IEEE COMMUNICATIONS SOCIETY
Signal Processing and Computing for Communications Technical Committee (SPCC)
Minutes of Technical Committee Meeting at ICC 2020, held by videoconference

July 28, 2020

1. Introductions – The TC meeting was started at 9:00 AM EDT. The SPCC Chair Dr. Xianbin Wang introduced the agenda of the meeting and welcomed all SPCC members to the meeting. Instructions to maintain the meeting through the Zoom tool were provided.
2. Minutes of GC 2019 – The minutes of Globecom 2019 SPCC TC meeting were approved.
3. SPCC Scope, Objectives and Organization Structure – The Charter and objectives of the TC after renaming, TC structure a P&Ps were presented. Current and past officers were introduced as well.
4. Technical Program Committee Reports

• SPC Symposium – ICC 2020: Co-chairs for the symposium include Tomoaki Ohtsuki (Keio University, Japan), Santiago Mazuelas Franco (BCAM, Spain) and Xiaoming Tao (Tsinghua University, China). Tomoaki Ohtsuki was recommended by SPCC. The number of submissions was 110, the number of TPC members was 225, and the number of accepted papers is 44, with an acceptance rate of 40%. There were 8 oral sessions.
• WCS Symposium – ICC 2020: Co-chairs for the symposium include Simon Pun (Chinese University Hong Kong, China), Xiangyun (Sean) Zhou (Australian National University, Australia), Yuan Shen (Tsinghua University, China), Paulo Cardieri (Unicamp, Brazil) and Changchuan Yin (Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China). Xiangyun (Sean) Zhou was recommended by SPCC. The number of submissions was 365, the number of TPC members was 461, and the number of accepted papers is 147, with an acceptance rate of 40%. There were 25 oral sessions.
• SPC Symposium – GLOBECOM 2020: Co-chairs for the symposium include Hai Lin (Osaka Prefecture University, Japan), Jemin Lee (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology, Korea) and Dania Marabissi (University of Florence, Italy). Hai Lin was recommended by SPCC. The number of submissions was 116 and the number of TPC members was 150.
• CT Symposium – GLOBECOM 2020: Co-chairs for the symposium include Marco Chiani (University of Bologna, Italy), Rui Dinis (FCT-UNL, Instituto de Telecomunicações, Portugal) and Paschalis Sofotasios (Khalifa University, UAE & Tampere University, Finland). Rui Dinis was recommended by SPCC. The number of submissions was 124 and the number of TPC members was 132.
• WCS Symposium – GLOBECOM 2020: Co-chairs for the symposium include Lian Zhao (Ryerson University, Canada), Koichi Adachi, The University of Electro-Communications, Japan), Wenchi Cheng (Xidian University, Chin), Xiangwei Zhou (Louisiana State University, USA) and Nicolo Michelusi (Purdue University, USA). Xiangwei Zhou was recommended by SPCC. The number of submissions was 366 and the number of TPC members was 232.
• SPC Symposium – ICC 2021: Co-chairs for the symposium include George C. Alexandropoulos and Jing Yang. Both were recommended by SPCC.
• SPC Symposium – GLOBECOM 2021: Co-chairs for the symposium include Zhijin Qin (Queen Mary University of London), who was recommended by SPCC.
• WC Symposium – GLOBECOM 2021: Co-chairs for the symposium include Cong Shen (University of Virginia), who was recommended by SPCC.
• SAC: Machine Learning for Communications – GLOBECOM 2021: Co-chairs for the symposium include Kamel Tourki (Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd), who was recommended by SPCC.

4. Other Endorsed Conferences by SPCC

• 3rd International Conference on Advanced Communication Technologies and Networking (CommNet 2020), (Marrakech, Morocco, September 2020), http://www.commnet-conf.org

      SPCE representatives:

• George K. Karagiannidis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
• Mohamed-Slim Alouini, KAUST, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
• Faissal El Bouanani, Mohammed V University, Morocco

• IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE 2020), https://attend.ieee.org/wisee-2020

      SPCE representatives:

• Tarik Taleb, Aalto University, Finland
• Telex M. N. Ngatched, Memorial University of Newfoundland
• Xiangwei Zhou, Louisiana State University
• Zhu Han, University of Houston

• 14th International Conference on Signal Processing and Communication Systems (ICSPCS 2020) (Adelaide, South Australia, December 2020), https://www.dspcs-witsp.com/icspcs_2020/index.html

      SPCE representatives:

• Octavia Dobre
• Takahiko Saba
• Tadeusz Wysocki

• International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC 2020)

(Big Island, Hawaii, USA), http://www.conf-icnc.org/2020/

      SPCE representatives:

• Tomohiko Taniguchi
• Cheng Li
• Jingxian Wu
• Feifei Gao

• Tenth International Conference on Wireless Communications and Signal Processing (WCSP 2019) (Hangzhou, China, October 2019), http://www.ic-wcsp.org

      SPCE representatives:

• Hai Lin
• Lajos Hanzo
• Jinhong Yuan

• IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE 2019) (Ottawa, Canada, October 2019), http://sites.ieee.org/wisee-2019/

      SPCE representatives:

• Marco Chiani, University of Bologna, Italy
• Rui Dinis, University Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
• Xu Zhu, University of Liverpool, UK
• Yik-Chung Wu, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

• 13th International Conference on Signal Processing and Communication Systems (ICSPCS 2019, December 16-18, Surfers Paradise, Australia), https://www.dspcs-witsp.com/icspcs_2019/index.html

      SPCE representatives:

• Octavia Dobre
• Takahiko Saba
• Tadeusz Wysocki

5. Special Interest Group (SIG) Activity Report – The following SIGs reported their activity:

• SIG on Signal Processing Techniques in 5G Communication Systems. Chairs include Chau Yuen, SUTD, Singapore; Woon Hau Chin, Toshiba Research Lab, UK; Yan Zhang, Simula Research Lab, Norway; Linglong Dai, Tsinghua University, China and Shiwen Mao, Auburn University, USA. Recent activity of the SIG includes:

Published

• IEEE JSAC, Special Issue on mmWave, June and July of 2017
• IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, Special Issue on Video over Future Networks: Emerging Technologies, Infrastructures, and Applications, Oct. 2017.
• IEEE Access, Special Issue on Cooperative and Intelligent Sensing, Jan 2018.
• IEEE Access, Special Issue on The Internet of Energy: Architectures, Cyber Security, and Applications
• IEEE Access, Special Issue on Deployment and Management of Small Heterogeneous Cells for 5G.
• IEEE Wireless Communications, Special Issue on Wireless Big Data: Technologies and Applications, Feb 2018.
• IEEE Wireless Communications, Special Issue on NOMA, April and May, 2018.
• IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing, Special Issue on hybrid analog-digital signal processing for hardware-efficient large scale antenna arrays, May and June, 2018.
• IEEE Wireless Communications, Special Issue on Intelligent Radio: When Artificial Intelligence Meets Radio Network, vol.27, no.1, Feb. 2020

To appear

• IEEE Access, Special Section on Network Resource Management in Flying Ad Hoc Net-works: Challenges, Potentials, Future Applications, and Way forward, to appear.
• IEEE Access, Special Section on Urban computing and intelligence, to appear.
• Springer Neural Computing and Applications Journal, Special Issue on Multi-access Edge Computing Enabled Internet of Intelligences, to appear.
• IEEE/CIC China Communications Journal, Special Issue on Quality of Experience for multimedia communications, to appear.

Submission closed

• IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Special Issue on IoT with Cognitive Computing
• Journal of Communications and Networks Special Issue on  Advances and Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Wireless Communications
• Elsevier Future Generation Computer Systems, Special Issue on “Computation Intelligence for Energy Internet”.
• IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine, Special Issue on “Mobile Edge Computing for Vehicular Networks”.
• IEEE Network Magazine, Special Issue on “AI for Network Traffic Control”.
• IEEE Communications Magazine, Special Issue on “Multi-Access Mobile Edge Computing for Heterogeneous IoT”.
• IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Special Issue on “Blockchain for Industrial Internet of Things”.
• IEEE Access, Special Issue on “Emerging technologies on vehicle to everything (V2X)“.
• IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, special issue on “Security and Privacy in Industry 4.0“.
• IEEE JSAC, special issue on “Wireless Networks Empowered by Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces”.
• IEEE Network Magazine, special issue on “Blockchain and AI for Beyond 5G Networks“
• IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Special Issue on “IoT with Cognitive Computing”
• IEEE Open Journal on Vehicular Technology (OJ-VT), Special Issue on “Machine Learning/Deep Learning for Wireless Communications”
• IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transport Systems, Special Section on “Edge Intelligence of Internet of Vehicles”

Ongoing

• IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine, Special Section on “Edge Intelligence of Beyond 5G Networks“, Deadline: 1 July 2020.
• IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking, “Intelligent Surfaces for Smart Wireless Communications”, Deadline: 1 Sept 2020.
• IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society (OJ-COMS), Special Issue on “Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface-Based Communications for 6G Wireless Networks”, Deadline: 1 Sept 2020.

Under Preparation

• IEEE Communications Standards Magazine, Special Issue on “Emerging Security Technologies for 6G“.

 Other activities

• IEEE VTS and Comsoc Joint Workshop on 6G (Apr 2019)
• IEEE Asia Pacific Wireless Communications Symposium 2019 (Aug 2019)
• IEEE ICC 2021 – Next-Generation Networking & Internet Symposium
• TPC Vice Chair, IEEE GLOBECOM 2022
• Area TPC Chair, IEEE INFOCOM 2021, 2020
• Co-Chair, IEEE ICC 2021 – Next-Generation Networking & Internet Symposium
• Track Co-Chair, IEEE CCNC 2021, Next Generation Protocols: MAC and Above Track, Las Vegas, NV, Jan. 2021
• Panel Chair, IEEE 2020 International Conference on Mobile Ad-hoc and Sensor Networks (IEEE MSN 2020), Tokyo, Japan, Dec. 2020
• Track Co-Chair, IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference Fall 2020, Track 3: Spectrum Management, Radio Access Technology, Heterogeneous Networks, Victoria, Canada, Sept. 2020
• General Chair, The 13th IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things (iThings 2020)
• Program Chair, IEEE ICME 2020
• GITC Advisor, IEEE ICC 2020
• Secretary, IEEE ComSoc Asia-Pacific Board

• SIG on Signal Processing Techniques for Big Data and Wireless Edge Intelligence. Chair: Cong Shen, University of Virginia; Vice Chair: Jie Xu, University of Miami.

Mission: Provide a platform for researchers to exchange ideas, initiate collaboration, and promote research activities that are broadly related to signal processing for big data and machine learning in wireless networks.

• Selected Topics for Big Data:
  • Low-dimensional and sparse signal representations in wireless systems
  • Signal processing based on graphic models
  • Advanced interference coordination techniques with cloud computing
  • Distributed optimization algorithms over wireless networks
  • Resource management (energy, storage, bandwidth, complexity, etc.)
  • High-dimensional statistical learning for wireless signals
  • Scalable and decentralized optimizations in ad hoc networks
  • Randomized algorithms
  • Bad data detection/Intrusion detection in sensor networks
  • Security and privacy in big data
  • Fundamental limits: convergence, consistency, robustness, and performance guarantees
• Selected Topics for Wireless Edge Intelligence:
  • Communication design for learning-based applications in wireless networks
  • Resource management for machine learning model training and inference in wireless networks
  • Novel wireless network architectures for machine learning
  • Distributed machine learning over wireless edge networks
  • Timely data acquisition mechanisms to support delay sensitive edge processing
  • Energy efficient machine learning in wireless networks
  • Machine learning for signal detection, channel modeling, estimation and coding
  • Machine learning for network slicing, service/content placement, and network virtualization

Recent and future activity of the SIG includes:

• Proposed workshop in WCNC 2021 for edge AI and machine learning in wireless communications
• Planning for:
  • Journal special issues such as JSAC and JSTSP
  • Conference workshops and special sessions: Globecom, ICC, WCNC, GlobeSIP, etc.
• Broaden the scope of our SIG to include machine learning and edge AI
• Call to the arms to participate and contribute to this SIG

• New SIG on REconFigurabLE Intelligent Surfaces for Signal Processing and CommunicatIONS (REFLECTIONS). Chairs include Chair: Alessio Zappone (University of Cassino and Southern Lazio); Vice Chair: Daniel B. da Costa (Federal University of Ceará); Vice Chair: Mark F. Flanagan (University College Dublin); Secretary: Alexios Aravanis (CentraleSupelec;) ETC/best readings liaison: Marco Di Renzo (CNRS & Paris-Saclay University).

Mission: Provide a research and networking platform for researchers to collaborate, exchange ideas, and promote initiatives on Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces for Signal Processing and Communications

• Selected Topics:
  • Signal processing for RIS-empowered wireless networks
  • Radio resource allocation for RIS-empowered wireless networks
  • Fundamental performance limits of RIS-empowered wireless networks
  • Channel estimation for RIS-empowered wireless networks
  • RIS sensing, computing, and communication
  • Experimental results and testbed implementations of RIS
  • Software-defined design and implementation of RIS-empowered wireless networks
  • AI-inspired design of and management of RIS-empowered wireless networks
  • Indoor/outdoor localization in wireless networks using RIS
  • Distributed deployment and network planning of RIS-empowered wireless networks
  • Integration of RISs with state-of-the-art wireless technologies (e.g., small cells, Massive MIMO, millimeter-wave communications, THz communication, free space optics, Internet of Things, drones-aided communications, energy harvesting, physical layer security techniques, etc.)

Recent and future activities include a JSAC Special issue, workshops, tutorials and best readings.

6. ComSoc student competition

• SPCC Representative: Prof. Sinem Coleri Ergen, Koc University, Turkey

Goal is to recognize students who demonstrate the capacity to improve the lives of people through the application of communication technology. A team led by a Student Member or Graduate Student Member of IEEE Communications Society is eligible. A number of 49 applications were received.

In Phase I a ranking of applications is done based on evaluations considering five different aspects, namely social impact, technical content, originality, practical applicability, and quality of presentation. In Phase II voting of the best 2 projects among the top 8 projects. The results were as follows:

• First Prize:
  • MiNiMAP: Localization and Tracking in a Multistatic Millimeter Wave MIMO Radar Network
    Miller Samuel,  Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
  • AirScope: An Indoor Air Quality Monitoring System with Distributed Multi-Robots,
    Hu Zhiwen, Peking University, China
  • LICOT: Litter-Information-Centric Ocean of Things
    Rahmati Mehdi, Rutgers University, USA.
• Second Prize:
  • 2 Sons- A Smart Outdoor Navigation System for Visually Impaired People
    Shiber Aviad, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel
• Honorary mention certificates to the remaining 11 projects selected for Phase II

7. SPCC IEEE Standard Activities

• SPCC Representative: Dr. George C. Alexandropoulos, University of Athens, Greece

3GPP

• Radio Access Networks (RAN): Next meeting information and previous meeting reports and documents are available here. List of Tdocs
• Services & Systems Aspects (SA): Next meeting information and previous meeting reports and documents are available here. List of Tdocs
• Core Network & Terminals (CT): Next meeting information and previous meeting reports and documents are available here. List of Tdocs
• 3GPP Keywords and Acronyms
• 3GPP Latest Release: Release 16
• ETSI 5G NR detailed description

IEEE Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Working Group

• IEEE P2048.1™ – Device Taxonomy and Definitions and more…

IEEE DySPAN Standards Committee

• IEEE 1900.7 Working Group and more…

IEEE 802 Standard

• IEEE 802.11 Working Group and more…

IEEE 1906.1-2015 – Recommended practice for nanoscale and molecular communication framework

8. SPCC TC Newsletter

• Editor: Prof. Xiangwei Zhou.
• Goal: to share important information for the members of the committee; to have some brief contact approximately every six months; to become a useful communication tool; it will be brief and at the same time open for everybody to contribute.
• The 7th issue of the newsletter has been published in May 2020, it is available at https://spce.committees.comsoc.org/files/2020/07/SPCC-Newsletter-Issue-7.pdf

9. Call for videos on “Communications Technologies and COVID-19”

Call prepared by ComSoc Online Content Board – initially restricted to a few TCs as a trial. The editors from SPCC for this video series are Ana Garcia Armada and Xiangwei Zhou.

We are interested in receiving videos that are communicating how Communications Technologies are being used to understand, trace or alleviate the consequences of the pandemic or are a support to continue carrying out our daily activities.

Submission instructions: Please send an email to onlinecontent@comsoc.org  and xwzhou@lsu.edu – subject “SPCC ComSoc COVID19 video series” – with the following information:

• Author(s) name(s) and affiliation(s)
• A very brief summary of the content of your video (no more than 200 words)
• The IEEE ComSoc member number of at least one of the authors
• A link to your video

Videos will be reviewed to check quality and rigor, they will be edited – if needed – and published in ComSoc video channels. The consent form to be signed allowing IEEE ComSoc to edit and publicly show the video will be forwarded to the authors upon receiving and screening the content.

10. Distinguished Lecture (DL) Program

The SPCC TC can nominate a maximum of 4 members. Most recent nominations: Arumugam Nallanathan, Theodoros Tsiftsis, Hong-Chuan Yang, Yulong Zou.

11. SPCC Awards

SPCC gives the following two annual awards:

• SPCC Technical Recognition Award
• SPCC Outstanding Service Award

The following two new awards were proposed and approved by the TC:

SPCC Best Paper Award

• Recognize the outstanding contributions of one paper in the technical areas that are of interests to SPCC
• For papers published in SPCC-sponsored conferences during the past year
• No less than half of the co-authors of the paper must be SPCC members
• Nominated by SPCC members (including self-nomination)
• Once per calendar year

SPCC Early Achievement Award

• Recognizes members of SPCC who have achieved early career visibility through research and service to the SPCC community
• Must be an SPCC member
• Must be within 10 years since the award of her/his terminal degree
• Nominated by SPCC members (including self-nomination)
• Once per year

12. Discussions

Some ideas about how to make SPCC more successful during pandemic were discussed:

• Expanding the technical scope
• Member engagement
• New special interest group
• ComSoc Best Reading
• Virtual Tech talk/Distinguished Lectures
• Collaborations with other TCs

13. Other Business

Next SPCC meeting will be held during Globecom 2020 in Taiwan.

14. Adjourn –The meeting was adjourned at 11:00 AM. There were 63 people in attendance.

    Attendance list