Syed Ali Hassan

National University of Sciences & Technology · Department of Electrical Engineering (School of Electrical Engineering and Computer science)

Integrating non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) with terrestrial networks (TNs) is key to enhancing coverage, capacity, and reliability in future wireless communications. However, the multi-tier, heterogeneous architecture of these integrated TN-NTNs introduces complex challenges in spectrum sharing and interference management. Conventional optimizatio...

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted aerial non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) offer a promising paradigm for enhancing wireless communications in the era of 6G and beyond. By integrating RIS with aerial platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and high-altitude platforms (HAPs), these networks can intelligently control signal pr...

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted aerial non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) offer a promising paradigm for enhancing wireless communications in the era of 6G and beyond. By integrating RIS with aerial platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and high-altitude platforms (HAPs), these networks can intelligently control signal pr...

This paper explores the potential of aerial reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (ARIS) to enhance coordinated multi-point non-orthogonal multiple access (CoMP-NOMA) networks. We consider a system model where a UAV-mounted RIS assists in serving multiple users through NOMA while coordinating with multiple base stations. The optimization of UAV traje...

Integrating sensing and communication functional-ities is essential for realizing the vision of ubiquitous connec-tivity and supporting emerging applications in future wireless networks. Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) offers an efficient approach for sharing resources, such as spectrum and hardware, however, traditional wireless system...

In contemporary times, there has been a notable surge in the exploration of pervasive coverage, high-speed data connectivity, and edge computing as pivotal components of prospective sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks. These services are regarded as key components vital for the expected progression in 6G technology. However, the effective reali...

EV charging infrastructures traditionally rely on untrusted centralized infrastructures that pose several privacy and security threats to EVs’ personal information. Targeted advertisements, privacy leaks, selling data to third parties, are among the threats to privacy and security. By utilizing blockchain-based solutions, recent work address the se...

This paper investigates the uplink communication of an energy harvesting (EH)-enabled resource-constrained secondary device (RCSD) coexisting with primary devices in a cognitive radio-aided non-orthogonal multi-access (CR-NOMA) network. Assuming a non-linear EH model in practice, the data rate of the RCSD is maximized using deep reinforcement learn...

Amidst the ongoing debate about limited spectral availability, there remains a persistent demand for the development of spectrally efficient self-sustainable network (SSN) models. This paper addresses this challenge by optimizing spectral efficiency (SE) in uplink transmissions for an energy harvesting (EH)-enabled secondary user (SU) that operates...

This survey investigates the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) with reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs), emphasizing its pivotal role in advancing wireless communications. Initially, it provides an overview of RIS variants—passive, active, and hybrid—and the evolution to beyond diagonal RIS (BD-RIS), detailing their architectures,...

Backscatter communication (BackCom), which allows the passive wireless sensors to transmit via modulation and reflection of an incident radio-frequency (RF) signal, is a promising solution for the sustained operation of Internet-of-Things (IoT) nodes. Moreover, to address the inherent coverage and data rate limitations of contemporary BackCom syste...

Massive MIMO regime reaps the benefits of spatial diversity and multiplexing gains, subject to precise channel state information (CSI) acquisition. In the current communication architecture, the downlink CSI is estimated by the user equipment (UE) via dedicated pilots and then fed back to the gNodeB (gNB). The feedback information is compressed to...

This paper focuses on over-the-air federated learning (OTA-FL) for edge devices that have non-independent and identically distributed (non-IID) datasets. Federated averaging (FedAvg), the vanilla FL algorithm does not perform well with non-IID data, leading to reduced global model performance. Pruning, a deep neural network model compression techni...

In the rapidly evolving landscape of advanced wireless networks, self-sustainable Internet-of-things (IoT) networks become pivotal, necessitating to seamlessly accommodate additional resource-limited devices into the existing wireless infras-tructures. To this end, this paper considers an IoT scenario with a wireless-powered communication network (...

The industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) under Industry 4.0 heralds an era of interconnected smart devices where data-driven insights and machine learning (ML) fuse to revolutionize manufacturing. A noteworthy development in IIoT is the integration of federated learning (FL), which addresses data privacy and security among devices. FL enables edge...

In a multi-cell network, the combination of coordinated multipoint (CoMP) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is known to be an effective solution to mitigate the severe inter-cell interference (ICI) of the cell edge users. However, while the existing studies heavily focus on how to maximize the data rate of the cell edge users or sum rate, e...

Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) is considered as a key technology for the sixth generation (6G) networks for creating a controlled environment for users to achieve higher data rates, throughput, and energy efficiency. IRS-assisted networks provide indirect line-of-sight (LoS) to non line-of-sight (NLoS) users, enabling them to achieve higher d...

Mobile edge computing (MEC) has emerged as a promising paradigm to enhance the computational capabilities of resource-constrained secondary devices (RCSDs) in proximity to prescheduled primary devices (PDs). In this context, we introduce a novel framework where an energy harvesting (EH)-enabled RCSD efficiently offloads computational tasks to an ME...

In this letter, we conduct a thorough analytical assessment of a simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surface (STAR-RIS) assisted non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) enhanced coordinated multipoint (CoMP) multi-cell network under Nakagami- m fading. Using the central limit theorem (CLT) and moment-matching based...

In recent years, there has been a significant interest in ubiquitous coverage, high data rate connectivity, and mobile edge computing (MEC) as crucial services within the future sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks. These services are regarded as essential components, exemplifying the advancements anticipated in 6G technology. Nevertheless, the...

Over-the-air federated learning (OTA-FL) is a distributed machine learning technique where multiple devices collaboratively train a shared model without sharing their raw data with a central server. The devices exchange model updates concurrently over-the-air and they are aggregated without the need for dedicated wireless resources for each device....

Given the rising demand for low-power sensing, integrating additional devices into an existing wireless infrastructure calls for innovative energy-and spectrum-efficient wireless connectivity strategies. In this respect, wireless-powered or energy-harvesting symbiotic radio (EHSR) is gaining attention for establishing the secondary relationship wit...

Given the rising demand for low-power sensing, integrating additional devices into an existing wireless infrastructure calls for innovative energy-and spectrum-efficient wireless connectivity strategies. In this respect, wireless-powered or energy-harvesting symbiotic radio (EHSR) is gaining attention for establishing the secondary relationship wit...

This article studies a novel spatially aligned carrier aggregated non-orthogonal multiple access (SACA-NOMA) scheme for spectrum distribution and fair power allocation among grouped users. The proposed SACA-NOMA scheme integrates NOMA, carrier aggregation (CA) and joint transmission coordinated multipoint (JT-CoMP). It uses spatial differentiation...

In this paper, we present a novel approach to enhance data rates in a multi-cell network through a perti- nent combination of simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (STAR-RISs), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), and coordinated multi-point trans- mission (CoMP). Through the strategic deployment of STAR-...

The development of the fifth generation (5G) of cellular systems enables the realization of densely connected, seamlessly integrated, and heterogeneous device networks. While 5G systems were developed to support the Internet of Everything (IoE) paradigm of communication, their mass-scale implemen- tations have excessive capital deployment costs and...

In this paper, we investigate the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted non-orthogonal multiple access-based backscatter communication (BAC-NOMA) system under Nakagami-m fading channels and element-splitting protocol. To evaluate the system performance, we first approximate the composite channel gain, i.e., the product of the forward an...

This study presents the bit error rate (BER) and system capacity analysis of a multiuser multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM)-based industrial Internet-of-things (IIoT) network with imperfect channel state information (CSI). We consider an IIoT network comprising a base station (BS) and multiple IIoT...

The applications of networking have undergone drastic evolutions since the commercialization of the first generation (1G) wireless systems. These evolutions have gone from human-to-human (H2H) voice and text communications to the seamless network of people, devices, and objects, which exchange information to assist, accelerate, monitor, and actuate...

In today's world of burgeoning IoT and 6G communications, supporting low-powered devices is crucial to fully capitalizing on the NG-IoT revolution. The proliferation of these devices will unlock unprecedented opportunities for energy efficiency, sustainability, and ubiquitous connectivity. This paper investigates the sum rate optimization of a qual...

Industry 5.0 vision, a step toward the next industrial revolution and enhancement to Industry 4.0, conceives the new goals of resilient, sustainable, and human-centric approaches in diverse emerging applications such as factories-of-the-future and digital society. The vision seeks to leverage human intelligence and creativity in nexus with intellig...

While targeting the energy-efficient connectivity of the Internet-of-things (IoT) devices in the sixth-generation (6G) networks, in this paper, we explore the integration of non-orthogonal multiple access-based backscatter communication (BAC-NOMA) and simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (STAR-RISs). To thi...

With the global internet-of-things (IoT) market valuating at $700 billion in 2020, the communication regime enabling the formation of private, dedicated, scalable, and infrastructure independent machine-to-machine (M2M) networks, has emerged as a key use case of next-generation communication systems. Instead of the high speed, high throughput, mobi...

The introduction of Low Powered Wide Area Networks (LPWANs) into the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem has enabled efficient solutions to common problems in different IoT applications. The advantages and limitations of these technologies specify which applications are compatible with the corresponding Low Powered Wide Area (LPWA) communication sys...

Communication networks are becoming increasingly important in military operations, with task fields like time-critical targeting, covert special operations, command and control, training, and logistics, all relying heavily on the communication network and its services. On the other hand, commercial communication has dramatically transformed our soc...

Network agility, automation, and intelligence are at the forefront of the next-generation networks (NGNs) vision, which aims to provide zero-touch service management and self-optimizing networks. In this article, we give an overview of the significance of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled NGNs, their projected benefits, design requirements, and...

In this paper, we consider the reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) enhanced aerial communication system, where an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) intends to deliver confidential information to the legitimate user in the presence of an eavesdropper with the aid of an RIS. For accurate performance analysis, we consider the practical constraints of...

Targeting the delay-constrained Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications in sixth-generation (6G) networks, in this paper, we study the integration of simultaneously transmitting and reflecting reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (STAR-RISs) and non-orthogonal multiple access-based backscatter communication (BAC-NOMA) under statistical delay quality-o...

This paper considers federated learning (FL) in a tactical network (TN), by adopting computationally efficient over-the-air aggregation (OTA) to train a global model at a parameter server (PS). Memory limited edge devices ideally require to store a deep neural network (DNN) model that is compact in size but has high accuracy. This work explores the...

Targeting the mission-critical Internet-of-Battlefield-Things (IoBT) applications in sixth-generation (6G) networks, in this paper, we study the non-orthogonal multiple access-based backscatter communication (BAC-NOMA)-enabled IoBT system under statistical delay quality-of-service (QoS) requirements. In particular, to facilitate the performance ana...

Simultaneously reflecting and transmitting reconfig-urable intelligent surfaces (STAR-RIS) has recently emerged out as prominent technology that exploits the transmissive property of RIS to mitigate the half-space coverage limitation of conventional RIS operating on millimeter-wave (mmWave). In this paper, we study a downlink STAR-RIS-based multius...

To efficiently accommodate RF energy-harvesting (EH) capable device in a wireless network with prescheduled devices, this letter designs the deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-driven energy-efficient transmission strategy. The transmission strategy handles the EH-device uplink transmissions opportunistically using cognitive radio-inspired non-orthog...

With the ubiquitous growth of Internet-of-things (IoT) devices, current low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) technologies will inevitably face performance degradation due to congestion and interference. The rule-based approaches to assign and adapt the device parameters are insufficient in dynamic massive IoT scenarios. For example, the adaptive dat...

p> Zero-energy radios in energy-constrained devices are envisioned as key enablers to realizing the next-generation Internet-of-things (NG-IoT) networks for ultra-dense sensing and monitoring. This paper presents analytical modeling and analysis of the energy-efficient uplink transmission of an energyconstrained secondary sensor operating opportuni...

p> Zero-energy radios in energy-constrained devices are envisioned as key enablers to realizing the next-generation Internet-of-things (NG-IoT) networks for ultra-dense sensing and monitoring. This paper presents analytical modeling and analysis of the energy-efficient uplink transmission of an energyconstrained secondary sensor operating opportuni...

Zero-energy radios in energy-constrained devices are envisioned as key enablers to realizing the next-generation Internet-of-things (NG-IoT) networks for ultra-dense sensing and monitoring. This paper presents analytical modeling and analysis of the energy-efficient uplink transmission of an energy-constrained secondary sensor operating opportunist...

In this work, we consider the design of a radio resource management (RRM) solution for traffic steering (TS) use-case in the open radio access network (O-RAN). The O-RAN TS deals with the quality-of-service (QoS)-aware steering of the traffic by connectivity management (e.g., device-to-cell association, radio spectrum, and power allocation) for eme...

Industry 5.0 vision, a step toward the next industrial revolution and enhancement to Industry 4.0, conceives the new goals of resilient, sustainable, and human-centric approaches in diverse emerging applications such as factories-of-the-future and digital society. The vision seeks to leverage human intelligence and creativity in nexus with intellig...

Ubiquitous coverage and high data rate-based connectivity have become a necessity nowadays. Despite the technologi- cal advancements, reliable and efficient communication is yet dependent on infrastructure availability. In this regard, non- terrestrial networks (NTNs) have gained significant attention to complement the terrestrial communication. In...

Ambient intelligence (AmI) represents the future vision of intelligent computing that can bring intelligence to our daily life through various domains. In such applications, AmI is often subject to the freshness of information collected, which is commonly quantified by a relatively newer metric called age of information (AoI). In the data aggregati...

Many advancements are being made in vehicular networks, such as self-driving, dynamic route scheduling, real- time traffic condition monitoring, and on-board infotainment services. However, these services require high computation power with high precision results and can be met by using mobile edge computing (MEC) mechanisms for vehicular networks....

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and mobile edge computing (MEC) are being considered as promising technologies to address the stringent demands of the emerging fifth generation (5G) networks. This paper investigates the resource allocation problem in NOMA-enabled MEC system for multiple users, by joint optimization of power and computation re...

Backscatter communication (BackCom) has been envisioned as a prospective candidate for enabling the sustained operation of battery-constrained Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices. This approach involves the transmission of information by a backscatter node (BSN) through passive reflection and modulation of an impinging radio-frequency (RF) signal. How...

Localization systems have gained attention owing to the paradigm shift from human-centric communication systems (1G to 4G) to the machine-to-machine architectures (5G and beyond). The commercial localization applications standardized for 5G systems have served as a precursor to the cardinality of positioning technologies in the next-generation comm...

Ever necessity of tremendous data traffic and massive deployment of industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) devices operating in higher bands, i.e., millimeter-wave (mmWave) and terahertz (THz), have encouraged academia and industry to transition towards the future sixth-generation (6G) wireless communication networks. Nevertheless, the recent emergen...

6G envisions artificial intelligence (AI) powered solutions for enhancing the quality of service (QoS) in the network and to ensure optimal utilization of resources. In this work, we propose an architecture based on the combination of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), AI, and blockchain for agricultural supply chain management with the purpose of en...

As important services of the future sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks, vehicular communication and mobile edge computing (MEC) have received considerable interest in recent years for their significant potential applications in intelligent transportation systems. However, MEC-enabled vehicular networks depend heavily on network access and comm...

Backscatter Communication (BackCom), which is based on passive reflection and modulation of an incident radio-frequency (RF) wave, has emerged as a cutting-edge technological paradigm for self-sustainable Internet-of-things (IoT). Nevertheless , the contemporary BackCom systems are limited to short-range and low data rate applications only, thus re...

Industry 5.0 vision, a step toward the next industrial revolution and enhancement to Industry 4.0, envisioned the new goals of resilient, sustainable, and human-centric approaches in diverse emerging applications, e.g., factories-of-the-future, digital society. The vision seeks to leverage human intelligence and creativity in nexus with intelligent...

Intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) are anticipated to provide reconfigurable propagation environment for next generation communication systems. In this paper, we investigate a downlink IRS-aided multi-carrier (MC) non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) system, where the IRS is deployed to especially assist the blocked users to establish communic...

Simultaneously reflecting and transmitting reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (STAR-RIS) has recently emerged as prominent technology that exploits the transmissive property of RIS to mitigate the half-space coverage limitation of conventional RIS operating on millimeter-wave (mmWave). In this paper, we study a downlink STAR-RIS-based multi-user m...

Network sustainability relies on many important parameters where the timely dissemination of information has a prime role to improve network operations and henceforth the network sustainability. Age of Information is a critical metric in many applications of future networks including smart transportation systems as these networks require fresh upda...

Transportation is an integral and fundamental part of human beings’ lives. On Earth, we need transportation in the form of cars, buses, trains, etc. We need aircraft in the air and ships at sea for long-distance transportation. We need space shuttles in space to travel beyond the air. The main desire of human beings is to complete tasks with less e...

6G envisions artificial intelligence (AI) powered solutions for enhancing the quality-of-service (QoS) in the network and to ensure optimal utilization of resources. In this work, we propose an architecture based on the combination of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), AI and blockchain for agricultural supply-chain management with the purpose of ens...

The advantages provided by the drones with regards to three dimensional mobility and ease of deployment makes them a viable candidate for 5G and beyond (B5G) networks. Significant amount of research has been conducted on the aspect of networking for using drones as base stations to provide different services. In this work, we deviate from the tradi...

5G and beyond (B5G) networks are moving towards the higher end of the millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum (i.e., from 25 GHz to 100 GHz) to support integrated communications and ranging (ICAR) services in next-generation factory deployments. The ICAR services in factory deployments require extreme bandwidth/capacity and large ranging coverage, which...

More data and information is being captured from systems, machines, and devices and made available to industrial IT (information technology) systems. The information is processed on-the-fly, enabling IT-based management systems to generate updated information for real-time control of the manufacturing processes. This data capturing and collection f...

Wireless use cases in industrial internet-of-thing (IIoT) networks often require guaranteed data rates ranging from a few kilobits per second to a few gigabits per second. Supporting such a requirement in a single radio access technique is difficult, especially when bandwidth is limited. Although non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) can improve th...

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) evolution has shown potential in many applications of wireless communication because of their high coverage, promising rates, and flexible installation. Owing to the drastic increase of this technology, one of the major challenges is the availability of on-board energy levels to UAVs to stay aloft for a prolonged tim...

By amalgamating recent communication and control technologies, computing and data analytics techniques, and modular manufacturing, Industry 4.0 promotes integrating cyber-physical worlds through cyber-physical systems (CPS) and digital twin (DT) for monitoring, optimization, and prognostics of industrial processes. A DT enables interaction with the...