[at]nist[dot]gov)
Biography of Yao Ma: Yao Ma received the B.Eng. degree from Anhui University, the M.Sc. degree from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the National University of Singapore, in 2000. His past appointments included: MTS at Centre for Wireless Communications in Singapore, Post-doctoral Fellow at University of Toronto, Assistant Professor at Iowa State University, Research Assistant Professor at Wright State University, Research Engineer at U.S. AFRL, and Senior Computer Scientist at Infoscitex Inc. Since July 2015, he has been with the CTL, NIST, U.S. Department of Commerce. He serves as a Project Leader in the area of Wireless Coexistence research. His technical expertise covers topics in wireless communications, signal processing, and networks, with recent focus on spectrum sharing, wireless system measurement, protocols and analysis, and AI and machine learning. He is a senior member of IEEE (2008), an associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, and a former editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.
Biography of Anirudha Sahoo: Anirudha Sahoo (M’95) received the B.Sc. (Engg.) degree in electrical engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India, the M.S. degree in computer science from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, LA, USA, and the Ph.D. degree in computer science from Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA. He worked as a Software Engineer with Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, AL, USA, and then as a Senior Software Engineer with Cisco Systems, San Jose, CA, USA. He was an Associate Professor with IIT Bombay, India. He is currently a Computer Scientist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. His research interests include spectrum sharing, dynamic spectrum access and other areas of wireless networks.
Biography of Dan Kuester: Dr. Kuester received the B. Sci. and B. Mus. degrees in electrical engineering and music (2007), and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering (2012), from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He worked in the past as an RF and microwave Engineer, designing and integrating phased array systems and passive wireless sensors with FIRST RF Corporation (2013-2015) and Phase IV Engineering (2012-2013). He has been with NIST, US Department of Commerce, since 2015, where he is currently a Project Leader in Spectrum Sensing and Noise. His research is focused on robust metrology for spectrum and noise, spanning the full stacks of communication and radar systems. He has been a Senior Member of IEEE since 2016, and has published broadly across societies for communications, microwave theory and techniques, electromagnetic compatibility, and antennas and propagation. Dr. Kuester's work has been awarded the U.S. Department of Commerce Gold Medal (2017), Most Innovative Use of RFID by RFID Journal (2015), and Best Paper at the IEEE Conf. on Wireless Power Transfer (2013).
Technical Program Committee members (tentative)
• Satyam Agarwal, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar, India
• Mohamad Omar Al Kalaa, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
• Steve Blandino, U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
• Raied Caromi, NIST
• Kaushik Chowdhury, Northeastern University
• Jason Coder, NIST
• Yi Hsuan, Google Inc.
• Aditya K. Jagannatham, IIT, Kanpur, India
• Husheng Li, University of Tennessee
• Petri Mähönen, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
• Susanna Mosleh, NIST
• Joseph Mruk, MITRE Inc
• Thao Nguyen, NIST
• Marina Petrova, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
• Hazem Refai, University of Oklahoma
• Tanguy Ropitault, NIST
• Ljiljana Simić, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
• Andra Voicu, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
• Adam Wunderlich, NIST
Workshop format (half-day, tentative)
A session of invited panel (TBA) on the topic “Challenges and Roadmap for 5G-and-beyond and Pre-6G Spectrum Sharing Systems”
A session of paper presentation: Either regular or interactive presentation.
Important Dates
• Paper submission deadline: January 20, 2021
• Notification of acceptance: February 20, 2021
• Camera-ready papers: March 1, 2021
Paper Submission
The workshop accepts only novel, previously unpublished papers. The page length limit for all initial submissions for review is SIX (6) printed pages (10-point font) and must be written in English. All final submissions of accepted papers must be written in English with a maximum paper length of six (6) printed pages (10-point font) including figures. No more than one (1) additional printed page (10-point font) may be included in final submissions and the extra page (the 7th page) will incur an over length page charge of USD100. For more information, please see IEEE ICC 2021 official website: https://icc2021.ieee-icc.org/ (Authors: https://icc2021.ieee-icc.org/authors)