Workshop: More than GigaBit Broadband & Metaverse on the Move, 1 March 2023 in Barcelona

Rationale and Objectives

“Requirement roadmap mapping between mobile broadband and Metaverse “is the central theme in a workshop organized by NetworldEurope in a joint effort with CCSA (NetworldEurope Cooperative Members), on the morning of the 1st March, in Barcelona, in parallel with MWC. The workshop aims to provide an open information space to share current and future views about the real requirements of “Metaverse”, and how this upcoming area is being realized by different stakeholders. Two different discussion panels are organized, discussing current practices and plans, as well as potential new requirements and challenges that the Metaverse may bring to mobile communications infrastructures. Ultimately, the workshop will contribute to identify future innovation challenges that are being posed by the introduction of Metaverse in our society.

The workshop will feature key speakers from industry and academia, representing the views of manufacturers, operators, and application developers. The event will have an hybrid format, but will take opportunity of MWC to bring all speakers around the world together in the same room, providing enhanced interactions in the discussions.

All speakers will be on site. Nevertheless, since only a limited number of places are available, this option will be confirmed on an individual basis for regular attendees. The draft version of the agenda is currently as follows:

Opening video

Video Panel discussion 1     Video Panel discussion 2    Closing video

All presentations are here

All videos are here

Workshop report here

Workshop Moderators and Speakers

Prof. Rui L Aguiar, Chair of the Steering Board of the NetworldEurope European Technology Platform, has been involved in research and strategic research management since 1988, having been involved (in multiple positions) in all European-funded framework programs.   He was involved in the development of the NetworldEurope initiative, and the launch of the 5G-Infrastructure Association PPP, and has led the association before. He has been an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer on 5G in the last years, and has several hundred papers on communication networks and services. He is also the co-chair of the Networks and Multimedia area at Instituto de Telecomunicações, a Portuguese state-associated laboratory, and a Full Professor at Universidade de Aveiro.

Jyrki Huusko, vice-chair of NetworldEurope’s Expert Advisory Group has been involved in telecommunication and network research and research management over 20 years. He is research team leader at VTT Ltd, leading the 5G and Beyond Networks research team focusing especially on mission-critical networks and intelligent network resource management for future wireless and wired networks. He has been with VTT since 1998 in telecommunication research having several different positions in research and research management. Jyrki Huusko has contributed on several EU and national research roadmap and technology foresight whitepaper working groups on mobile network technologies, IoT and media & content distribution, as well as on research program definitions.He is also involved in 5G IA (6G IA) and its working group such as Trials WG where he is acting as a stream champion for smart city related trials.

NetworldEurope is the European Technology Platform for communications networks and services. Communications networks enable interaction between users of various types of equipment, either mobile or fixed. The NetWorldEurope European Technology Platform gathers more than one thousand players in the communications networks sector (industry leaders, innovative SMEs, and leading academic institutions) and aims to strengthen Europe’s leadership in networking technology and services so that it best serves Europe’s citizens and the European economy.

Mr. WEN，Ku  Vice Chairman of the Board and Secretary-General of China Communications Standardization Association (CCSA), Professor of Engineering. He is entitled to the special government allowance of The State Council. He used to take positions in succession as Deputy Chief Engineer of Posts and Telecommunications Administration, Director of Data Communication Administration of Shandong Province, Deputy Director General of the Department of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Deputy Director General of the Department of Science and Technology, Deputy Director General of the Telecommunications Administration, Director General of the Department of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Information Industry, Director General of the Department of Science and Technology, Director General of the Department of Information and Communication Development and News Spokesman of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Mr. Zhao, Shizhuo, Senior Engineer, graduated from Beijing university of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT). He took positions in succession as engineer, senior engineer in China Academy of Telecommunications Research and Project Manager in Technology Department in China Communications Standards Association (CCSA). Now, he is the Director in International Standardization Department in CCSA.

China Communications Standards Association (CCSA) is an industry, national, open, and non-profit social organization composed of companies and institutes engaged in ICT standardization activities in China, and is committed to contributing to the development of ICT industry in China. In accordance with the principles of openness, fairness, impartiality and consensus, CCSA establishes a work system that is enterprise-basic, market-oriented, combining production, learning, and research, and organizes information and communication standardization activities.

Speakers

Ms. Wang，Zhiqin is the Vice President of China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) and a professorate senior engineer. She enjoys Special Government Allowances of the State Council. She has been long devoted to research and practice in the fields of ICT standards, industry, and policies, led the development of many mobile communication industry standards, and promoted the innovations of mobile telecommunication. She is the chairwoman of Wireless Communication Technical Committee (TC5) of CCSA (China Communications Standards Association), the Chair of IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group.

Dr. Mischa Dohler is now VP Emerging Technologies at Ericsson Inc. in Silicon Valley, working on cutting-edge topics of 6G, Metaverse, XR, Quantum and Blockchain. He serves on the Technical Advisory Committee of the FCC and on the Spectrum Advisory Board of Ofcom. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET); and a Distinguished Member of Harvard Square Leaders Excellence. He is a serial entrepreneur with 5 companies; composer & pianist with 5 albums on Spotify/iTunes; and fluent in several languages. He has had ample coverage by national and international press and media, and is featured on Amazon Prime. He is a frequent keynote, panel and tutorial speaker, and has received numerous awards. He has pioneered several research fields, contributed to numerous wireless broadband, IoT/M2M and cyber security standards, holds a dozen patents, organized and chaired numerous conferences, was the Editor-in-Chief of two journals, has more than 300 highly-cited publications, and authored several books. He is a Top-1% Cited Innovator across all science fields globally. He was Professor in Wireless Communications at King’s College London and Director of the Centre for Telecommunications Research from 2013-2021, driving cross-disciplinary research and innovation in technology, sciences and arts. He is the Cofounder and former CTO of the IoT-pioneering company Worldsensing; cofounder and former CTO of the AI-driven satellite company SiriusInsight.AI, and cofounder of the sustainability company Movingbeans. He also worked as a Senior Researcher at Orange/France Telecom from 2005-2008.

Dr. Bi, Qi is Chief Expert of China Telecom and CTO of China Telecom Research Institute, leading R&D activities with responsibilities in corporate strategy, R&D projects planning, and forward-looking directions. His specialty is in wireless including 5G and 6G innovations related to technologies, standards, and trials in China Telecom.  Dr. Bi is well-known for his visionary insights in industrial trends and directions throughout his career. Previously, Dr. Bi worked at Bell Labs for 20+ years and was awarded the prestigious Bell Labs Fellow in 2002. Other awards included Bell Labs President’s Gold Awards in 2000 & 2002, the Bell Labs Innovation Team Award in 2003, and Asian American Engineer of the Year in 2005. He is an IEEE Fellow, and served as a member of the IEEE Fellow Evaluation Committee of the communication society between 2017 and 2019. Dr. Bi received his M.S. from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University.  He holds 47 US patents, 63 European patents and 65 Chinese patents. While in China Telecom, his 4G innovation project led to a large-scale commercial deployment and won the GTB Innovation Award at London in 2014. For his impressive contributions, he was given “outstanding contribution award for Innovation and entrepreneurship from scholars overseas” by Beijing City in 2019. In 2022, he won a silver prize for his patent by the China National Intellectual Property Administration.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h.c. Frank H. P. Fitzek is a Professor and head of the “Deutsche Telekom Chair of Communication Networks” at TU Dresden. He is the spokesman of the DFG Cluster of Excellence CeTI and the 6G-life hub in Gemany. He received his diploma (Dipl.-Ing.) degree in electrical engineering from the University of Technology – Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) – Aachen, Germany, in 1997 and his Ph.D. (Dr.-Ing.) in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University Berlin, Germany in 2002 and became Adjunct Professor at the University of Ferrara, Italy in the same year. In 2003 he joined Aalborg University as Associate Professor and later became Professor. He co-founded several start-up companies starting with acticom GmbH in Berlin in 1999. He has visited various research institutes including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), VTT, and Arizona State University. In 2005 he won the YRP award for the work on MIMO MDC and received the Young Elite Researcher Award of Denmark. He was selected to receive the NOKIA Champion Award several times in a row from 2007 to 2011. In 2008 he was awarded the Nokia Achievement Award for his work on cooperative networks. In 2011 he received the SAPERE AUDE research grant from the Danish government and in 2012 he received the Vodafone Innovation prize. In 2015 he was awarded the honorary degree “Doctor Honoris Causa” from Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BUTE). His current research interests are in the areas of 5G/6G communication networks, in-network computing, network coding, compressed sensing, post-Shannon theory, quantum and molecular communication, as well as human-machine interaction in the virtual worlds.

Dr. Lutz Schade works in Telecommunications for more than 45 years as university lecturer, consultant and top manager and knows the operator business from many angles. He started in the 80ies as researcher for network structure  modelling and  cost optimization, applied this knowledge worldwide, especially  in the 90ies as responsible for planning and roll out of the German former D1 mobile network (now DT).  Later in the 2000s as Senior Vice President LS steered Deutsche Telekom subsidiaries in Europe for technology strategies, synergies, network budget and many other aspects (e.g. network sharing, spectrum acquisition, supplier selection,…) He was member of many supervisory boards. Dr. Lutz Schade now works as an independent senior advisor. With his broad strategic insights in economic, operational and technology aspects of telco networks he supports telecommunications operators and suppliers mainly in Europe, but also Asia. Currently amongst other projects he works with Huawei on selected strategic aspects.

Mr. Wang, Xuemin is the Vice President of Huawei European Research Institute.
Director of Huawei Europe Standardization & Industry Dept. He joined Huawei in 1995, served as Project Manager of Huawei B-Type Circuit Switching product, Vice General Manager of Product Testing Department, Vice General Manager of General Technical Management Office, Director of Standardization & Industry Dept, etc. Currently served as the Vice President of European Research Institute and also the Director of Europe Standardization & Industry Development Dept, responsible for implementing standard and industry strategy for European regions. Also served as IIC Steering Committee member China Electronics Standardization association（CESA) Vice Chair of Board of Director, CCSA board member, etc., for the aim of building nice communication channels with external organizations, partners and customers in the multi-level standardization and industry development environment

Dr. Ioannis Arapakis is a Principal Research Scientist at Telefónica Research, Barcelona. Prior to that he was a Research Scientist at Yahoo Labs, where he was a member of the Information Retrieval group. His research interests include Machine Learning (Deep Learning, Reinforcement Learning), Information Retrieval (Recommender Systems), and Human-Computer Interaction (Neuro-informatics, Multi-modal Interaction). He has numerous publications in top-tier venues such as SIGIR, ECIR, CIKM, WSDM and WWW, and has been leading several research projects under the FP7 and H2020 funding schemes. Recently, he acquired the prestigious EIC Pathfinder on “Awareness Inside” funding, which aims to design new forms of AI awareness and proposes a novel framework where both human and machine cooperate towards a common goal and evolve together.

Ms. Wang, Shanshan, Director of Migu Metaverse Sports Center. She is an expert in cross-cultural communication，international copyright operation, and Metaverse bit idols incubation. Under the MIGU Route to Metaverse, her team first launched the bit avatars of Gu Ailing and Xu Mengtao, the Winter Olympics champions；Migu-UFC‘s first digital idol, Yu Zixi; Migu-NBA’s first digital idol, Gu Yifei. During the FIFA world cup, China Mobile’s 10+bit avatars participated in event broadcasting and content production, and 5G+ Metaverse digital intelligence production accounted for 40%.

Dr. Volker Ziegler  is an energetic, strategic and purpose-driven leader with 25+ years of broad and international experience in the telecommunications industry. He currently serves as Senior Technology Advisor and Chief Architect in Nokia Strategy and Technology unit. Previously, Volker has exercised a leadership role with Nokia Bell Labs in 6G research and ecosystem. Prior to this, he has served as Head of 5G Leadership and Chief Architect of Nokia Mobile Networks.

Mr. Wang, Xinhui  serves the Vice President of ZTE Corporation, prior to which he has held various leadership roles in Standards & Industry Initiatives. In current capacity he drives the technology innovations and governance improvements in international standardization setting bodies and industry alliances aiming for maintaining a healthy, trustworthy, sustainable and globally harmonized ICT ecosystem. The team under his leadership works in 100+ international/regional/domestic Standardization Organizations, Industrial Alliances/Fora/Consortia and Open Source Communities of significant prominence.
He joined ZTE working on software development and system design of wireless communication system in 2000, and worked in standardization since 2006. With over 20 years of experience, he has been elected the Vice Chairman of 3GPP TSG GERAN for three consecutive terms.  He serves as Member of the Advisory Committee of IMT-2020(5G) Promotion Group, Member of the Advisory Committee of IMT-2030(6G) Promotion Group, Council Member of CCSA, Member of the Technical Management Committee of CCSA, and the Vice Chairman of TC5 of CCSA.

Mr. Amir Abdelazim is an Expert Partner at Detecon International and manages Detecon’s office in Cairo. He is a Senior telecoms executive with experience in over 35 markets across the globe. Amir’s expertise relies on technology strategy and transformation due to his previous work experiences as CTIO at Asiacell Communications in Iraq, after earlier roles including CTIO of AirtelTigo Ghana, CTIO of Millicom Ghana, CTIO of Millicom Rwanda, Strategic Quality Director Africa at Millicom (based in UK Corporate Office) and positions with Nokia Siemens Networks, Etisalat, Alcatel, and Orange. His career has encompassed technology leadership, developing / implementing tech strategy, leading a major cultural turnaround, building / mentoring highly-performing teams, driving technical / commercial turnarounds, ensuring that technology serves the customer and the business, negotiating with major vendors, major project management, customer relationship management and driving down costs. He is known as a tough but fair leader with a reputation for getting the job done and driving lasting and profitable change.