Special Sessions

SPECIAL SESSION #1: ENERGY SELF-SUFFICIENT SENSOR NETWORKS AND IOT DEVICES

Recent advances in semiconductor technologies and system-on-chips have favorized the development of smart, low-power and multi-functional solutions, widely employed in distributed sensing nodes deployments, in wireless sensor networks (WSN) and Internet of Things (IoT) networks, finding application in several operating scenarios (e.g. environment monitoring, automotive, smart home, smart cities, structural health monitoring, localization, healthcare etc.). Energy autonomy is a crucial feature for the distributed wireless data acquisition systems especially for those deployed in remote and hostile areas, where the human intervention must be avoided. Indeed, only a limited number of applications is designed to be deployed in sites where a connection to the grid is available or affordable. As a consequence, the primary energy sources for most IoT devices and sensor nodes are storage elements such as batteries or supercapacitors, which require frequent replacement or recharging, placing also problems related to their lifetime and to their disposal.

For this reason, there is a growing demand for solutions capable to extend the average lifetime of the sensor nodes and the IoT devices, granting permanent energy self-sufficiency, low cost and reliability over long periods of time. This has led to the integration of the nodes with energy harvesting devices based on novel energy provisioning techniques exploiting ambient energy sources (e.g., artificial lighting, solar, thermal, vibration, RF etc.). Moreover, the development of innovative data acquisition paradigms and programming techniques based on a low power perspective and the emerging of suitable communication technologies are topics of primary importance for achieving self-powered operations and extending the system lifetime.

Topics of interest in this special session include the following (but are not limited to):

Energy harvesting circuits, solutions and techniques
Novel energy harvesting principles and device structure designs
Energy-efficient communication protocols
Low power electronic design for sensor networks
Design and development of autonomous low-power sensors
Passive RFID sensor tags
Low power wearable devices
Distributed autonomous IoT measurement devices and systems
LPWAN systems for measurements
Large scale deployment of autonomous wireless measurement solutions (e.g. environment monitoring, health monitoring, localization, medical and biomedical sensing, Indoor implementation)
Original contributions about the feasibility of energy harvesting in real applications

Organizers:

Prof. Ada Fort, University of Siena, Italy
Prof. Marco Mugnaini, University of Siena, Italy
Dr. Irene Cappelli, University of Siena, Italy
Dr. Matteo Intravaia, University of Siena, Italy

SPECIAL SESSION #2: AI/ML for Network Monitoring and Analysis

During the last decade Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have exploded onto the networking field. A plethora of AI/ML-based solutions haven been proposed, tested and validated for a wide variety of network monitoring and analysis tasks. ML techniques can be especially interesting for their capability to process the vast amount of data collected by network monitoring platforms nowadays, and to gain deep insights into this data. Moreover, state-of-the-art AI/ML techniques enable fast and efficient data processing, which makes them especially useful for building real-time network analytics platforms. As a result, the application of AI/ML techniques is gaining increasing attention at top-tier conferences in the area of network measurement and analysis, such as ACM IMC, ACM SIGMETRICS, IFIP TMA, or PAM.

This special session will call for contributions on Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applied to network monitoring and analysis.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, AI/ML-based techniques for:

Network traffic measurement, characterization, visualization and classification
Network anomaly detection and root cause analysis
Attack/malware/vulnerability detection and classification
Network modeling and performance evaluation
Traffic modeling and forecasting
Application-level, QoS and QoE-related measurements
Analytics and compression of network monitoring logs
Datasets, testbeds, simulation and benchmarking tools for AI/ML-based network monitoring and analysis
Privacy, security, distributed learning in AI/ML-based network monitoring and analysis tools

Application domains (not limited to):

Enterprise, campus and wide-area networks (WAN)
Edge-based infrastructures, Internet-of-Things (IoT), home and broadband access networks
Wireless, Cellular (5G/6G), Vehicular networks
Cloud-based infrastructures, data centers
Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Virtual Network Functions (VNF)
Social networks
Emerging paradigms: Quantum networks, Satellite networks, etc.

Organizers:

Dr. José Suárez-Varela, Barcelona Neural Networking Center, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain

SPECIAL SESSION #3: Security and Privacy in Cyber-Physical Systems

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) provide an interface between the operation and information technologies. This type of networks find application in many domains, such as cars, industrial networks, Internet of Things, smart grids, and drones. As data exchanged via information technology may impact the physical world, safety and security are strictly related in CPS. For instance, a malicious attack to a car’s network may cause a road accident, hence impacting on the driver’s safety. Therefore, it is fundamental to provide secure solutions against cyber-attacks in CPS. Among the other challenges, providing coherence between the physical and digital information is particularly hard. The scope of this special session is to bring together experts in the measurement and networking fields to deeply connect the operation and information technologies and provide secure solutions for CPS.

Topics of interest in this special session include the following (but are not limited to):

Cyber-physical threat modelling and analysis
Side channel attacks and solutions in CPS
Attacks towards CPS
Privacy issues in CPS
Countermeasures against attacks to CPS
Low complexity security solutions for CPS
Scalability issues in secure CPS
Integrity and coherence of cyber and physical information

Organizers:

Dr. Alessandro Brighente, University of Padova, Italy
Prof. Mauro Conti, University of Padova, Italy

SPECIAL SESSION #4: Antenna and RCS Measurements

Antenna Measurements have today a leading position in Applied Electromagnetics and uniquely appear under a keyword in many different but related areas of interest to Antenna Research and Industrial activities. The aim of the Special Session is to cover some of the most relevant topics on Antenna Measurements, including the characterization for radiating systems for 5G, that represent an exciting challenge and an important opportunity for the antenna and the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) based measurement communities.

Topics of interest in this special session include the following (but are not limited to):

Theory and applications of measurements of antennas and radar scattering
5G antennas measurement methods
Advances in indoor and outdoor test ranges
Measurement standards and laboratory comparisons
Advances in near-field, far-field, compact and RCS range measurement techniques
New instrumentation for testing, data acquisition and processing
Diagnostic methods for antenna acceptance testing
GNSS, PCS, cellular, satellite, and automotive antennas and measurements
Numerical methods related to EM measurements
RFID characterization
Antenna calibration and uncertainty quantification
Wearable antenna designs and measurements
Multi-link MIMO and cooperative channels testing
In-situ testing and channel sounding
RF safety measurements
UAV-based antenna measurements

Organizers:

Dr. Claudio Curcio,Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy
Prof. Francesco D’Agostino, Università degli Studi di Salerno, Italy
Prof. Yannis Vardaxoglou, Loughborough University, U.K.

SPECIAL SESSION #5: Human Exposure to Cellular Networks

The role of digital telecommunication technologies has dramatically evolved over the last few decades, becoming more and more pervasive in everyone’s life. Following this consolidated trend, it is expected an even more increase in human exposure due to multiple electromagnetic fields (EMFs) generated by such technologies. Focusing the attention on cellular systems, the measurement of human exposure to EMF is an important topic in today’s scenarios. In addition, the incoming 5G technology is expected to boost the development and implementation of other EMF-related services, resulting in the continuous (long-term) or short-term exposure of the entire population to EMFs. For this reason, the topic of the assessment of human exposure to EMFs is an up–to–date theme that will be even more of interest in the relevant research community as also shown by recent scientific literature by analyzing the measurement methods for reliable evaluation of human exposure to EMFs. There are several issues to be still addressed regarding the most reliable measurement procedures and the evaluation of the related measurement uncertainty. In particular, the high variability of the voice and data traffic makes it very difficult to achieve reliable forecasting of human exposure to 2G, 3G, and 4G systems in both narrowband and broadband measurements. Therefore, a refinement of measurement methods and procedures, as well as data post-processing and averaging techniques, should be suitably evaluated in the Special session.

The Special session aims to cover some of the most relevant topics about human exposure to EMFs, including the characterization for radiating systems for 5G, which represent an exciting challenge and an important opportunity for the measurement community.

Topics of interest in this special session include the following (but are not limited to):

Operative measurement procedures and methodologies on RF telecommunication systems
Extrapolation techniques for mobile telecommunication systems
Technical regulation, measurement standards, and laboratory comparisons
Evaluation and assessment of human exposure to EMFs
New instrumentation for testing, data acquisition, and processing
Numerical methods related to EM measurements
literature and state-of-the-art knowledge review

Organizers:

Prof. Marco Donald Migliore, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Cassino, Italy
Prof. Darko Šuka, University of East Sarajevo, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Prof. Enrique Arribas, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Prof. Raquel Ramirez-Vazquez, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
Dr. Daniele Franci, ARPA Lazio (Agenzia per la Protezione Ambientale del Lazio), Rome, Italy
Dr. Settimio Pavoncello, ARPA Lazio (Agenzia per la Protezione Ambientale del Lazio), Rome, Italy

SPECIAL SESSION #6: Short Range Tracking and Positioning

Tracking and positioning is a strong enabler from several applications, including for instance telemanipulation for remote surgery, line traceability, home assistance, and Location Based services. While outdoor and long-range positioning can be effectively achieved using the well-established Global Navigation Satellite Systems, accurate Short-Range Positioning Systems (SRPSs), especially in indoor scenarios, typically requires ad hoc solutions. Depending on the environmental characteristics, a broad set of sensing strategies can be applied, that include transmission of ultrasound or electromagnetic signals, geomagnetic field measurements, or optical and inertial measurements. Several estimation techniques do apply as well, like for instance Bayesian estimators or Machine Learning algorithms. Short range positioning systems are also strongly tied to the Internet of Things and Industrial Internet of Things paradigms, being usually based on a distributed measurement system. As such, SRPSs require the design of proper sensing, processing, and communication infrastructure to carry out the position measurement and make the results available to any client application.

This special session targets innovative results concerning the design, characterization, and validation of SRPSs and their application.

Organizers:

Dr. Francesco Santoni, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Italy
Dr. Filippo Milano, Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica e dell’Informazione, Italy

SPECIAL SESSION #7: Point and Distributed optical fiber sensing in diverse application fields

Optical sensing techniques are used in a large variety of measurement application fields. For instance, optical fiber sensors and biosensors are, nowadays, exploited in many important fields, including pharmaceutical researches, medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, structural health monitoring, physical parameters detection, industrial applications, food safety and security, whenever fast, portable, low cost and/or rugged devices are needed for detection and identification. Moreover, highly compact label-free optical fiber bio/chemical sensors can be explored for “Smart Cities” applications, as in water or air quality monitoring, through an IoT (Internet of Thing) approach, or, alternatively, they can be used onboard simple robots, based on an autonomous operation, to map the concentrations of pollutants in several scenarios. Similarly, distributed optical fiber sensing is currently one of the most rapidly developing areas of photonics, with applications ranging from the oil and gas industry to biomedical inspections with sub-mm spatial resolution.

The aim of this Special Session is to bring together researchers active in the innovative developments of interrogation schemes, physical scattering mechanisms, and applications of sensor systems realized exploiting optical fibers.

Works addressing the wide aspects of this technology are sought, including but not limited to, recent developments in: