Abstract: 

Self-driving cars, smart cities and Industry 4.0 are about to become a reality and wireless communication technologies, such as 5G, are expected to help realize the vision of a fully connected world. In order to support wide range of services, communication networks require not only innovative wireless technologies but also new approaches to network deployment and management. Due to growing number of nodes and increasing network complexity, automating parameter configuration is a must to ensure efficient network operation. These approaches often rely on data analysis, machine learning and optimization techniques.

This talk will introduce network management fundamentals and guide the audience through sample use cases. It will then discuss the concept of Self-Organising Network (SON) together with its enablers. Finally, current challenges and trends in network automation will be indicated.

Bio: 

Anna Zakrzewska is a research scientist at Nokia Bell Labs in Dublin, Ireland. Her main research interests are in the area of wireless communications and focus on self-organising networks, which greatly benefit from data analytics and machine learning. Several of her patented network management mechanisms are used to automate configuration of millions of small cells and Wi-Fi access points around the world. Anna holds M.Sc. Eng. degree in information and communication technology from Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland and Ph.D. degree from Technical University of Denmark. Prior to that she was with NTT Communication Science Laboratories in Japan and European Commission Joint Research Centre in Italy. She is a Senior Member of IEEE. Anna enjoys speaking about technology and often participates in STEM outreach activities.