7.1.1 ElectroSmart

• Keywords:
  Crowd-sourcing, UMTS, GSM, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 4G, 3G, 2G, Electromagnetic waves, Android, LTE
• Functional Description:

  The adoption of wireless technologies has surged in recent years with the widespread use of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular technologies ranging from 2G to 5G. However, the health impact of exposure to radiofrequency waves remains poorly understood and concerning (ANSES, March 2018, The Lancet, June 2011). Consequently, the Council of Europe advocates for an exposure minimization approach guided by the principle ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable). Unfortunately, both the general public and authorities have lacked tools to measure exposure to radiofrequency waves effectively.

  In 2015, Arnaud Legout applied his expertise in instrumentation and experimentation to launch the project ElectroSmart with two main goals: i) to provide a scientifically validated public tool for measuring exposure to radiofrequency waves, and ii) to map the global evolution of radiofrequency wave exposure. ElectroSmart is based on a crowdsourcing Android application that enables users to measure and collect data on their radio environment, complemented by a calibration process for measurements [TIM21] to ensure exposure data quality. The 9.8 billion of measurements collected in 150 countries over six years enabled the creation of the first global map of radiofrequency exposure evolution, which we published in the journal Environment International [EI2022].

  As of September 3, 2024, the application had been downloaded 2,456,757 times, with 173,328 active users and a rating of 4.5/5. Notably, due to Android’s refusal to provide reasonable support for 5G exposure data and the increasing challenges of maintaining the application in the long term, we officially ceased maintenance of the Android app in October 2022 after more than six years of development and maintenance. At that time, we made the code fully open source under the BSD 3-Clause license and available on GitHub. As of September 3, 2024, the GitHub project had received 35 stars and had been forked 12 times. ElectroSmart was removed from the Play Store by Google in August 2024 following the end of its maintenance.

• News of the Year:
  As of September 3, 2024, the application had been downloaded 2,456,757 times, with 173,328 active users and a rating of 4.5/5. Notably, due to Android’s refusal to provide reasonable support for 5G exposure data and the increasing challenges of maintaining the application in the long term, we officially ceased maintenance of the Android app in October 2022 after more than six years of development and maintenance. At that time, we made the code fully open source under the BSD 3-Clause license and available on GitHub. As of September 3, 2024, the GitHub project had received 35 stars and had been forked 12 times. ElectroSmart was removed from the Play Store by Google in August 2024 following the end of its maintenance.
• URL:
  https://­www-sop.­inria.­fr/­members/­Arnaud.­Legout/­Projects/­electrosmart.­html
• Contact:
  Arnaud Legout
• Participant:
  Arnaud Legout

7.1.2 nepi-ng

• Keywords:
  Wireless network, Experimentation
• Functional Description:
  Experimentation is an essential step for realistic evaluation of wireless network protocols. nepi-ng leverages job oriented programming model, and efficient single-thread execution of parallel programs using Python's asynchronous programming paradigm (asyncio) to provide an efficient and modular fine-grained synchronization mechanism for networking experiments, with a light software dependency footprint. nepi-ng has been designed with the ambition to address the challenges of (1) efficiency: removing all possible overhead, even when an experiment is remotely controlled over several ssh hops, (2) light software dependency footprint: keeping the overall software dependencies to a strict minimum, so that the approach can be applicable in a wide variety of contexts and testbeds, and (3) modularity: allowing pieces of code to be re-used or shared.
• URL:
  https://­nepi-ng.­inria.­fr
• Contact:
  Thierry Parmentelat

7.1.3 SLICES Post-5G Blueprint

• Name:
  SLICES Post-5G Blueprint
• Keywords:
  5G protocols, Reproducibility, Evaluation platform
• Functional Description:
  5G’s modular architecture bridges telecom and IT, fostering innovation in Post-5G research and providing a versatile framework for experimentation. However, deploying a complete 5G setup remains complex, requiring specialized expertise and significant resources, potentially diverting researchers from their core work. The SLICES Post-5G Blueprint addresses this by offering a modular, replicable framework of software, hardware, and methodologies, enabling full or partial deployments. Researchers can deploy only the 5G core, use a simulated RAN, or integrate multiple RANs with a core. The blueprint supports reproducible research through a step-by-step workflow and includes an open-source reference implementation using tools like OpenAirInterface, MinIO, FastAPI, kubernetes, and Ansible. Integrated into SLICES-RI, this framework simplifies Post-5G experimentation while promoting collaborative reproducible research.
• URL:
  https://­doc.­slices-ri.­eu/­BlueprintServices/­beyond5G/­beyond5G.­html
• Contact:
  Damien Saucez

7.2.1 Reproducible research Lab - R2lab

The R2lab testbed has been operating 24/7 since early 2016. It has been used by more than 150 users, half of them from France and the other half from all over the world to evaluate a wide range of wireless networking scenarios in a realistic and reproducible environment (see usage statistics here). The facility remains stable with minimal disruptions, now supporting 5G and LoRa (from Long Range, a physical proprietary radio communication technique) devices. The focus is on leveraging our investments to advance reproducible research.

R2lab has been upgraded with advanced equipment, including Universal Software Radio Peripherals USRP N300 and N320 devices, connected via high-speed fiber to the SophiaNode cluster, and AW2S 5G Remote Radio Units offering enhanced capabilities for MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) configurations. Recent software developments have focused on supporting Docker images alongside metal-based formats for images, enabling experimenters to use off-the-shelf OAI (Open Air Interface) images, as well as mainstream tools for building images.

R2lab is in the process of being integrated into the SLICES-RI infrastructure 5 via the SophiaNode. To ensure reproducibility of previous experiments conducted in R2lab, the existing equipment will remain accessible through the R2lab workflows while also being compatible with the SLICES-RI workflow. In contrast, new equipment will be exclusively used within the SLICES-RI workflow. In other words, the evolution of R2lab is designed to be backward compatible.

7.2.2 SophiaNode: an open programmable 5G platform

The advent of 5G has blurred the lines between wireless and wired networks, cloud computing, and data management. To support Post-5G experimentation, R2lab is being expanded to incorporate programmable networking, cloud resources, and high-performance real-time processing at scale. This evolution, called the SophiaNode, is a SLICES-RI site developed in collaboration with Eurecom. The SophiaNode comprises three wireless facilities: the R2lab anechoic chamber at Inria augmented with 5G hardware, an indoor site at Eurecom, and an outdoor site on the SophiaTech campus. These facilities are interconnected via high-speed fiber links (600 Gbps as of this writing) to a data center at Inria, which hosts compute resources (${1500}^{+}$ cores, $3^{+}$ TB RAM), storage (planned ${250}^{+}$ TiB), and hardware accelerators like GPUs and SmartNICs.

This year, significant efforts have established SophiaNode as a reference site for the SLICES-RI project. It is the first site to fully implement the SLICES Post-5G blueprint. Since entering its pre-operation phase on November 11th, 2024, the SophiaNode has become a cornerstone of the SLICES-RI deployment.

8.1.1 Leveraging Web browsing performance data for Network monitoring

Participants: Chadi Barakat, Sanaa Ghandi.

Web browsing is one of the most widespread uses of the Internet globally. Despite advancements in network performance, end users still face slow web browsing situations, which can have a range of causes such as a congested Wi-Fi network, a bad wireless signal, or a loaded network and end hosts. It is thus crucial to monitor the network and troubleshoot the specific causes of slow web browsing, as this benefits end users, operators, and internet service providers alike. Various tools attempting to actively collect web measurements through the injection of probes into the network exist. However, no solution is able to identify the specific cause of web browsing performance degradation. This contribution addresses the problem by proposing a new lightweight passive measurement solution capable of transforming web performance measurements collected from within the browser into indicators of network performance and the origin of web browsing anomalies. We validate our solution by emulating a controlled network environment, manually injecting anomalies, leveraging the measurement data available within a browser and building a predictive model that uses a random forest classifier to correctly classify the causes of web browsing performance degradation. Our solution can be used in the wild in the form of a browser plugin to monitor the network and shed light on its anomalies without actively probing it by solely relying on regular user traffic activity. This contribution has been the result of the MIT-Inria internship of Naomi Krimi 12 in 2023, and part of the WEMON project funded by the Academy of Excellence "Networks, Information, and Digital Society" of Université Côte d'Azur. Within this project Sanaa Ghandi joined the Diana team as a post-doctoral researcher in 2024 and worked on validating the approach in more realistic scenarios such as cellular networks, and consolidating the machine learning part of the work with further data collection and analysis.

8.1.2 Efficient coverage maps for mobile networks

Participants: Bernard Tamba Sandouno, Chadi Barakat, Walid Dabbous, Thierry Turletti.

We worked on large-scale cartography of wireless network performance, covering areas such as cities, regions, or even entire countries, with the aim of improving network transparency and informing end-users about cellular network coverage based on their location. Unlike existing solutions that rely on measurements or statistical models, we adopted a more accurate and deterministic approach leveraging Ray Tracing to simulate wave propagation and capture interactions with environmental obstacles, such as reflection and refraction. By modeling waves as rays emitted from antennas according to their lobes, Ray Tracing calculates intersections with 3D obstacles and determines new ray directions after these interactions, continuing the process until the receiver is either reached (indicating coverage) or not (indicating lack of coverage). Although this method offers high accuracy, it comes with significant computational and memory demands due to complex processes like ray generation and the exhaustive reception tests needed to produce coverage maps for a large number of receivers. In collaboration with ZoneADSL & Fibre, as part of Bernard Tamba Sandouno's PhD research 16, we proposed targeted optimizations to generate precise signal power and download capacity maps on a large scale while significantly reducing computational overhead. Our work highlights the limitations of traditional methods and validates the effectiveness of our optimizations in dramatically reducing execution times without compromising accuracy. Specifically, we introduced an innovative ray generation technique that minimizes the number of rays launched from antennas by considering environmental factors, as opposed to the brute-force methods typically used. This site-specific approach, combined with a re-engineered reception test process, achieved a remarkable 1200-fold reduction in Ray Tracing execution time for terrains with slight altitude variations. Extending these optimizations to more diverse terrains, we refined all Ray Tracing processes to improve signal power mapping efficiency 15, 7. These advancements accelerated large-scale map generation by a factor of 50, demonstrating the adaptability and efficiency of our methods across varied environments. The results of this work are detailed in Bernard's PhD thesis 16.

8.1.3 Troubleshooting distributed network emulation

Participants: Houssam Elbouanani, Chadi Barakat, Walid Dabbous, Thierry Turletti.

We worked on improving the transparency of virtualized network environments, in particular a Mininet-like network, where a virtual network is mapped over a physical infrastructure. The problem of these networks is that their performance strongly depends on how well the underlying physical infrastructure is dimensioned. Any lack of resources in the underlying infrastructure results in a violation of the performance guarantees offered to the virtual network, a violation that is challenging to detect and troubleshoot. Throughout the PhD thesis of Houssam El Bouanani defended last year, we worked on this problem and contributed with a new framework based on network delay measurements in the virtual network that, by comparing the delay measurements to their reference values, infer if the virtualization is working properly or not 9, and if not the case, identify the part of the infrastructure that is faulty with the help of network tomography techniques 10. The two articles cited hereabove were published in 2024.

8.1.4 YouTube goes 5G: QoE Benchmarking and ML-based Stall Prediction

Participants: Chadi Barakat.

Given the dominance of adaptive video streaming services on the Internet traffic, understanding how YouTube Quality of Experience (QoE) relates to real 4G and 5G Channel Level Metrics (CLM) is of interest to not only the research community but also to Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and content creators. In this context, and in collaboration with colleagues from University of Campinas in Brazil, we collect YouTube and CLM logs with 1-second granularity spanning a six-month period. We group the traces by their context, i.e., Mobility, Pedestrian, Bus/Railway terminals, and Static Outdoor, and derive key performance footprints of real 4G and 5G video streaming in the wild. We also develop Machine Learning (ML) classifiers to predict objective QoE video stalls by using past patterns from CLM traces. We release all datasets and software artifacts for reproducibility purposes. The study was published in WCNC 15 13.

8.2.1 Next-Generation Intelligent Transportation Systems

Participants: Katia Obraczka, Thierry Turletti.

In the context of the DrIVE associate team, we had made the following contributions related to next generation Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). ITS include a variety of services and applications such as road traffic management, traveler information systems, public transit system management, and autonomous vehicles. It is expected that ITS will be an integral part of urban planning and future cities as it will contribute to improved road and traffic safety, transportation and transit efficiency, as well as to increased energy efficiency and reduced environmental pollution. However, ITS pose a variety of challenges due to its scalability and diverse quality-of-service needs, as well as the massive amounts of data it will generate. We published a survey that explores the use of Machine Learning (ML), which has recently gained significant traction, to enable ITS 8. We proposed a novel dynamic controller assignment algorithm targeting connected vehicle services and applications, also known as Internet of Vehicles (IoV). Our approach considers a hierarchically distributed control plane, decoupled from the data plane, and uses vehicle location and control traffic load to perform controller assignment dynamically. We modeled the dynamic controller assignment problem as a multi-agent Markov game and solved it with cooperative multi-agent deep reinforcement learning. Simulation results using real-world vehicle mobility traces showed that the proposed approach outperforms existing ones by reducing control delay as well as packet loss. This work has been published in the IEEE TNSM journal  24. We then leveraged 5G Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to enhance network resource allocation among vehicles by positioning UAVs on-demand as "flying communication infrastructure". We proposed a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approach to determine the position of UAVs in order to improve the fairness and efficiency of network resource allocation while considering the UAVs' flying range, communication range, and limited energy resources. We used a parametric fairness function for resource allocation that can be tuned to reach different allocation objectives ranging from maximizing the total throughput of vehicles, maximizing minimum throughput, as well as achieving proportional bandwidth allocation. Our simulation results showed that the proposed DRL approach to UAV positioning can help improve network resource allocation according to the targeted fairness objective. These results have been published in the IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management journal  25. In 2024, we proposed the Dynamic, Decentralized, Distributed, Delegation-based (D4) network control plane architecture which aims at providing adequate communication support for connected vehicles. To our knowledge, D4 is the first framework to support on-demand network control decentralization. We demonstrate the benefits of D4 through a proof-of-concept prototype running on a fully reproducible emulation platform. Experimental results using a variety of real-world scenarios demonstrate that D4 delivers lower latency with minimal additional overhead. This work has been published in the ACM journal on Autonomous Transportation Systems 11.

8.2.2 Provable real time network updates

Participants: Damien Saucez.

Next generations of smart factories and industrial systems will rely on commodity Ethernet hardware and 5G. In this context, it is essential to provide means to guarantee that any configuration action in the network preserves network performances within known and acceptable boundaries. By means of binary decision diagrams, we are building models of incremental network updates that guarantee not only latency and bandwidth contraints but also jitter and that are immune to vulnerabilities. This ongoing work is done in collaboration with the RESIST project-team at Inria Nancy and Aalborg University. The results of this work have been accepted for publication in NOMS'25 19.

8.2.3 Exploration and explanation of the Bitcoin address graph structure

Participants: Arnaud Legout.

Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency blockchain in terms of valuation (+700B USD), it is also the most studied one. However, the internal structure of the graph of addresses (unique identifiers used to receive Bitcoin transactions) is still poorly understood. The goal of this project is to explore several key aspects and this graph. Bitcoin as the first cryptocurrency is used for money laundering and is victim of market manipulation. However, unlike the classical financial markets, all transactions are public. Therefore, we want to identify structural invariants in the graph that represent attempts to either launder money or manipulate the market. The Bitcoin graph of addresses is a large graph with 1 billion addresses and 10 billion edges representing the financial transactions between the addresses. However, as there is no preferential attachment, its structure cannot be explained with the same core principles as social networks. We want to explore the structure of this graph and gain new insights into how financial markets start and grow.

This is an on-going work.

8.2.4 RIS-aided communication

Participants: Damien Saucez, Walid Dabbous, Stefano Lioce.

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) are emerging as a transformative technology for the evolution of 5G and beyond wireless communication networks. These surfaces are composed of tunable metasurfaces containing hundreds of controllable elements, capable of dynamically manipulating electromagnetic waves by adjusting their reflection, propagation, and reconfiguration. RIS-assisted systems facilitate signal transmission in complex environments by intelligently redirecting signals toward their destinations, mitigating blockages, and reducing interference. As a result, they enhance network coverage, improve spectrum reliability, and increase energy efficiency. Despite significant advancements in RIS-assisted systems, comprehensive studies on their integration into future networks remain limited, particularly regarding the challenges of developing robust channel models. This research has focused on modeling the behavior of RIS-assisted communication in real network scenarios. One notable contribution involves exploring the relationship between circuit parameters—critical for representing the unit cells within metasurfaces and their reconfigurability circuits—and system-level parameters, to assess the overall performance of RIS-assisted communication. Another area of investigation addresses the impact of phase quantization on communication performance. We analyzed scenarios involving both continuous and quantized phase values, examining the effects of quantization while considering the influence of circuit components in RIS unit cells. A paper detailing the findings of this research has been accepted at the LASCAS symposium, in February 2025 17.

8.2.5 LISP standardization

Participants: Damien Saucez.

After several years of effort in the Internet Engineering Task Force IETF working groups on LISP standardization, three Request for Comments (RFCs) were published in 2022 : one informational track RFC on Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP) architecture and two standard track RFCs on LISP security protections and on inter-domain message exchanges. We are currently working on moving RFC8111 from the experimental category to the Standards Track 18.

8.3.1 SLICES-RI Post-5G Blueprint

Participants: Damien Saucez, Thierry Turletti.

A significant scientific outcome of this research axis is the definition, implementation, and initial deployment of the SLICES-RI Post-5G blueprint. This blueprint fosters collaboration between engineers and non-engineers by creating a shared terminology and a consistent vision aligned with specific research objectives. It categorizes research in 5G and beyond into five distinct categories, each complementing the others.

At the top level, vertical service integration supports experimenters who use a 5G environment to transport their workloads without focusing on 5G research itself, treating 5G as a utility. The second category addresses researchers developing custom algorithms for network resource allocation, requiring access to the network control plane. Deeper layers involve researchers modifying the Medium Access Control (MAC) and physical layers, typically implemented in radio component firmware, necessitating privileged logical access to update hardware code. Another category includes researchers developing custom hardware, such as antennas or metasurfaces, which requires physical access to integrate new components into the infrastructure. Finally, the fifth category combines telecommunications and computational resources for studies such as cyber-system analysis and digital twin development to replicate real-world environments.

This clear classification of experiment categories helps identify the core requirements and building blocks necessary to support Post-5G research. Key elements include the ability to deploy custom 5G core networks and distributed Radio Access Networks, configurable and modifiable radio hardware, and unrestricted access to APIs for manipulating both control and user planes, as well as modifying codebases, firmware, and network settings. Additionally, the blueprint implementation must automatically collect experimental data and metadata, making it available to both users and the broader research community.

Based on these requirements, we have designed a fully adaptable, multi-site, multi-technology 5G environment. This environment enables researchers to select and customize specific components without needing to modify the rest of the system. A reference implementation of the blueprint has been developed and integrated into the SLICES-RI services portal. As of November 2024, the Post-5G blueprint service is in pre-operation within the SLICES-RI infrastructure. Further information on demonstrations and tutorials related to the post-5G blueprint can be found in 14, 20, 21, 22, 23.

Collaboration with YDATA

We had a collaboration with ZoneADSL & Fibre on the topic of geolocation assessment of mobile network performance. The activity was funded with a CIFRE contract. The PhD student Bernard Tamba Sandouno started his PhD on this topic on May 2021 and defended his thesis in June 2024. He developed a tool to efficiently compute coverage maps for mobile broadband networks using a ray tracing approach.

The budget allocated to the DIANA project-team includes 60 k€, supplemented by PhD funding of approximately 125 k€.

10.1.1 Visits of international scientists

10.2.1 Horizon Europe

10.2.2 H2020 projects

10.3.1 NF-MUST

• Title: End-to-end multi domain services management architecture of the networks of the future
• Coordinator : Djamal Zeghlache (IMT)
• Inria teams participanting to the project : COATI, DIANA, ERMINE
• Summary : The 5G and 6G end-to-end Multi-Domain Services Management Architecture (NF-MUST) project aims at automating production of inter-domain (business and application level) services for 5G, 5G Beyond and 6G networks. A challenging and still unrealized evolution today compared with single domain services or pre-established static multi-domain services that are gradually emerging in 5G and Beyond. Project NF-MUST of the PEPR 5G and Future Networks, focuses mainly on transforming client requests into end-to-end service orderings and on mapping them to resources and network level services (to be) provisioned by the multiple underlying networks. There is a clear evolution of 5 and 6G networks towards the provisioning of services involving multiple players and multiple technologies. Project NF-MUST addresses the related roles and interactions between customers and multiple domains in connection to the other “PEPR 5G and Future Networks” projects, to ensure automated production and operation of multi-domain services across multiple providers. Besides ordering services, NF-MUST will drive the management of the life cycle of the infrastructures provisioned services and partake in their dynamic and automated adaptation and operation. NF-MUST operates at the business subsystem (BSS) level and at the service side of the operation subsystem (OSS) level. NF-MUST interacts directly with network services treated by project 2 of the overall program.
• Role of the DIANA team: Co-supervise a PhD thesis with COATI on "Efficient resource utilisation for service management in next generation networks", that has started in October 2024.

10.3.2 NF-NAI

• Title: Network and infrastructure architectures and network-cloud-sensing convergence
• Coordinator : Gérard Memmi (IMT)
• Inria teams participanting to the project : AGORA, DIANA, RESIST, TRiBE.
• Summary: The primary challenge of the NF-NAI project lies in the efficient, secure, and cost-effective design, development, planning, and operation of networks and integrated network-cloud-sensing systems. These systems must seamlessly collaborate with diverse sectors of activity while accommodating the broad spectrum of existing applications, each with varying resource and performance demands. Furthermore, they must exhibit the flexibility and agility required to dynamically adapt to evolving future requirements. The NF-NAI project should go further than traditional objectives like throughput, execution speed, latency, or object connection density and enable the effective integration of a multitude of new technologies. This should include technologies for the physical layer (reconfigurable intelligent surfaces) , 3D transition (NTN - non-terrestrial networks), and architectural principles (like slicing and dynamic end-to-end orchestration). The project will promote the emergence of new applications and services thanks to transparency in terms of performance, robustness, and user security. The project will also put forward and implement interfaces with convergent network-cloud-sensing systems, offering a rich level of transparency to application developers, ranging from the edge to the cloud, from connected mini-objects to large data centres through multi-access edge computing (MEC).
• Role of the DIANA team: Supervise two PhDs that haves started in 2024. The first one on "Monitoring plane for mobile cellular networks" and the second on "Experimental evaluation of sliced cellular networks".

10.3.3 NF-FPNG

• Title: French network of test platforms for new-generation mobile communications
• Coordinator: Raymond Knopp, Eurecom
• Inria teams participanting to the project : DIANA, Maracas.
• Summary: The targeted NF-FPNG project is dedicated to setting up nationwide research infrastructures to test new hardware components for 5G and evaluate paradigms for the next generation of telecommunications networks. These research infrastructures will target basic technological components and also end-to-end network testing. This programme of platforms aims to work with all the important technologies in this area - from elementary electronic components to large-scale networking experiments - to provide responses to all the specific challenges defined by the Networks of the Future PEPR project. NF-FPNG's aim is firstly to structure this set of infrastructures and provide free access to existing infrastructures for the national group of PEPR researchers. Its second aim is to invest in new strategic and advanced infrastructures required to respond to the many challenges of the future.
• Role of the DIANA team: participating in the definition and deployment of the infrastructure. Our team has funding designated for acquiring necessary hardware equipment and engaging one DevOps engineer.

11.1.1 Scientific events: organisation

11.1.2 Scientific events: selection

11.1.3 Journal

11.1.4 Scientific expertise

• Thierry Parmentelat
  • is the principal Engineer in charge of the R2lab testbed.
• Damien Saucez
  • is involved in reproducible research with the ACM where he co-defined Artifacts Evaluation Committees (AEC) for the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication.

11.1.5 Research administration

• Chadi Barakat is currently
  • In charge of international affairs and member of the Comité de Suivi Doctoral (CSD) at Inria centre at Université Côte d'Azur
  • Member of the organizing committee for the Forum Numerica seminars of EUR DS4H.
• Walid Dabbous is
  • Director of the Academy of Excellence RISE (Networks, Information and Digital Society) in the Université Côte d'Azur.
  • Member of the scientific committee of the DS4H Graduate school.
  • Member of the Ubinet International Master program steering committee.
• Thierry Turletti is
  • Member of the Comité de Suivi Doctoral (CSD) (2021-2024)
  • Member of the Comité de Centre at Inria centre at Université Côte d'Azur (since 2024)
• Damien Saucez is
  • Referent for science popularization at the Centre Inria d'Université Côte d'Azur. His role mostly consists in promoting and organizing science popularization activities within Inria but also outside with schools and general public.
• Arnaud Legout is
  • Local correspondent of the Inria ethical committee,
  • Member of the Université Côte d'Azur ethical committee (CER) since January 2024.

11.2.1 Teaching

• Master2 Ubinet: Chadi Barakat and Walid Dabbous, Evolving Internet, 21 hours.
• Master2 Ubinet: Arnaud Legout, From BitTorrent to Privacy, 15 hours.
• Master2 Estel - Electronics and Telecommunications Systems: Chadi Barakat, Voice over IP, 6 hours.
• Master1 Computer Science: Chadi Barakat, Computer Networks, 12 hours.
• Master1 Computer Science: Chadi Barakat, Advanced Computer Networks, 12 hours.
• MinesParis-PSL: Thierry Parmentelat has been heavily involved in the reformation of the Computer Science program, that he teaches to the first year students of "Cycle des ingénieurs civils" (Python, git, Web, Data Science).
• Eurecom: Arnaud Legout, AWARE (Awarness-Raising to research), last year students (equivalent to M2), 5 hours
• Eurecom: Arnaud Legout, ComEng (Communication for engineers), 1st year students (equivalent L3), 21 hours
• MOOCs: Arnaud Legout and Thierry Parmentelat are co-authors of the MOOC : “Python 3 : des fondamentaux aux concepts avancés du langage” that lasts 9 weeks on FUN, funded by Université Côte d'Azur. This MOOC has been running since 2014; it was innovative in its form at the time, since it leveraged Jupyter notebooks as a medium for complementing videos, which provides for a hands-on experience and self-correcting exercises. More than 100k persons have subscribed over time, out of which about 10k have received a success badge.
• SLICES Academy is a platform supporting the community by fostering knowledge and engagement of users of testbed facilities with future Internet technologies, including networking, cloud computing, wireless connectivity, and AI/ML. In addition to his involvement in defining the SLICES-RI post-5G blueprint, Damien Saucez delivered two online classes as part of the SLICES Academy: the "SLICES Blueprint" class teaches step by step how to deploy the Post-5G blueprint and the "Kubernetes Clusters for Operators" classes explains how to deploy a Kubernetes cluster dedicated to telecom workload.

11.2.2 Supervision

11.2.3 Juries

• Chadi Barakat served as president and examiner of Olga Chuchuk PhD thesis "Data access optimisation at CERN and in the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG)", defended in February 2024 at CERN, Switzerland.
• Walid Dabbous served as president of the HDR Defense Committee (Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches) for Christelle Caouillet at Université Côte d'Azur, where she presented her research titled "Modeling and Optimizing Wireless Networks: FANET and LoRaWAN" in March 2024.
• Walid Dabbous served as president of the PhD Defense Committee for Angelo Rodio at Université Côte d'Azur, where he presented his research titled "Client Heterogeneity in Federated Learning Systems" in July 2024.
• Walid Dabbous served as member of the second year PhD monitoring committee (CSI) for Anderson Lourenço de Araujo at Université Côte d'Azur in September 2024. The thesis is co-supervised by Luc Deneire and Guillaume Urvoy-Keller.
• Arnaud Legout served as member of the first year PhD monitoring committee (CSI) for Francesco Diana at Université Côte d'Azur in September 2024. The thesis is co-supervised by Giovanni Neglia and Chuan Xu.
• Thierry Turletti served as reviewer of Abderaouf Khichane PhD thesis entitled "Diagnostic of performance by data interpretation and corrective actions for 5G cloud-native network functions" defended on March 2024 at Paris Saclay University.

11.3.1 Specific official responsibilities in science outreach structures

Participants: Damien Saucez, Walid Dabbous.

Terra Numerica is a large-scale unifying project aimed at promoting digital science culture. It is led by CNRS, Inria and the Université Côte d'Azur and brings together a wide range of partners, including the French National Education system (notably the Regional Academic Directorate for Digital Education). Terra Numerica has developed an original, engaging and unique framework for dissemination, collaboration, and interaction among digital science stakeholders. This includes an iconic hub for promoting digital science culture, Terra Numerica@Sophia, a network of Partner Spaces throughout the Sud region, as well as outreach initiatives and online activities. The original workshops held in these spaces offer a way to engage science in a fun and enjoyable manner. DIANA members are actively involved in science popularization through Terra Numerica, frequently organizing activities for school classes visiting the center. In addition, project team members play a key role in the CHICHE program, visiting high schools to inspire and encourage students to pursue higher education in scientific fields.

11.3.2 Others science outreach relevant activities

Our project-team is actively involved in initiatives targeting both schools and the general public, with a particular focus on fostering gender diversity in scientific research:

• School Outreach through the Chiche Program: Researchers visit high schools to encourage students of all genders and backgrounds to pursue scientific studies.
• 9th Grade Student Visits: The team hosts 9th graders, introducing them to their research activities to spark scientific interest among a wide demographic.

International journals

• 9 articleH.Houssam Elbouanani, C.Chadi Barakat, W.Walid Dabbous and T.Thierry Turletti. Fidelity-aware Large-scale Distributed Network Emulation.Computer NetworksMay 2024HALDOIback to text
• 10 articleH.Houssam Elbouanani, C.Chadi Barakat, W.Walid Dabbous and T.Thierry Turletti. Troubleshooting Distributed Network Emulation.Annals of Telecommunications - annales des télécommunications79AprilFebruary 2024, 227–239HALDOIback to text
• 11 articleA.Anuj Kaul, K.Katia Obraczka, R.Ramon dos Reis Fontes and T.Thierry Turletti. D4: Dynamic, Decentralized, Distributed, Delegation-Based Network Control and Its Applications to Autonomous Vehicles.ACM Journal on Autonomous Transportation Systems2024. In press. HALback to text

International peer-reviewed conferences

• 12 inproceedingsN.Naomi Kirimi, C.Chadi Barakat and Y.Yassine Hadjadj-Aoul. Passive network monitoring and troubleshooting from within the browser: a data-driven approach.IWCMC 2024 - 20th International Wireless Communications & Mobile Computing ConferenceAyia Napa, Cyprus2024, 1-6HALback to text
• 13 inproceedingsR. U.Raza Ul Mustafa, C.Chadi Barakat and C. E.Christian Esteve Rothenberg. YouTube goes 5G: QoE Benchmarking and ML-based Stall Prediction.IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC)Dubai, United Arab EmiratesApril 2024HALback to text
• 14 inproceedingsD.Damien Saucez, S.Sebastian Gallenmüller, R.Raymond Knopp, N.Nikos Makris and S.Serge Fdida. Blueprint-based reproducible research with the SLICES Research Infrastructure.IEEE INFOCOM 2024 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS)Vancouver, BC, CanadaIEEEAugust 2024, 01-02HALDOIback to textback to text
• 15 inproceedingsB.Bernard Tamba Sandouno, C.Chadi Barakat, T.Thierry Turletti and W.Walid Dabbous. Optimizing Ray Tracing Techniques for Generating Large-Scale 3D Radio Frequency Maps.WoWMoM 2024 - 25th IEEE International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia NetworksPerth, AustraliaJune 2024HALback to text

Doctoral dissertations and habilitation theses

• 16 thesisB. T.Bernard Tamba Sandouno. Enhancing outdoor radio frequency mapping with Ray Tracing techniques.Université Côte d'AzurJune 2024HALback to textback to text

Reports & preprints

• 17 reportS.Stefano Lioce. Technical report of RIS-aided communication.DIANA, Centre INRIA d'Université Côte d'AzurSeptember 2024HALback to text
• 18 reportD.Damien Saucez and L.Luigi Iannone. Locator/ID Separation Protocol Delegated Database Tree (LISP-DDT).IETFNovember 2024HALback to text
• 19 miscN.Nicolas Schnepf, R.Rémi Badonnel, D.Damien Saucez, J.Jiri Sbara and S.Stephan Schmid. Towards Vulnerability and Congestion Aware Software Update Synthesis for Softwarized Networks.January 2025HALback to text

Other scientific publications

• 20 miscD.Damien Saucez. A blueprint for the new research instrument.January 2024HALback to text
• 21 miscD.Damien Saucez. How the SLICES research instrument leverages OAI to reach reproducible research.September 2024HALback to text
• 22 miscD.Damien Saucez and N.Nikos Makris. Thought experiments, data and reproducibility for networking and FutureG research: Hackathon.June 2024HALback to text
• 23 miscD.Damien Saucez, R.Roberto Trasarti and B.Bartosz Belter. Integrated Support of Large Scale Research Instruments.June 2024HALback to text