OMICRON

Contemporary communications systems and, in particular, Mobile Communications Networks (MCN) have became more flexible, involved and autonomous in order to address the technological challenges posed by the digital society. This evolution has opened the door to more efficient transmission schemes and to better user’s experience. However, it has also made the design, management and operation of the network more difficult. Successful execution of those tasks requires a detailed modeling and analysis of the network and its terminals. It also calls for adopting up-to-date optimization tools. The scientific community has been aware of such needs and significant progress has been achieved, especially by incorporating optimization theory and distributed inference to the design of MCN. Research areas with major influence and contributions from these theories include cognitive radios, cross-layer design, sensor networks and heterogeneous networks. However, despite all those achievements, existing solutions still suffer from several weaknesses including: extremely simple network models, separate design of optimization and monitoring tasks, and suboptimal use of the Network State Information (NSI).

This project aims to deal with such problems using a holistic approach. MCN are modelled as complex dynamic systems, where cognitive capabilities allow both nodes and controllers to make decisions about the network operation; and where optimization and monitoring are designed jointly (sharing objectives and considering the coupling between the two tasks) and robustly (considering the uncertainty and spatio-temporal variability of the NSI). The design of the schemes to operate the network will be accomplished by using contemporary tools in the fields of robust, stochastic and dynamic optimization, as well as distributed inference and network theory.

Although the research will be primarily focused on the field of MCN, the results will be extended to other intelligent networks and, especially, to power networks and smart grids. Moreover, the theoretical findings will be complemented with the deployment of a software defined radio (SDR) platform. In addition to serve as a test-bed for the designed algorithms, the platform will be used to develop simplified schemes compatible with existing standards (4G and WiFi); hence, facilitating the technology transfer to the industry in the short term. Those additional objectives, together with the strong commitment to collaborate with foreign teams, will contribute, not only to strengthen the scientific and socio-economic impact of the project, but also the group’s standing and its interdisciplinary nature.

The OMICRON project has been supported by the Spanish Government: Ministerio de Ecomomía y Competividad - Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2013-2016 - Programa Estatal de I+D+i Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad - Grant number: TECTEC2013-41604-R.