Abstract:
The role of Internet and Communication Technology (ICT) in bringing about a revolution in almost all aspects of human life needs no introduction. It is indeed a well-known fact that the transmission of the information at a rapid pace has transformed all spheres of human life such as economy, education, and health to name a few. In this context, and as the standardization of the fifth generation (5G) of wireless communication systems (WCSs) has been completed, and 5G networks are in their early stage of deployment, the research visioning and planning of the sixth generation (6G) of WCSs are being initiated. 6G is expected to be the next focus in wireless communication and networking and aim to provide new superior communication services to meet the future hyper-connectivity demands in the 2030s. In addition, keeping in mind that urbanized populations have been the major beneficiary of the advances offered by the previous generations of WCSs and motivated by the recently adopted united nations sustainability development goals intended to be achieved by the year 2030, 6G networks are anticipated to democratize the benefits of ICT. Indeed these advantages are still not experienced by almost 4 billion people in the world who are still “unconnected or under-connected” and who suffer as such from the “digital divide”, a term coined in order to emphasize the lack of ICT infrastructure in many parts of the world. Given this background, this talk aims to (i) provide an envisioned picture of 6G, (ii) serve as a research guideline in the beyond 5G era, and (iii) go over the recently proposed solutions to provide high-speed connectivity in under-covered areas to serve and contribute to the development of far-flung regions.
Mohamed-Slim Alouini, IEEE Fellow
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Biography
Dr. Alouini was born in Tunis, Tunisia. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), USA, in 1998. He served as a faculty member in the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA, then in the Texas A&M University at Qatar, Education City, Doha, Qatar before joining King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Makkah Province, Saudi Arabia as a Professor of Electrical Engineering in 2009.
Professor Alouini current research interests include design and performance analysis of diversity combining techniques, MIMO techniques, multi-hop/cooperative communications systems, optical wireless communication systems, cognitive radio systems, and multi-resolution, hierarchical and adaptive modulation schemes as well as high-speed underwater wireless communication systems.
He has published several papers on the above subjects and he is co-author of the textbook Digital Communication over Fading Channels published by Wiley Interscience. He has also won several awards in his career. For instance, he was honored in 2017 with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Science and Technology (S&T) Achievement Award in Engineering Science at the First OIC Summit on Science and Technology, Astana, Kazakhstan. Prior to this, he received the 2016 Recognition Award of the IEEE Communication Society Wireless Technical Committee and the 2016 Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Arab Researchers in Engineering Sciences. Other recognitions include his selection as (i) Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the African Academy of Science (AAS), the European Academy of Science and Arts (EASA), and the Academia Europaea (AE), (ii) IEEE Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Communication Society and IEEE Vehicular Technology Society, (iii) member for several times in the annual Thomson ISI Web of Knowledge list of Highly Cited Researchers as well as the Shanghai Ranking/Elsevier list of Most Cited Researchers, and (iv) a co-recipient of best paper awards in eleven IEEE conferences (including ICC, GLOBECOM, VTC, PIMRC, ISWCS, and DySPAN).