Costa Perez, Xavier – ICREA Memoir 2021

Xavier Costa

Internet i Innovació Digital a Catalunya

Engineering Sciences

Xavier Costa-Pérez is ICREA Research Professor, Scientific Director at the i2cat Research Center and Head of 6G Networks R&D at NEC Laboratories Europe. His research focuses on the digital transformation of society driven by the interplay of mobile networks and AI. His team generates research results which are regularly published at top scientific venues, produces innovations which have received several awards for successful technology transfers, participates in major EC R&D projects and contributes to standardization bodies. He has served on the committees of several conferences, published papers of high impact and holds tenths of granted patents. In 2021 he served as Editor at IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, IEEE Transactions on Communications and Elsevier Computer Communications journals. Xavier received both his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Telecommunications from UPC.

Research interests

The ever-wider availability of technologies such as mobile networks, artificial intelligence, cloud services, data analytics and ICT platforms is dramatically altering the way we live, work and interact – in what is usually referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The upcoming Beyond 5G disruptive technologies represent a key pillar for enabling this digital revolution unfolding around us. In contrast to previous mobile network generations, a key new aspect for the mobile industry moving forward is the need to expand the mobile ecosystem to also incorporate industry verticals like automotive, manufacturing, smart-grids and health. While early research and field-trials results are promising, The AI-driven automation of mobile networks for a cost-efficient digital transformation (DX) is still at its infancy and will require of a huge research effort to deliver on the DX promises in the next decades.

Selected publications

– G.Garcia-Aviles, A.Garcia-Saavedra, M.Gramaglia, Xavier Costa-Pérez et al.‘ Nuberu: Reliable RAN Virtualization in Shared Platforms’. ACM MOBICOM, 2021.

– JA. Ayala-Romero, A.Garcia-Saavedra, X.Costa-Pérez et al.‘EdgeBOL: Automating Energy-Savings for Mobile Edge AI’. ACM CoNEXT, 2021.

– A.Okic, L.Zanzi, V.Sciancalepore, A.Redondi, X.Costa-Pérez, ‘Pi-ROAD: a Learn-as-You-Go Framework for On-Demand Emergency Slices in V2X Scenarios’, IEEE INFOCOM 2021.

– JA.Ayala-Romero, A.Garcia-Saavedra, X.Costa-Pérez et al. ‘Bayesian Online Learning for Energy-Aware Resource Orchestration in Virtualized RANs’, IEEE INFOCOM 2021.

– P.Mursia, V.Sciancalepore, A.Garcia-Saavedra, L.Cottatellucci, X. Costa-Pérez et al.‘RISMA: Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces Enabling Beamforming for IoT Massive Access’, IEEE Journal On Selected Areas In Communications, 2021.

– L.Zanzi, V.Sciancalepore, A.Garcia-Saavedra, H.Schotten, X.Costa-Pérez, ‘LACO: A Latency-Driven Network Slicing Orchestration in Beyond-5G Networks’, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, 2021

Selected research activities

Invited Talks/Panels

IEEE WiMob – Keynote – “Disruptive Techs for 6G Networks”
UPC Open Days TIC – Keynote – “Disruptive Techs for Future Wireless Systems”
6G Summit – Invited Speaker – “O-RAN: A 6G Revolution?”
IEEE 5G World Forum – Panelist – “Open Radio Access Network Revolution”
IEEE GLOBECOM – Panelist – “Challenges for 5G Deployments”

Conferences

IEEE International Symposium on Wireless Comm. – TPC Chair
IEEE World Forum on Internet of Things – Track Chair
IEEE International Conference on Sensing, Comm. and Networks – Demo Chair
International Symposium on 6G Networking – Distinguished Talks Chair

Editorial Board Member

IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing
IEEE Transactions on Communications
Elsevier Computer Communications

Guest Editor

IEEE Open Journal of Communications Society, Blockchain-based Cooperative Cognitive Comm.

Joint Research Unit

Founder of i2cat/NEC Labs JRU

Research Advisor

Evaluator for the INRIA Research Theme on “Networking”