MobiArch 2024

Workshop on Mobility in the Evolving Internet Architecture to be held in conjunction with MobiCom 2024

Washington, D.C., USA, 18th Nov, 2024

Technical Program

Monday, Nov 18, 2024

7:30 - 8:30 : Workshop Registration

8:50 - 9:00 : Welcome Notes

9:00 - 10:00, Keynote 1: Pushing the Frontiers of Next-Generation Communication Systems -- RF Sensing and Robot-Assisted Connectivity"

Prof. Yasamin Mostofi
Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Abstract: Next-generation communication systems promise unprecedented capabilities that go far beyond what current systems can achieve. To meet these ambitious goals, innovative design approaches are essential. In this talk, I will focus on two key players: RF sensing and unmanned vehicles, each bringing unique capabilities that are crucial to advancing the next generation of communication systems, along with specific challenges that need to be addressed. In the first part of the talk, I will present an overview of some of our work on mathematical tools, design principles, and applications for RF sensing. For instance, I will show how seemingly unrelated tools from queuing theory, FM radio design, or stochastic geometry can play a key role in analyzing the received RF signals and extracting meaningful information about individuals, collective behaviors, as well as the environment. Moreover, I will set forth that edges and their interaction with the RF waves via diffraction principles create a rich opportunity for both sensing as well as programming the RF field. I will also address one major issue in applying deep learning to RF sensing problems: lack of large enough RF data to achieve generalizable results. In the second part of the talk, I will then focus on another player envisioned to be key in the landscape of next generation communication systems: unmanned vehicles. More than a decade ago, my lab coined the term “communication-aware robotics”, to refer to robotic systems that explicitly take communication issues into account in their path planning and decision making. Since then, this area has flourished tremendously. Today, unmanned vehicles are envisioned to take a pivotal role in the next-generation cellular systems. They can function as mobile base stations, extend coverage dynamically to underserved or high-traffic areas, enable new forms of connectivity, and boost network efficiency. They are further envisioned to robustly cooperate as a team and maintain the desired connectivity, by actively co-optimizing their corresponding communication and motion objectives. In the second part of the talk, I will then present an overview of some of our recent work in this area, with the goal of motivating future work.

Bio: Yasamin Mostofi received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University. She is currently a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California Santa Barbara. Yasamin is the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the Antonio Ruberti Prize from the IEEE Control Systems Society (research contribution award for 40 and under), the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award, and the IEEE Outstanding Engineer Award of Region 6 (more than 10 Western U.S. states), among other awards. She is a fellow of IEEE. She was a semi-plenary speaker at the 2018 IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) and a keynote speaker at the 2018 Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (MED). Yasamin's research is multi-disciplinary, in the two areas of wireless systems and robotics. Current high-level research thrusts include 1) RF sensing for several different applications such as through-wall imaging, occupancy analytics, context inference, smart health, and smart spaces; and 2) communication-aware robotics, UAV-assisted connectivity, and joint robotic path planning and communication. Her research has appeared in several reputable news venues such as BBC, New Scientist, Daily Mail, Engadget, TechCrunch, NSF Science360, ACM News, and IEEE Spectrum, among others. Yasamin has served in many different professional capacities over the years. Recent samples include serving on the Board of Governors of IEEE CSS, serving as a senior editor for IEEE TCNS, and serving as a program co-chair for ACM MobiCom 2022, among others.

10:00 - 10:30 : Coffee Break

10:30 - 12:10 : Technical Session 1: Efficient Computing and Adaptive Networking: Federated Learning, 6G Orchestration, and WiFi Sensing Applications

Session Chair: Kai Li (CISTER, Portugal)

10:30 - 10:50 : Zilin Song, Zhengze Li, Tingting Yuan, and Xiaoming Fu, "Resource-efficient Federated Learning for Large-scale Model Training"

10:50 - 11:10 : Yi Wen, Sai Zou, Yanglong Sun, and Hongfeng Gao, "NDRA: Adaptive network function chain orchestration strategy for 6G inclusive intelligent services"

11:10 - 11:30 : Huan Yang, Deyu Zhang, Yudong Zhao, Yuanchun Li, and Yunxin Liu, "A first look at efficient and secure on-device LLM inference against KV leakage"

11:30 - 11:50 : Prashiddha D. Thapa, Arne Kappen, and Julius Schulz-Zander, "Towards Infrastructure-assisted WiFi Rate Adaptation for Converged Networks with Morpheus"

11:50 - 12:10 : Zann Koh, Benny Kai Kiat Ng, Sam Conrad Joyce, Belinda Yuen, and Chau Yuen, "Understanding Park Visitors' Mobility via Passive Wi-Fi Sensing and Data Mining"

12:10 - 14:00 : Lunch Break

14:00 - 15:00 : Keynote 2: "Resilient Edge Computing for 6G Edge-AI"

Prof. Falko Dressler
TU Berlin, Germany

Abstract: As we move from 5G to 6G, edge computing is one of the concepts that needs revisiting. Its core idea is still intriguing: Instead of sending all data and tasks from an end user's device to the cloud, edge servers deployed in close proximity to the user serve as proxy for the cloud. This is particularly interesting for upcoming machine learning (ML)-based intelligent services, which require substantial computational and networking performance for continuous model training. At the same time, disruptions and major outages of our communication infrastructure pose a very realistic thread to our mission-critical infrastructure and may also severely impact our daily life. Lessons learned from previous natural disasters helped identifying problems but also solution spaces. In this talk, we discuss a way forward, namely the virtual edge computing (V-Edge) concept. V-Edge helps bridging the gap between cloud, edge, and fog by virtualizing all available resources including the end users' devices and making these resources widely available. Thus, V-Edge acts as an enabler for novel microservices as well as cooperative computing solutions in next-generation networks. We introduce the general V-Edge architecture, and we characterize some of the key research challenges to overcome, to enable wide-spread and intelligent edge services. This is further supported by concepts of turning mobile systems such as cars and trucks of first responders into mobile base stations to provide network coverage even when infrastructure such as the energy grid or the 5G base stations are down.

Bio: Falko Dressler is full professor and Chair for Telecommunication Networks at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, TU Berlin. He received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the Dept. of Computer Science, University of Erlangen in 1998 and 2003, respectively. Dr. Dressler has been associate editor-in-chief for IEEE Trans. on Network Science and Engineering, IEEE Trans. on Mobile Computing and Elsevier Computer Communications as well as an editor for journals such as IEEE/ACM Trans. on Networking, Elsevier Ad Hoc Networks, and Elsevier Nano Communication Networks. He has been chairing conferences such as IEEE INFOCOM, ACM MobiSys, ACM MobiHoc, IEEE VNC, IEEE GLOBECOM. He authored the textbooks Self-Organization in Sensor and Actor Networks published by Wiley & Sons and Vehicular Networking published by Cambridge University Press. He has been an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer as well as an ACM Distinguished Speaker. Dr. Dressler is an IEEE Fellow as well as an ACM Distinguished Member. He is a member of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech). He has been serving on the IEEE COMSOC Conference Council and the ACM SIGMOBILE Executive Committee. His research objectives include adaptive wireless networking (sub-6GHz, mmWave, visible light, molecular communication) and wireless-based sensing with applications in ad hoc and sensor networks, the Internet of Things, and Cyber-Physical Systems.

15:00 - 16:00 : Technical Session 2: AI-Enhanced Communication and Routing in Connected Vehicles

Session Chair: Harrison Kurunathan (CISTER, Portugal)

15:00 - 15:20 : Zijian Zheng, Wenqiang Yi, and Arumugam Nallanathan, "Semi-Supervised Multi-modal Sensor Fusion Framework for In-Vehicle Networks"

15:20 - 15:40 : Zuoyin Tang, Jianhua He, Dashuai Pei, Kezhong Liu, and Tao Gao, "Testing Large Language Models on Driving Theory Knowledge and Skills for Connected Autonomous Vehicles"

15:40 - 16:00 : Harrison Kurunathan, Ramiro Robles, Miguel Gutiérrez Gaitán, Indhumathi Ravichandran, and Eduardo Tovar, "Q-light: Q-learning enabled VLC network routing"

16:00 - 16:30 : Tea Break

16:30 - 17:30 : Panel Discussion: Rethinking Mobility: The Role of AI and 6G in Intelligent and Resilient Mobile Internet Architectures

Moderator: Tingting Yuan (University of Göttingen, Germany)

Invited Speakers: Yasamin Mostofi (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA), Ana Aguiar (University of Porto, Portugal), Falko Dressler (TU Berlin, Germany), Nils Aschenbruck (Osnabrück University, Germany)