Vincenzo Sciancalepore

NEC Laboratories Europe | NEC · 5G Networks

The emerging network slicing paradigm for 5G provides new business opportunities by enabling multi-tenancy support. At the same time, new technical challenges are introduced, as novel resource allocation algorithms are required accommodating different business models. In particular, infrastructure providers need to implement radically new admission...

In addition to providing substantial performance enhancements, future 5G networks will also change the mobile network ecosystem. Building on the network slicing concept, 5G allows to "slice" the network infrastructure into separate logical networks that may be operated independently and targeted at specific services. This opens the market to new pl...

The emerging requirements for 5th generation (5G) mobile networks lead to a complete network paradigm refurbishment by leveraging on Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC). While NFV adds flexibility by allowing network functions to be dynamically deployed and inter-connected, MEC brings intelligence at the edge of th...

The ever-increasing traffic demand is pushing network operators to find new cost-efficient solutions towards the deployment of future 5G mobile networks. The network sharing paradigm was explored in the past and partially deployed. Nowadays, advanced mobile network multi-tenancy approaches are increasingly gaining momentum paving the way towards fu...

Opportunistic traffic offloading has been proposed to tackle overload problems in cellular networks. However, existing proposals only address D2D-based offload-ing techniques with deadline-based data propagation, and neglect content injection procedures. In contrast, we tackle the offloading issue from another perspective: the base station interfer...

In this paper, we present our experience designing, prototyping, and empirically characterizing RF Switch-based Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS). Our RIS design comprises arrays of patch antennas, delay lines and programmable radio-frequency (RF) switches that enable passive 3D beamforming, i.e., without active RF components. We implement...

Aerial communication is gradually taking an assertive role within common societal behaviors by means of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), high-altitude platforms (HAPs), and fixed-wing aircrafts (FWAs). Such devices can assist general operations in a diverse set of heterogeneous applications, such as video-surveillance, remote delivery and connectiv...

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) have tremendous potential for both communication and localization. While communication benefits are now well-understood, the breakthrough nature of the technology may well lie in its capability to provide location estimates when conventional approaches fail, (e.g., due to insufficient available infrastruct...

The disruptive reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) technology is steadily gaining relevance as a key element in future 6G networks. However, a one-size-fits-all RIS hardware design is yet to be defined due to many practical considerations. A major roadblock for currently available RISs is their inability to concurrently operate at multiple car...

Future generations of wireless networks will offer newfangled performance via unprecedented solutions: the metasurface innovation will drive such a revolution by posing control onto the surrounding propagation environment, always portrayed as a tamper-proof black-box. The RIS technology, envisioned as the discrete version of a metasurface, can be d...

The roll-out phase of the next generation of mobile networks (5G) has started and operators are required to devise deployment solutions while pursuing localization accuracy maximization. Enabling location-based services is expected to be a unique selling point for service providers now able to deliver critical mobile services, e.g., autonomous driv...

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided wireless communications is a hot research topic in academic and industry communities since it can enhance both the spectrum and energy efficiency of wireless systems by artificially reconfiguring the wireless propagation environment. An RIS can configure tiny antenna elements or scatterers, which can b...

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) are considered one of the key disruptive technologies towards future 6G networks. RISs revolutionize the traditional wireless communication paradigm by controlling the wave propagation properties of the impinging signals as required. A major roadblock for RIS is though the need for a fast and complex contr...

Natural and human-made disasters have dramatically increased in recent decades. Given the strong relationship between first responders' localization time and the final number of deaths, the modernization of search and rescue operations has become imperative. In this context, unmanned-aerial-vehicle-based solutions are the most promising candidates...

Various visions on the forthcoming sixth Generation (6G) networks point towards flexible connect-and-compute technologies to support future innovative services and the corresponding use cases. 6G should be capable to accommodate ever-evolving and heterogeneous applications, future regulations, and diverse user-, service-, and location-based require...

Various visions of the forthcoming sixth generation (6G) networks point toward flexible connect-and-compute technologies to support future innovative services and the corresponding use cases. 6G should be able to accommodate ever evolving and heterogeneous applications, future regulations, and diverse user-, service-, and location-based requirement...

The integration of advanced localization techniques in the upcoming next generation networks (B5G/6G) is becoming increasingly important for many use cases comprising contact tracing, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, etc. Therefore, emerging lightweight and passive technologies that allow accurately controlling the propagation environment, suc...

The adoption of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for public safety applications has skyrocketed in the last years. Leveraging on Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) preambles, in this paper we pioneer a novel localization technique for UAVs equipped with cellular base stations used in emergency scenarios. We exploit the new concept of Orthogonal...

Natural and human-made disasters have dramatically increased during the last decades. Given the strong relationship between first responders localization time and the final number of deaths, the modernization of search-and-rescue operations has become imperative. In this context, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)-based solutions are the most promisin...

Emerging wireless control applications demand for extremely high closed-loop reliability under strict latency constraints, which the conventional Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) solutions with static schedules fail to provide. To overcome this issue and enable data-link layer error control for ultra reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) service...

Next generation mobile networks need to expand towards uncharted territories in order to enable the digital transformation of society. In this context, aerial devices such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are expected to address this gap in hard-toreach locations. However, limited battery-life is an obstacle for the successful spread of such solu...

Beyond-5G and 6G networks aim at providing flexible compute and connect technologies, which may support innovative use cases and unprecedented services by means of a concrete and sustainable transformation of existing network designs into smart-connected telecommunication infrastructures. Such a revolution might include full control of the propagat...

Driven by emerging tolerance-critical use cases of future communication networks, the demand on cloud computing service providers for their reliable and timely service delivery is to dramatically increase in the upcoming era. Advanced techniques to resolve the congestion of task queues are therefore called for. In this study we propose to rely on t...

Emerging wireless control applications demand for extremely high closed-loop reliability under strict latency constraints, which the conventional Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) solutions with static schedules fail to provide. To overcome this issue and enable data-link layer error control for ultra reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) service...

Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) is expected to become one of the main drivers of 5G business in the near future. Dedicated network slices are envisioned to satisfy the stringent requirements of advanced V2X services, such as autonomous driving, aimed at drastically reducing road casualties. However, as V2X services become more mission-critical, new sol...

Next generation mobile networks need to expand towards uncharted territories in order to enable the digital transformation of society. In this context, aerial devices such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are expected to address this gap in hard-to-reach locations. However, limited battery-life is an obstacle for the successful spread of such sol...

The design of 6th Generation (6G) wireless networks points towards flexible connect-and-compute technologies capable to support innovative services and use cases. Targeting the 2030 horizon, 6G networks are poised to pave the way for sustainable human-centered smart societies and vertical industries, such that wireless networks will be transformed...

Natural disasters affect millions of people every year. Finding missing persons in the shortest possible time is of crucial importance to reduce the death toll. This task is especially challenging when victims are sparsely distributed in large and/or difficult-to-reach areas and cellular networks are down. In this paper we present SARDO, a drone-ba...

This chapter aims to present the fifth generation (5G) network slicing principles and enabling technologies for the vehicle‐to‐everything (V2X) ecosystem. Current and future V2X applications and the related requirements will be introduced, together with the available V2X communication technologies, with a focus on the latest progress in the Third G...

Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) is expected to become one of the main drivers of 5G business in the near future. Dedicated network slices are envisioned to satisfy the stringent requirements of advanced V2X services, such as autonomous driving, aimed at drastically reducing road casualties. However, as V2X services become more mission-critical, new sol...

Mass events represent one of the most challenging scenarios for mobile networks because, although their date and time are usually known in advance, the actual demand for resources is difficult to predict due to its dependency on many different factors. Based on data provided by a major European carrier during mass events in a football stadium compr...

Network Slicing is expected to become a game changer in the upcoming 5G networks and beyond, enlarging the telecom business ecosystem through still-unexplored vertical industry profits. This implies that heterogeneous service level agreements (SLAs) must be guaranteed per slice given the multitude of predefined requirements. In this paper, we pione...

With network slicing, operators can acquire and manage virtual instances of a mobile network, tailored to a given service, in this way maximizing flexibility while increasing the overall resource utilization. However, the currently used tunnelling protocol, i.e., GTP, might not be the most appropriate choice for the envisioned scenarios, given its...

Massive access for Internet-of-Things (IoT) in beyond 5G networks represents a daunting challenge for conventional bandwidth-limited technologies. Millimeter-wave technologies (mmWave)---which provide large chunks of bandwidth at the cost of more complex wireless processors in harsher radio environments---is a promising alternative to accommodate m...

Massive access for Internet-of-Things (IoT) in beyond 5G networks represents a daunting challenge for conventional bandwidth-limited technologies. Millimeter-wave technologies (mmWave)-which provide large chunks of bandwidth at the cost of more complex wireless processors in harsher radio environments-is a promising alternative to accommodate massi...

With the increasing trend in softwarization and virtualization of network functions and systems, NFV management and orchestration (MANO) solutions are being developed to meet the agile and flexible management requirements of virtualized network services in the 5G era and beyond. In this regard,ETSI ISG NFV has specified a standard MANO system that...

As 5G deployments start to roll-out, indoor solutions are increasingly pressed towards delivering a similar user experience. Wi-Fi is the predominant technology of choice indoors and major vendors started addressing this need by incorporating the mmWave band to their products. In the near future, mmWave devices are expected to become pervasive, ope...

With the increasing trend in softwarization and virtualization of network functions and systems, NFV management and orchestration (MANO) solutions are being developed to meet the agile and flexible management requirements of virtualized network services in the 5G era and beyond. In this regard, ETSI ISG NFV has specified a standard MANO system that...

During the last decade, stochastic geometry has been widely employed for system-level analysis in cellular networks. The resulting analytical frameworks are, however, not always amenable for system-level optimization. This is due to three main reasons: (i) the performance metric of interest may not be formulated in closed-form; (ii) under some anal...

With the advent of revolutionary technologies, such as virtualization and softwarization, a novel concept for 5G networks and beyond has been unveiled: Network Slicing. Initially driven by the research community, standardization bodies as 3GPP have embraced it as a promising solution to revolutionize the traditional mobile telecommunication market...

Edge computing and network slicing might be considered as the main pillars of the upcoming 5G systems as they inject flexibility into the network management operations. While one prominent architectural framework for edge computing has been recently defined by the ETSI standard organization, namely multi-access edge computing (MEC), network slicing...

With the advent of revolutionary technologies, such as virtualization and softwarization, a novel concept for 5G networks and beyond has been unveiled: Network Slicing. Initially driven by the research community, standardization bodies as 3GPP have embraced it as a promising solution to revolutionize the traditional mobile telecommunication market...

The combination of recent emerging technologies such as network function virtualization (NFV) and network programmability (SDN) gave birth to the novel Network Slicing paradigm. 5G networks consist of multi-tenant infrastructures capable of offering leased network “slices” to new customers (e.g., vertical industries) enabling a new telecom business...

Natural disasters affect millions of people every year. Finding missing persons in the shortest possible time is of crucial importance to reduce the death toll. This task is especially challenging when victims are sparsely distributed in large and/or difficult-to-reach areas and cellular networks are down. In this paper we present SARDO, a drone-ba...

With the increasing trend in softwarization and virtualization of network functions and systems, NFV management and orchestration (MANO) solutions are being developed to meet the agile and flexible management requirements of virtualized network services in the 5G era and beyond. In this regard,ETSI ISG NFV has specified a standard MANO system thati...

This paper provides a survey of resource allocation for network slicing. We focus on two classes of existing solutions: ( $i$ ) reservation-based approaches, which allocate resources on a reservation basis, and ( $ii$ ) share-based approaches, which allocate resources based on static overall shares associated to individual slices. We identify the...

The combination of recent emerging technologies such as network function virtualization (NFV) and network programmability (SDN) gave birth to the novel Network Slicing paradigm. 5G networks consist of multi-tenant infrastructures capable of offering leased network "slices" to new customers (e.g., vertical industries) enabling a new telecom business...

Network slicing is considered one of the main pillars of the upcoming 5G networks. Indeed, the ability to slice a mobile network and tailor each slice to the needs of the corresponding tenant is envisioned as a key enabler for the design of future networks. However, this novel paradigm opens up to new challenges, such as isolation between network s...

This paper introduces the concept of network slicing in the emerging Time Division Duplex (TDD) 5G networks, considering asymmetric traffic conditions. The proposed approach relies on a flexible—soft spectrum—slicing considering the entire spectrum band by allocating service oriented network slices that can independently adjust the Uplink/Downlink...