1st Workshop on Wireless Networking Innovations

for Mobile Edge Learning (MEL)

Held in Conjunction with IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), 2021

Montreal, QC, Canada

June 2021


A workshop bringing leaders in academia and industry together from across the globe to identify and discuss the major wireless networking innovations, challenges and standardization visions to support MEL

Workshop Scope

Machine learning (ML) and AI have flourished as key contributors to many research fields, one of which being wireless networking and MEC. Contrarily, very limited works in the wireless networking realms aimed to facilitate the operation of ML/AI at the edges. Achieving significant advancements in this reverse direction is becoming more and more indispensable due to the massive amounts of data generated at the edge resulting from the rapid adoption of the Internet of Everything. Forecasts envision that 90% of such data will be analyzed in a distributed manner on the edge devices. Being mostly wireless/mobile (e.g., wireless sensors, smartphones, laptops, drones, connected vehicles, XRs), resource-constrained, and highly heterogeneous, implementing one or multiple ML/AI jobs on such devices requires fundamental changes in and innovative designs of wireless networking and MEC protocols. Meanwhile, training powerful ML models based on the enormous data generated by these devices demands highly efficient task/data/parameter exchanges in harsh mobile environments and various network settings, while preserving data privacy. These trends have recently established the new research direction of Mobile Edge Learning (MEL), which calls for innovations in wireless networking, ranging from transmission technologies, network protocols, to MEL-friendly architectures. The purpose of this workshop is to invite submissions on the latest advancements in wireless networking for MEL, to implement fast and efficient edge learning jobs over networks of resource- constrained and heterogeneous mobile devices. It also invites academic and industrial researchers to identify and discuss the major challenges and standardization visions to support MEL.

Topics of Interest

  • Adaptive allocation of distributed learning tasks in heterogeneous MEL environments

  • Joint allocation of distributed learning tasks and wireless resources for MEL

  • Energy awareness and management for MEL

  • Mobility awareness/management for MEL

  • Mitigation of physical networking and computing uncertainties for MEL

  • Network formations for multiple MEL jobs

  • Multi-hop routing and parameter aggregation for MEL

  • Multi-hop network formations for highly complicated MEL models

  • URLLC for MEL

  • Theoretical modeling and performance analysis for networks involved in MEL

  • Physical, MAC, scheduling, and network layer protocols for MEL

  • 5G/6G/ Wi-Fi/Bluetooth enabled MEL

  • MEL in ad-hoc, sensor, vehicular, UAV, and cognitive radio networking environments

  • Self-organizing MEL networks

  • Network standardization efforts and/or requirements for MEL

  • Network authentication and security measures for MEL

  • Network architectures and protocols for privacy-preserving MEL

  • Applications of MEL in wireless/mobile environments

  • MEL for XR, MEC, IoT, V2X, Robotics

  • MEL field tests and experimental testbeds

Demo Showcase and Competition

In addition to technical paper submissions, the workshop will feature a demo showcase and competition session, in which:

  • Two state-of-the-art labs in the field will be invited MEL to showcase their MEL demos

  • Other demos and testbeds are most welcomed to showcase and enter the workshop's demo competition. Interested labs and enterprises are invited to send a two-page description and a short video of their demo/testbed to sameh.sorour@queensu.ca by 20 February 2021 and will be notified on the acceptance to showcase their demo and enter the competition by 20 March 2021.


Important Dates


Paper Submission: 19 February 2021 [Firm]

Paper Acceptance: 22 March 2021

Camera Ready: 31 March 2021

Demo Application: 20 February 2021

Demo Acceptance: 20 March 2021


Submission Guidelines


The workshop accepts only novel, previously unpublished papers. The page length limit for all initial submissions for review is SIX (6) printed pages (10-point font) and must be written in English. All final submissions of accepted papers must be written in English with a maximum paper length of six (6) printed pages (10-point font) including figures. No more than one (1) additional printed page (10-point font) may be included in final submissions and the extra page (the 7th page) will incur an over length page charge of USD100.

For more information, please visit IEEE ICC 2021 website: https://icc2021.ieee-icc.org/authors

Submission Link: https://edas.info/N27513


Looking Forward to your attendance and contribution!

Sameh Sorour

Queen's University, Canada

Hatem Abou-Zeid

Ericsson, Canada

Yansha Deng

King's Colledge London, UK

Jun Zhang

Hong Kong Polytech. Univ., Hong Kong