List of Tutorials
Tutorial #1 - SmartNICs: The Next Leap in Networking
Tutorial #2 - Open AI Cellular (OAIC): An AI-Enabled Open-Source Platform & Testbed for Network Softwarization in O-RAN Network
Tutorial #3 - Network Applications Deployment and Testing over Platform as a Service NetApp (PaaS NetApp)
Tutorial #4 - Generation of Synthetic Datasets in the Context of Computer Networks using Generative Adversarial Networks
Tutorial #1 - SmartNICs: The Next Leap in Networking
Speakers: Marcelo Caggiani Luizelli (Federal University of Pampa, Brazil) and Christian Esteve Rothenberg (University of Campinas – UNICAMP, Brazil)
ABSTRACT
Programmable Network Interface Cards (SmartNICs) have gained increasing momentum due to the benefits of offloading complex networking tasks from the host CPU to a programmable hardware architecture. Despite the performance gains (e.g., lower latency), programming, debugging, and operating SmartNICs pose challenges due to diverse hardware architectures (e.g., System-on-Chip, FPGA, and ASIC), various programming languages, and operation modes. This tutorial aims to shed light on the design principles and operation of modern SmartNICs, covering hardware architectures, programming software ecosystem, performance capabilities, and open research challenges in this evolving domain. The tutorial includes a practical experience involving cutting-edge SmartNICs (e.g. Nvidia BlueField, Xilinx Alveo, Netronome NFP).
TUTORIAL AUTHORS: Francisco Vogt (University of Campinas – UNICAMP, Brazil), Marcelo Caggiani Luizelli (Federal University of Pampa, Brazil), Alberto Egon Schaeffer-Filho and Weverton Cordeiro (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil), Fabio L. Verdi (University of Sao Carlos – UFSCar, Brazil), Christian Esteve Rothenberg (University of Campinas – UNICAMP, Brazil), Gergely Pongracz (Ericsson Research, Hungary), and Gianni Antichi (Politecnico di Milano, Italy)
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Marcelo Caggiani Luizelli holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science (UFRGS, 2017) and is an Assitent Professor at the Federal University of Pampa (Unipampa), Brazil since 2017. In 2016, he worked as a visting research at Nokia Bell Labs and Technion University, both in Israel, working with optimization of networking algorithms. In 2022, he was a visiting research at Western Sydney University in Australia. Dr. Luizelli is a CNPq-Brazil Research Fellow and his areas of expertise are network programmability, network optimization, and algorithms. He has authored over 80 papers in leading peer-reviewed journals and conferences related to these topics, and also serves as TPC member for important conferences in these areas.
Christian Esteve Rothenberg is Associate Professor and head of the Information & Networking Technologies Research & Innovation Group (INTRIG) at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (FEEC) of the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), where he received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2010. He holds the Telecommunication Engineering degree from the Technical University of Madrid (ETSIT – UPM), Spain, and the M.Sc. (Dipl. Ing.) degree in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from the Darmstadt University of Technology (TUD), Germany, 2006. Christian has contributed to several international patents, co-authored three books, and over 200 scientific publications, including top-tier scientific journals and networking conferences such as SIGCOMM and INFOCOM, altogether featuring 10,000+ citations (h-index: 35+, i10-index: 80+). His experience as co-author of national and international tutorials/short-courses include: SBC SBRC (2010, 2012, 2014), ACM SIGCOMM (2016), IEEE IM (2016), IEEE NetSoft (2017), ENUCOMP (2017), ERIPI (2018), JAI (2023). Recently, Christian has served as Tutorial Co-Chair of ICIN 2022 and IEEE NetSoft 2022. Since 2023, he is the PI of the FAPESP Engineering Research Center SMARTNESS (SMART NEtworks and ServiceS for 2030) co-funded by Ericsson and expected duration until 2033.
Tutorial #2 - Open AI Cellular (OAIC): An AI-Enabled Open-Source Platform & Testbed for Network Softwarization in O-RAN Network
Speakers: Vuk Marojevic and Minglong Zhang (Mississippi State University, U.S.A.)
ABSTRACT
Since first conceptualized and proposed, the Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) has aimed for openness, intelligence and flexibility. To fulfil the objectives, various network components and interfaces will have been virtualized and disaggregated. Meanwhile, O-RAN based 6G networks will incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into the deployment, operation, and maintenance of the network. AI can optimize parameters in a large search space, figure out corresponding solutions for new situations, as well as interpolate while facing insufficient information. This tutorial will introduce the open-source software platform Open AI Cellular (OAIC), a community research infrastructure project enabling 6G wireless research and experiments. OAIC enables prototyping and testing of next generation AI-based cellular radio access networks (RANs). We will introduce how to design and integrate AI-based RAN controllers, such as user/resource scheduling and network slicing. The tutorial will also highlight methodologies for developing open-source tools and services for AI-enabled O-RAN management and experimentation with software-defined radios (SDRs) along with an AI-enhanced RAN testing framework for 6G research. Attendees will obtain substantial knowledge and experience with O-RAN fundamentals and the emerging OAIC research platform and how to use it for wireless research and development.
TUTORIAL AUTHORS: Vuk Marojevic, Minglong Zhang, Bo Tang (Mississippi State University, U.S.A.) and Vijay K. Shah (George Mason University, U.S.A.)
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Vuk Marojevic received the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Hannover, Germany, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from UPC-Barcelona Tech. He was assistant professor at UPC, research faculty at Wireless @ Virginia Tech and is currently an Associate Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Mississippi State University. His research interests are in software-defined radio, spectrum sharing, vehicular communications, resource management with application to commercial and mission-critical cellular networks and unmanned aircraft systems. He is a PI of the NSF-sponsored AERPAW and Open AI Cellular (OAIC) projects. He serves as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Trans. on Vehicular Technology and the IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine. He has given tutorials about software radio frameworks, open-source LTE and cellular communications security at major conferences and workshops, such as IEEE MILCOM (2018), NEWSDR (2019) and SDR-WInnComm (2013). He has presented a tutorial about OAIC at IEEE CCNC 2023.
Minglong Zhang received his M.S degree in electronic engineering from the Peking University, P.R. China and PhD degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. He was a lecturer and research associate at Auckland University of Technology. He is a Research Assistant Professor at Mississippi State University. His research interests include 5G/6G V2X communications, software-defined radios, AI-enabled ORAN. He will give a tutorial about OAIC at IEEE ICC 2024. Dr. Zhang has attended and organized multiple relevant conferences, such as IEEE ICC, 2020 WCNC, 2018 EIA SARTGIFT and 2017 PIMRC. He made presentations in the conferences and the topics were wireless networks, V2X communications and networking. He has been a tutorial presenter at IEEE CCNC 2023, IEEE VTC 2023.
Tutorial #3 - Network Applications Deployment and Testing over Platform as a Service NetApp (PaaS NetApp)
Speakers: Hamzeh Khalili and Sarang Kahvazadeh (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) - Barcelona, Spain)
ABSTRACT
According to a GSMA study [1], 5G is projected to comprise over 15% of the global mobile industry by 2025, with more than 1.4 billion connected devices. Ericsson's Mobility Report [2] supports this, estimating nearly 2 billion 5G subscriptions by 2024, constituting over 20% of all mobile subscriptions. These statistics signify a promising future for 5G, urging mobile app developers to explore new vertical applications and services.
The media vertical sector, in particular, is poised to embrace 5G technology due to its demand for ultra-fast gigabit-per-second speeds, low latencies, and high reliability. Developers in this domain can leverage 5G to innovate and enhance mobile applications, such as ultra-high-resolution video streaming, immersive experiences like AR, VR, and XR, offering users a superior and realistic experience.
However, alongside opportunities, 5G networks pose challenges for media application developers, including security, privacy, business model setup, and testing. Hence, there is a need for a secure experimentation platform to validate applications efficiently and reduce market entry barriers.
To address these challenges, a high-level abstraction layer is essential between media applications and 5G infrastructure. This layer enables experimenters to manage services effectively through elastic network slicing, ensuring service isolation and resource management. The 5GMediaHUB project offers features like Platform as a Service (PaaS) NetApp and Resource Reservation Engine to empower third-party experimenters and NetApps developers in the media sector.
The PaaS NetApp facilitates the co-existence of traditional and cloud-native network functions, offering a cloud-native design environment [3]. The Resource Reservation Engine, on the other hand, orchestrates Kubernetes clusters and VMs for vertical experiments, enabling resource control and reservations based on specific requirements.
In summary, these innovations aim to provide an efficient PaaS management framework for Mobile Network Operators, offering central command and control over resources, and fostering the development of cutting-edge media applications in the 5G ecosystem.
- New GSMA Study: 5G to Account for 15% of Global Mobile Industry by 2025 as 5G Network Launches Accelerate, available online: https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/press-release/new-gsma-study-5g-to-account-for-15-of-global-mobile-industry-by-2025/
- Ericsson mobility report, available online: https://www.ericsson.com/assets/local/mobility-report/documents/2019/ericsson-mobility-report-june-2019.pdf
- ETSI GR NFV-IFA 029 V3.3.1 (2019-11), available online: https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gr/NFVIFA/001_099/029/03.03.01_60/gr_NFV-IFA029v030301p.pdf
TUTORIAL AUTHORS: Hamzeh Khalili and Sarang Kahvazadeh (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) - Barcelona, Spain)
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Hamzeh Khalili received his bachelor’s degree in information technology from Assumption University of Thailand and master’s degree in information and communication technology, and a PhD in Network Engineering of Telematics, both from Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) - Barcelona, Spain. He is currently principal investigator and researcher at CTTC, focusing at, 5G B5G and 6G networks, 3GPP, ETSI MANO, Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV), Cloud-native technology, Satellite and Terrestrial resource coordination, and network slicing research and innovation. He has also an extensive experience and research in EPON networks, network architecture and energy saving in optical networks, among others. Dr. Hamzeh Khalili has participated in several research projects, funded by the European Union (EU) and the Spanish government. He (co) authored many scientific articles published in high-profile journals, conferences, book chapters, and 5GPPP.
He has been chairman, co-chairman, and technical program committee in more than 10 IEEE conferences and workshops. He currently leads the article collection on "Architecture, Enablers and Tools Toward 6G" at Frontiers in Communications and Networks, and a special issue on "Optical and Satellite Communication Systems into 5G Edge Network" at the Photonics Journal of MDPI. Moreover, he served as a reviewer in IEEE Access, Optical Communication and Networking, Communication Systems and ACM Computing Survey journals, and conferences such as IEEE Meditcom, IEEE NetSoft, IEEE ICTON, NWCOM, EuCNC, to name a few examples.
Sarang Kahvazadeh received his Software Information Technology master degree from the University of Debrecen and his Ph.D degree (excellent cum laude) in Computer Architecture from Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC). His Ph.D research title was Security architecture for Fog-To-Cloud continuum system. He has been a member of European projects such as H2020 mF2C, H2020 CIPSEC, and GUAU. His research interests focus on the information security and cyber security field, particularly dealing with security provisioning for fog to cloud scenarios, 5G security, IoT security, SDN, NFV, artificial intelligent for detecting attacks, and distributed security mechanisms.
Tutorial #4 - Generation of Synthetic Datasets in the Context of Computer Networks using Generative Adversarial Networks
Speakers: Thiago Caproni Tavares (Federal Institute of South of Minas Gerais (IFSULDEMINAS), Brazil), Christian Esteve Rothenberg (University of Campinas – UNICAMP, Brazil), and Fabio Luciano Verdi (Federal University of Sao Carlos, Brazil)
ABSTRACT
This tutorial explores the role of generative artificial intelligence in the production of synthetic data, with a special emphasis on Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) in the context of Computer Networks. It highlights the evolution of these networks, from their introduction in image synthesis to their use in capturing complex data distributions, including variants tailored for time series. The tutorial aims to place GANs within the machine learning paradigms, addressing their various applications in Computer Networks, such as data generation, system optimization, and classification, focusing on issues involving data imbalance and privacy preservation. Introducing a methodology for collecting, generating, and applying synthetically generated data, the tutorial proposes two use cases. The first one generates programmable data plane telemetry to train a Reinforcement Learning agent. The second use case leverages GAN to create synthetic data of PCAP traces.
TUTORIAL AUTHORS: Thiago Caproni Tavares (Federal Institute of South of Minas Gerais, Brazil), Leandro C. de Almeida (Federal Institute of Paraiba, Brazil), Washington Rodrigo Dias da Silva (Federal University of Sao Carlos, Brazil), Ariel Goes de Castro and Christian Esteve Rothenberg (University of Campinas, Brazil), and Fabio Luciano Verdi (Federal University of Sao Carlos, Brazil)
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Thiago Caproni Tavares holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (2006), a master’s, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Computational Mathematics from the University of Sao Paulo (ICMC/USP, 2009 and 2014). Additionally, he served as a visiting researcher (post-doctorate) at the Royal Institute of Technology - KTH in Stockholm, Sweden. Currently, he is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Sao Carlos, in the Sorocaba Campus, and is a professor at the Federal Institute of Education, Science, and Technology of Southern Minas Gerais - Campus Pocos de Caldas. His professional journey encompasses experiences in Computer Science, with a special focus on Computer Networks and Distributed Systems. His main areas of expertise include computer networks, artificial intelligence (generative models), distributed systems, web services, sensor networks, the Internet of Things, performance evaluation, replication control, and aspect-oriented programming.
Christian Esteve Rothenberg is Associate Professor and head of the Information & Networking Technologies Research & Innovation Group (INTRIG) at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (FEEC) of the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), where he received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2010. He holds the Telecommunication Engineering degree from the Technical University of Madrid (ETSIT – UPM), Spain, and the M.Sc. (Dipl. Ing.) degree in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from the Darmstadt University of Technology (TUD), Germany, 2006. Christian has contributed to several international patents, co-authored three books, and over 200 scientific publications, including top-tier scientific journals and networking conferences such as SIGCOMM and INFOCOM, altogether featuring 10,000+ citations (h-index: 35+, i10-index: 80+). His experience as co-author of national and international tutorials/short-courses include: SBC SBRC (2010, 2012, 2014), ACM SIGCOMM (2016), IEEE IM (2016), IEEE NetSoft (2017), ENUCOMP (2017), ERIPI (2018), JAI (2023). Recently, Christian has served as Tutorial Co-Chair of ICIN 2022 and IEEE NetSoft 2022. Since 2023, he is the PI of the FAPESP Engineering Research Center SMARTNESS (SMART NEtworks and ServiceS for 2030) co-funded by Ericsson and expected duration until 2033.
Fabio Luciano Verdi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at UFSCar, Sorocaba, SP, leading the LERIS Research Laboratory. He has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Regional University of the Northwest of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (1999), a master’s degree in Computer Science (2002), and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering with a focus on Computer Engineering (2006), both from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp). He has completed two postdoctoral fellowships, one at Unicamp in 2009 and another one at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in 2022. He has been actively working as TPC and General Chair as well as TPC member of many important conferences such as SBRC, IEEE NetSoft, IEEE NOMS, IEEE CNSM, IEEE SCC, and ACM Sigmetrics SCR. His main areas of research include Data Centers, Cloud Computing, Routing, SDN, Network Programmability, Hardware Acceleration and Network Monitoring.
