INnovation and excellence in massive-scale COMmunications and information processING

Project Information

INCOMING

Grant agreement ID: 856967

DOI

10.3030/856967

Project closed

EC signature date 9 July 2019

Start date 1 January 2020

End date 30 September 2023

Funded under

• Twinning of research institutions

Total cost

€ 797 810,00

EU contribution

€ 797 810,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERZITET U NOVOM SADU FAKULTET TEHNICKIH NAUKA
Serbia

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - INCOMING (INnovation and excellence in massive-scale COMmunications and information processING)

Reporting period: 2021-04-01 to 2023-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

H2020 project INCOMING (http://incoming.ftn.uns.ac.rs/) aims to enhance research capacity and innovation potential of the Centre for intelligent COmmunications, Networking and Information proCessing (ICONIC) in the domain of 5G and Beyond 5G (B5G) technologies and large-scale information processing. ICONIC centre (http://iconic.ftn.uns.ac.rs/) is established in 2017 at the Faculty of Technical Sciences (FTN) of the University of Novi Sad (UNS). It gathers 22 academic staff members and 20 early stage researchers (ESRs), bringing together expertise in wireless communications, distributed signal processing, machine learning and artificial intelligence, reconfigurable hardware design, system design and verification.

INCOMING project accelerates the evolution of ICONIC centre by building strong connections with three leading EU partners: Aalborg University (AAU), Chalmers University of Technology (CHALMERS) and German Aerospace Centre (DLR). Through INCOMING project, ICONIC centre will establish research collaboration and networking channels, create foundation for future strong and lasting ties through engagement of early stage researchers (ESRs), and connect academic, innovation and development capacities for future joint research and development. ICONIC centre has an ambition to establish itself as a leading research centre in the domain of wireless communications and information processing in the region. ICONIC targets visible role in 5G/B5G ecosystem as a point of education and knowledge sharing through establishment of 5G Innovation and Technology Hub (5G-IT-Hub) as part of the ICONIC centre (http://5ghub.ftn.uns.ac.rs/).

Summarizing the above, the principal objectives of the INCOMING project are:
• to make ICONIC centre regional research lighthouse in the domain of massive wireless communications and information processing, reconfigurable hardware development, and 5G/B5G technologies, services and applications, with wide international visibility and recognition.
• to create 5G Innovation and Technology Hub (5G-IT-Hub) as part of the ICONIC centre which will serve as a platform for knowledge exchange, sharing of ideas, training, networking, innovation initiatives in the domain of 5G/B5G technologies.
• to establish close and lasting ties with INCOMING partners, and with their help, to establish EU-wide and world-wide network of relationships with relevant research groups and stakeholders in the domain of 5G/B5G technologies.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The work performed during INCOMING is composed of a set of project activities divided into seven work packages (WPs). Besides WP1 that was devoted to project management and WP7 dedicated to ethical requirements, the following activities are done in respective WPs:

WP2 lead by AAU dealt with research and innovation in the domain of massive Internet of Things (IoT) through following activities:
• Four expert trainings are organised.
• Three summer schools are organised that addressed various aspects related to massive IoT
• Four main research and development tracks are developed in the domain of massive IoT
• 6 outgoing and 4 incoming staff exchanges are performed by ICONIC researchers and leading partners
• 7 joint conference and 2 joint journal papers published in the domain of massive IoT

WP3 lead by CHALMERS dealt with massive-scale distributed information processing through following activities:
• Three expert trainings are organised
• Three summer schools are organised that addressed various aspects related to information processing and machine learning
• Three main research and development tracks are developed with the project.
• 6 outgoing and 3 incoming staff exchanges are performed by ICONIC researchers and leading partners
• 2 joint conference and 1 joint journal papers published in the domain of information processing and machine learning

WP4 worked on promotion of 5G technology and applications through 5G-IT-Hub. 5G-IT-Hub is established in month 6 of the project. Three Seminar Series in 5G-IT-Hub are kick-started on time. The following are the main outcomes of WP4:
• 20 seminars are organised and delivered in 5G-IT-Hub
• 6 keynote lectures in the domain of 6G are presented at the final outreach event
• 2 two-part training events are organised and delivered in 5G-IT-Hub
• Contracts and collaborations with 3 mobile operators and 4 companies established during INCOMING

WP5 was dedicated to early stage researchers (ESRs) at the ICONIC centre involved in the INCOMING project. The process of ESR progress monitoring and tracking is established and lead by WP5 leader. 20 ICONIC ESRs are involved whose integration in research and collaboration with EU partners is carefully planned and tracked.

WP6 is devoted to dissemination, outreach and networking activities listed below:
• Three successful brainstorming events organised during the project
• Three INCOMING project special sessions organised at BalkanCom 2021, BalkanCom 2022 and EUSIPCO 2022
• 57 papers in high-impact journals and 50 papers in relevant international conferences are published by ICONIC team
• 3 journal and 9 conference papers at top-tier IEEE venues published among project partners
• 2 new HE and 3 Serbian Science Fund project awarded to ICONIC researchers during RP2, overall 4 H2020 and HE and 3 Serbian Science Fund project during INCOMING.
• Two day final outreach project event organised in September 2023 in Novi Sad and Belgrade

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

INCOMING project EU partner institutions: AAU, CHALMERS and DLR are renowned for their research in massive IoT communications and large-scale network-wide information processing. The EU leading partners are carefully matched to the ICONIC centre expertise in these research areas to further support production of high-impact research and development results. Research and development projects executed during the project actively involved selected experts from EU partners working and producing results in leading IEEE journals and conferences.

In the domain of massive IoT, the following main research directions are investigated and novel results produced: 1) Design and deployment of ntegrated end-to-end 5G testbed communication platform, 2) Massive Cellular IoT: fundamental research and testbed development, 3) UAV-based Cellular IoT: fundamental research and testbed development, and 4) Indoor OWC IoT system: fundamental research and testbed development. In the domain of distributed information processing and machine learning, the main research directions are investigated and novel results produced: 1) Large-scale distributed information processing using Gaussian Belief Propagation (GBP) and Graph Neural Networks (GNN), 2) FPGA-accelerated machine learning, and 3) Machine learning for wireless physical layer design. 57 papers in high-impact journals and 50 papers in relevant international conferences are published by ICONIC researchers during the project.

Collaboration between ICONIC with regional and global industry is significantly enhanced through collaboration with all three mobile operators in Serbia in the domain of testing and usage of NB-IoT network and IoT platforms, installation of 5G indoor test base stations and installation of 5G outdoor test base stations. Research and development collaboration and collaboration in funding MSc/BSc theses established with leading wireless, vehicular, computer-vision and drones-related industrial partners.

ICONIC centre logo

ICONIC UAV cellular NB-IoT communications experiments

Final H2020 INCOMING outreach event promo poster

2nd H2020 Project School at CHALMERS in Gothenburg, Sweden

Invited Lecture Prof. Branka Vucetic (University of Sydney) - 1st Brainstorming Week

Kick-off Meeting - Novi Sad - 20.01.2020.

H2020 INCOMING project logo

5G Innovation and Technology Hub Lecture - Poster for Stefano Cioni lecture

5G IT Hub logo

ICONIC UAV experimentation platform

ICONIC centre massive NB-IoT testbed (100 static and 50 mobile NB-IoT nodes)