Mobile cellular networks are complex system whose behavior is characterized by the superposition of several random phenomena, most of which, related to human activities, such as mobility, communications and network usage. However, when observed in their totality, the many individual components merge into more deterministic patterns and trends start to be identifiable and predictable.

In this thesis we analyze a recent branch of network optimization that is commonly referred to as anticipatory networking and that entails the combination of prediction solutions and network optimization schemes. The main intuition behind anticipatory networking is that knowing in advance what is going on in the network can help understanding potentially severe problems and mitigate their impact by applying solution when they are still in their initial states. Conversely, network forecast might also indicate a future improvement in the overall network condition (i.e. load reduction or better signal quality reported from users). In such a case, resources can be assigned more sparingly requiring users to rely on buffered information while waiting for the better condition when it will be more convenient to grant more resources.

During the defense we are going to focus on the final part of the thesis, which describes a measurement-driven evaluation of anticipatory networking techniques. In particular, we are going to present, discuss and evaluate the tools and the methodologies that we developed for the purpose.  A thorough analysis of the collected dataset and the improvements achieved using prediction-based optimization will conclude the discussion showing that anticipatory networking is both feasible and efficient for current LTE networks and a promising candidate for the fifth and future generations.

About Nicola Bui

Nicola Bui has been the CEO of Patavina Technologies, spin-off of the university ofPadova and operating in the ICT field designing and developing embedded systems. At the same time, he has been researcher fellow with Consorzio Ferrara Ricerche (CFR) and with the Department of Information Engineering (DEI) at the University of Padova for seven years. During this period he has been involved in many European and Italian funded projects, such as e-SENSE and SENSEI, on wireless sensor networks, IoT-A, aimed at defining a reference architectural model for the Internet of Things, SWAP, dealing with energy harvesting in the IoT and WISEWAI on the realization of a urban wireless sensor network in Padova. Nicola just joined IMDEA Networks as a Research Engineer.

Personal site

La defensa de tesis se realizará en inglés

Supervisor de tesis: Dr. Joerg Widmer, Research Professor (tenured) & Research Director, IMDEA Networks Institute
Universidad: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Programa de doctorado: Ingeniería Telemática