Communication Systems and Networks

In ICTEAM, a large variety of problems related to communication systems and networks are investigated. The different topics cover all the layers of communication systems going from the physical layer up to the application layer, including the MAC, network and transport layers. A few examples of particular activities are detailed below. Thanks to its expertise on such a large array of subjects, ICTEAM is able to undertake complex research projects dealing with very different aspects of communication systems.

Principal Investigators :

Tom Barbette, Olivier Bonaventure, Jean-Charles Delvenne, Christophe De Vleeschouwer, Denis Flandre, Raphaël Jungers, Jérôme Louveaux, Benoit Macq, Claude Oestges, Cristel Pelsser, Etienne Rivière, Ramin Sadre, Peter Van Roy, Luc Vandendorpe

Research Labs :

Cloud and Large Scale computing group, Image and Signal Processing Group (ISPGroup), IP Networking Lab, Programming Languages and Distributed Computing, Security and Performance of Networked Systems GroupEfficiency of Networked Systems Group

Research Areas :

The research focuses on the physical layer and the MAC layer of modern wired and wireless communications systems. Transmitters, receivers and resource allocation are designed and optimized for OFDM(A) based systems, multi-antenna systems (MIMO, distributed MIMO, relay techniques) and multiuser systems. At the receiver side, both detection and estimation are considered. Iterative or turbo based techniques are receiving a lot of attention. Particular attention is paid to multicell wireless communications and sensor networks.

This researches focuses on ultra wide band (UWB) based localisation or positioning. Methods considered are time of arrival (TOA), time difference of arrival (TDOA) and angle of arrival (AOA). Bounds have been derived to assess the potential of UWB, understand the impact of multipath propagation and investigate the ambiguities. Practical estimators are proposed and their performance is investigated. A practical testbed has been developed and is being upgraded. An accuracy of a few millimeters has been achieved for indoor positioning over distances of about ten meters and with obstacles.

The DSL activity is investigating signal processing solutions, mainly at the physical layer, for improving the performance of communication on the telephone lines (digital subscriber lines). The current focus is on the mitigation of the crosstalk between lines, including pre-/post-cancellation techniques, adaptive crosstalk channel estimation, as well as dynamic spectrum management by means of centralized optimization.

The radio propagation activity aims at the measurement, characterization and modeling of multi-dimensional propagation channels for a range of wireless systems and networks: MIMO, WLAN/WPAN, body area networks, vehicular communication systems, etc. The facilities include a state-of-the art channel MIMO sounder, various network analyzers and antennas, as well a ray-tracing tool.

  • evaluation of link budget for satellite systems, deep-space missions, ...
  • generation of time series for the design of fade mitigation techniquespropagation modelling into collapsed buildings and harsh environments for radio-localization

We develop new protocols and mechanisms for the global Internet. Our main area of expertise are the network and transport layers of the TCP/IP stack. More specifically, we have proposed extensions to allow routing protocols (both intradomain and interdomain) to better handle link failures and have designed and evaluated various types of traffic engineering techniques. We also address the multihoming problem both from the network viewpoint and the endhost viewpoint. We carry both theoretical research and applied research by developing reference implementations of new protocols. We actively participate in the development of future Internet architecture proposals and contribute to standardisation within the Internet Engineering Task Force.

Image and video compression algorithms are investigated, including for stereo and multi-view contents. Visually pleasant and fluent video streaming or image browsing are implemented by adapting compression and forwarding mechanisms to network and terminal resources. This implies the rate-distortion optimization of image/video packet schedules, but also adaptive switching between multiple versions of the content. For low bandwidth wireless accesses, interactive streaming architectures are investigated to allow the end-user to control the trade-offs involved when reducing the spatial and temporal resolution of the streamed content.

Distributed systems are becoming ever larger and must handle problems of frequent faults, security issues, and management complexity.  We have built large-scale transactional storage systems based on techniques from self-organizing peer-to-peer networks.  We are developing design techniques for these systems based on ideas from complex systems theory.  Future work will focus on building practical programming platforms that provide cloud computing properties such as elasticity and that support large-scale applications using techniques from machine learning. 

Network data rates increase tremendously thanks to capabilities opened up by fiber, 5G networks and multi-hundred-gigabit network equipments. However, this progress towards faster network speeds presents a challenge in achieving low-latency Internet services while lowering energy usage of network equipments and services to meet the decarbonization objectives of a greener it. We prototype software network functions (NFV) like firewalls, intrusion detection systems, or load balancers scaling beyond 100Gbps link speeds. Core techniques involve avoiding inter-core communications, careful low-level considerations, research on multi-core software systems and their relation to high-speed interconnects. On top of software pipeline optimizations, we leverage the novel programmable network infrastructure, such as SmartNICs and P4, to develop new intra-server and inter-server load-balancing techniques and exploit the full potential of modern hardware to maximize datacenter efficiency.

Most recent publications

Below are listed the 10 most recent journal articles and conference papers produced in this research area. You also can access all publications by following this link : see all publications


Journal Articles


1. Gontier, Quentin; Wiame, Charles; Wang, Shanshan; Di Renzo, Marco; Wiart, Joe; Horlin, François; Tsigros, Christo; Oestges, Claude; De Doncker, Philippe. Joint Metrics for EMF Exposure and Coverage in Real-World Homogeneous and Inhomogeneous Cellular Networks. In: IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, Vol. 23, no.10, p. 13267-13284 (2024). doi:10.1109/twc.2024.3400612. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/293094

2. Sayez, Niels; De Vleeschouwer, Christophe; Delouille, Véronique; Bechet, Sabrina; Lefèvre, Laure. SunSCC: Segmenting, Grouping and Classifying Sunspots From Ground-Based Observations Using Deep Learning. In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, Vol. 128, no.12 (2023). doi:10.1029/2023JA031548. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/281189

3. Golard, Louis; Louveaux, Jérôme; Bol, David. Evaluation and projection of 4G and 5G RAN energy footprints: the case of Belgium for 2020–2025. In: Annales des Télécommunications, Vol. online (2023). doi:10.1007/s12243-022-00932-9. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/267972

4. Cui, Zhuangzhuang; Guan, Ke; Oestges, Claude; Briso-Rodriguez, Cesar; Ai, Bo; Zhong, Zhangdui. Cluster-Based Characterization and Modeling for UAV Air-to-Ground Time-Varying Channels. In: IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Vol. 71, no.7, p. 6872-6883 (2022). doi:10.1109/tvt.2022.3168073. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/293097

5. Villegas Gutierrez, Julian David; Oestges, Claude. Spatial Loss Field for Outdoor Micro-Cells. In: IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, Vol. 21, no.8, p. 6345-6356 (2022). doi:10.1109/twc.2022.3148409. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/293096

6. Gutierrez, Julian David Villegas; Oestges, Claude. Measurement-Based Large-Scale Propagation Characterization in 5G Micro-Cells At 3.8 GHz. In: IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Vol. 71, no.11, p. 11325-11335 (2022). doi:10.1109/tvt.2022.3188345. http://hdl.handle.net/

7. Huang, Chen; He, Ruisi; Ai, Bo; Molisch, Andreas F.; Lau, Buon Kiong; Haneda, Katsuyuki; Liu, Bo; Wang, Cheng-Xiang; Yang, Mi; Oestges, Claude; Zhong, Zhangdui. Artificial Intelligence Enabled Radio Propagation for Communications—Part II: Scenario Identification and Channel Modeling. In: IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 70, no.6, p. 3955-3969 (2022). doi:10.1109/tap.2022.3149665. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/278765

8. He, Ruisi; Lau, Buon Kiong; Oestges, Claude; Haneda, Katsuyuki; Liu, Bo. Guest Editorial Artificial Intelligence in Radio Propagation for Communications. In: IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 70, no.6, p. 3934-3938 (2022). doi:10.1109/tap.2022.3178164. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/278764

9. Mudonhi, Alfred; D'Errico, Raffaele; Oestges, Claude. Analysis of Multipath Components Distributions Over a Large Array in Indoor mmWave Channels. In: IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 70, no.9, p. 8330-8336 (2022). doi:10.1109/tap.2022.3177439. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/278763

10. Arash, Masoud; Stupia, Ivan; Vandendorpe, Luc. Real-Time CRLB based Antenna Selection in Planar Antenna Arrays. In: IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, (2022). doi:10.1109/TWC.2022.3222885. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/275421


Conference Papers


1. Golard, Louis; Agram, Youssef; Rottenberg, François; Quitin, François; Bol, David; Louveaux, Jérôme. A Parametric Power Model of Multi-Band Sub-6 GHz Cellular Base Stations Using On-Site Measurements. In: IEEE International Symposium Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications. (2024). I E E E, 2024 xxx. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/289070

2. Eertmans, Jérome; Oestges, Claude; Jacques, Laurent. Fully Differentiable Ray Tracing via Discontinuity Smoothing for Radio Network Optimization. In: Proceedings 18th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, EurAAP, 2024, 979-8-3503-9443-6, 1-5 xxx. doi:10.23919/EuCAP60739.2024.10501570. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/284145

3. Jodogne, Sébastien. Setting a PACS on FHIR. In: Proc. of the 17th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies (BIOSTEC 2024). Vol. 2, p. 123-131 (2024). SCITEPRESS - Science and Technology Publications, Lda. 2024 xxx. doi:10.5220/0012384600003657. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/281131

4. Mansourian, Amir M.; Somers, Vladimir; De Vleeschouwer, Christophe; Kasaei, Shohreh. Multi-task Learning for Joint Re-identification, Team Affiliation, and Role Classification for Sports Visual Tracking. In: 6th International ACM Workshop on Multimedia Content Analysis in Sports, 2023, 979-8-4007-0269-3 xxx. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/281191

5. Manjah, Dani; Cacciarelli, Davide; Benkedadra, Mohamed; Standaert, Baptiste; Rotsart de Hertaing, Gauthier; Macq, Benoît; Galland, Stéphane; De Vleeschouwer, Christophe. Stream-Based Active Distillation for Scalable Model Deployment. In: 2023 IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2023 xxx. doi:10.1109/CVPR52729.2023. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/281159

6. Caio, Marcello Davide; Van Zandycke, Gabriel; De Vleeschouwer, Christophe. Context-Aware 3D Object Localization from Single Calibrated Images: A Study of Basketballs. In: 6th International ACM Workshop on Multimedia Content Analysis in Sports, 2023 xxx. doi:10.1145/3606038.3616173. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/281158

7. Munoz, Frederic; Makhoul, Gloria; Gaillot, Davy P.; Oestges, Claude; D’Errico, Raffaele. Space-Time Dense Multipath Components Modeling at mmWaves in Indoor Industrial Environments. In: Proceedings 17th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), 2023, 978-1-6654-7541-9 xxx. doi:10.23919/eucap57121.2023.10133474. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/280901

8. Shimuye, Nigus; Oestges, Claude; Quitin, François. Environment Mapping with 28 GHz Beam Steering Transceivers Using the SAGE Algorithm: Preliminary Results. In: Proceedings 43rd Symposium on Information Theory and Signal Processing in the Benelux (SITB 2023), 2023, 5 pages xxx. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/280900

9. Van Brandt, Léopold; Flandre, Denis. Estimation analytique des taux de défaillance dans les SRAM sous seuil en régime de rétention de données. 2023 xxx. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/280721

10. Van Brandt, Léopold; Silveira, Fernando; Delvenne, Jean-Charles; Bol, David; Flandre, Denis. Variability and Intrinsic Noise Effects in ULV CMOS SRAM Demystified. 2023 xxx. http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/280720