HomeZdenek Becvar

Zdenek Becvar

Full professor

Research areas: Mobility management, Radio resource management, Flying base stations/UAVs, Edge computing, C-RAN, Machine learning

PHONE NUMBER
+420 2 2435 5964
EMAIL ADDRESS
zdenek.becvar@fel.cvut.cz

Career in numbers

Biography

Zdenek Becvar received M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Telecommunication Engineering from the Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic in 2005 and 2010, respectively. Now, he is the Full Professor at the Department of Telecommunication Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic. From 2006 to 2007, he joined Sitronics R&D centre in Prague focusing on speech quality in VoIP. Furthermore, he was involved in research activities of Vodafone R&D center at Czech Technical University in Prague in 2009. He was on internships at Budapest Politechnic, Hungary (2007), CEA-Leti, France (2013), and EURECOM, France (2016, 2019, 2023). He has participated in many European and national research projects focused on mobile networks. From 2013 to 2017, he was a representative of the Czech Technical University in Prague in ETSI and 3GPP standardization organizations. In 2017, he has been elevated to IEEE Senior member grade.

He serves as an Editor in IEEE Wireless Communications Letters journal and he also acts as a review for many prestigious journals. He is a member of more than 30 program committees at international conferences and workshops including flagship conferences, such as IEEE ICC, Globecom, WCNC, VTC, etc. He published more than 100 conference and journal papers and he is (co-)inventor of four US patents.

He is recipient of the best paper award at European Wireless 2017, bronze medal at ACM Mobicom App contest 2015, and the Exemplary reviewer and the Best Editor awards from IEEE Wireless Communications Letters in 2020 and 2024, respectively. Since 2019, he is included in the list of 2% top Scientists published by Stanford University.

He has successfully supervised more than 40 master and bachelor students and four PhD students, out of which, five master and three PhD students received the deans award for their theses. One student received the rector’s award for excellent dissertation. Under his (co-)supervision, students developed demos of drone acting as a flying base station, channel quality prediction based on machine learning, remote robot control via 5G, and autonomous vehicle communicating via 5G.

He works on development of solutions for future mobile networks with special focus on optimization of radio resource management, mobility support, device-to-device communication, self-optimization, architecture of radio access network (including small cells, UAVs, MEC, and C-RAN), application of machine learning to wireless networks.

Publications, patents, and demos

Zdenek is author of more than 100 papers at international conferences and in peer-reviewed journals, four book chapters, and four patents.
Selected publications

  • , and ,“Offloading of Tasks with Tight Delay Requirements via Combined Half and Full Duplex UAV Relays”, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technologies, volume 73, no. 9, . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • , , , and ,“Machine Learning for Channel Quality Prediction: From Concept to Experimental Validation”, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, volume Early access, . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • , , and ,“Coordinated Machine Learning for Energy Efficient D2D Communication”, IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, volume 13, no. 5, . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • , and ,“Optimization of Cell Individual Offset for Handover of Flying Base Stations and Users”, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, volume 22, no. 5, . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • and ,“Maximization of Minimum User Capacity in UAV-Enabled Mobile Networks with NOMA”, IEEE Networking Letters, volume 5, no. 1, . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • , and ,“On Energy Consumption of Airship-based Flying Base Stations Serving Mobile Users”, IEEE Transactions on Communications, volume 70, no. 10, . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • and ,“Optimization of Total Power Consumed by Flying Base Station Serving Mobile Users”, IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, volume 9, no. 4, . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • , , and , “System and Methods for Device-to-Device Communication”, US patent No. US11284361B2, . [BibTex]
  • , and ,“Power Allocation, Channel Reuse, and Positioning of Flying Base Stations with Realistic Backhaul”, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, volume 9, no. 3, . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • and , “Optimal Positioning of Flying Base Stations and Transmission Power Allocation in NOMA Networks”, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, volume 21, no. 2, . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • , and , “Reuse of Multiple Channels by Multiple D2D Pairs in Dedicated Mode: Game Theoretic Approach”, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, volume 20, no. 7, . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • , , and ,“Positioning and Association Rules for Transparent Flying Relay Stations”, IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, volume 10, no. 6, . [BibTex] [pdf]
  • and , “Optimization of Cell Individual Offset for Handover of Flying Base Station”, IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference (IEEE VTC-Spring 2021), . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • , , and , “Hierarchical Scheduling for Suppression of Fronthaul Delay in C-RAN with Dynamic Functional Split”, IEEE Communications Magazine, volume 59, no. 4, . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • , , and , “Dynamic Allocation of Computing and Communication Resources in Multi-Access Edge Computing for Mobile Users”, IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • , and ,“Incentive-based D2D Relaying in Cellular Networks”, IEEE Transactions on Communications, volume 69, no. 3, . [BibTex] [pdf]
  • and , “Hierarchical resource scheduling method of wireless communication system”, US patent US10849139B2, . [BibTex]
  • , , and ,“Predicting Device-to-Device Channels from Cellular Channel Measurements: A Learning Approach”, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, volume 19, no. 11, . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • , and ,“Deep Learning for Selection between RF and VLC Bands in Device-to-Device Communication”, IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, volume 9, no. 10, . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • and , “Methods and devices for resource scheduling in wireless communication systems”, US patent US10798722B2, . [BibTex]
  • , , and , “Hierarchical resource scheduling method of wireless communication system”, US patent US10624105B2, . [BibTex]
  • , , , and ,“Two-Phase Random Access Procedure for LTE-A Networks”, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, volume 18, no. 4, . [BibTex]
  • , and ,“Resource Allocation for D2D Communication with Multiple D2D Pairs Reusing Multiple Channels”, IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, volume 8, no. 4, . [BibTex]
  • , , , and , “Joint Positioning of Flying Base Stations and Association of Users: Evolutionary-Based Approach”, IEEE Access, volume 7, . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • , and ,“Adaptive Hysteresis Margin Based on Fuzzy Logic for Handover in Mobile Networks with Dense Small Cells”, IEEE Access, volume 6, . [BibTex]
  • , and ,“Modeling of Distributed Queueing-based Random Access for Machine Type Communications in Mobile Networks”, IEEE Communications Letters, volume 22, no. 1, . [BibTex]
  • and ,“Energy-aware Dynamic Selection of Overlay and Underlay Spectrum Sharing for Cognitive Small cells”, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, volume 66, no. 5, . [BibTex]
  • , , , and , “Performance of Mobile Networks with UAVs: Can Flying Base Stations Substitute Ultra-Dense Small Cells?”, European Wireless (EW 2017), , BEST PAPER AWARD. [BibTex] [pdf]
  • and ,“Mobile Edge Computing: A Survey on Architecture and Computation Offloading”, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, volume 19, no. 3, . [BibTex]
  • , and , “Path Selection Enabling User Mobility and Efficient Distribution of Data for Computation at the Edge of Mobile Network”, Computer Networks, volume 108, . [BibTex] [pdf] [doi]
  • and ,“Distance-based Neighborhood Scanning for Handover Purposes in Network with Small Cells”, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, volume 65, no. 2, . [BibTex] [doi]

    Patents

    Demos

    • Autonomous vehicle with offloading to MEC via 5G/6G

      • Autnomous vehicle is represented by a model of car implemented by students (Adam Janes, Jan Danek)
      • Offloading via 5G based on OAI (implemented by student Anastas Nikolov)
      • Experiments with offloading of vehicular apps (road sign recognition, path selection, obstacle detection,…)
        • road sign recognition – Jan Danek
        • path selection, obstacle detection – Adam Janes
        • offloading decision – Anastas Nikolov
      • Related publications and demos
      • Role: Design the concept and scenarios, experimental setup, support for experiments
    • Remote control of robots (with TU Munich)

      • Robot located in Munich (at TUM) ctrolled via haptic controler from Prague
      • Experiments with qualit of remote robot control via boarders
        • lab interconnection, robot control integration and testing – E. Babaians (TUM), P. Gorla (6Gm@CTU), S. Ayvasik (TUM),
        • initial interconnection of our lab with TUM lab – Jan Plachy
      • Related publications and demos
      • Role: Outline the idea, support for experiments
    • D2D channel quality prediction via Deep Neural Network

      • Prediction of channel quality between any two devices from already known channels to base stations
      • Channel is predicted via deep neural network (DNN)
        • DNN trained offline and then deployed at a MEC server, where the prediction takes place
      • Implementation lead by Jan Plachy
      • Related publications
        • M. Najla, Z. Becvar, P. Mach, D. Gesbert, “Predicting Device-to-Device Channels from Cellular Channel Measurements: A Learning Approach”, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 19, no. 11, pp. 7124 – 7138, 2020.
          • Details of the concept of the channel prediction
        • M. Najla, Z. Becvar, P. Mach, D. Gesbert, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DEVICE-TO-DEVICE COMMUNICATION, U.S. Non-Provisional Application No. 16/919,990, 2020.
          • Patent application covering the idea of channel prediction
      • Role: Design the concept and scenarios, experimental setup, design of solution, presentation and interpretation of results
    • Flying base station
      • Prototype of Flying base station (FlyBS)
      • The FlyBS consists of a drone (hexacopter) and a communication HW (NUC+USRP B205) + SW (OAI) for connectivity of the users and an LTE dongle for connectivity to a base station.
      • Implementation lead by Miguel Fontanilla Perez de Tudela (alumni)
      • Related publications
        • Video from an initial flight.
      • Role: concept design, supervision of students working on the development
    • Mobile Edge Computing
      • One of the first world-wide demo of functional MEC platform allowing to offload computation from phone to edge server collocated with a base station in frame of FP7 TROPIC project
      • Implementaiton lead by Jakub Doleza (alumni) and Jan Plachy
      • Related publications:
        • J. Dolezal, Z. Becvar, T. Zeman, “Performance Evaluation of Computation Offloading from Mobile Device to the Edge of Mobile Network”, IEEE Conference on Standards for Communications & Networking (IEEE CSCN 2016), pp. 1-7, 2016.
        • Third place in Mobicom 2015 App Contest with Android application Percipio for demonstration of MEC offloading performance
        • J. Dolezal, Z. Becvar, “Methodology and tool for energy consumption modeling of mobile devices”, IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (IEEE WCNC 2014) workshops, pp. 34-39, 2014.
        • Demo at Joint ETSI – OSA Workshop: Open Implementations and Standardization in 2018.
    Research projects
    • MUSE-COM2 (AI-enabled MUltimodal SEmantic COMmunications and COMputing(10/2023 – 09/2026)
      •  European project is funded in frame of CHIST-ERA Call 2022 via Technology Agency of Czech Republic (TACR)
      • Partners: EURECOM (Data science department), France; University of Oulu (Centre for Wireless Communications), Finland; Robert Bosch spol s r. o. (New Technology department, Ceske Budejovice), Czech Republic
      • main role: project coordinator
    • Intelligent Radio Resource and Mobility Management based on Federated Learning (01/2023 – 12/2025)
      • funded by the Czech Science Foundation (GACR)
      • main role: principal investigator, work on mobility management, AI/ML control and cooperation
    • Wireless data transmission in Bosch: Testing SW defined 5G in Industry (12/2022 – 03/2024)
      • funded by BOSCH Ceske Budejovice (RBCB CZ)
      • main role: principal investigator, development of the concept, management of platform integration
    • Predictive allocation of edge computing resources for autonomous driving (07/2022 – 06/2025)
    • Cooperation with the International Research Centre in Area of Digital Communication Systems (03/2020 – 12/2024)
      • funded by The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports supports membership of CTU in EURECOM and international collaboration in the area of communication systems
      • main roles: principal researcher, machine learning for network optimization
    • Remote Control of Robot in Inter-connected 5G Testbeds in Prague and Munich  (12/2022 – 10/2023)
      • funded by the Bavarian-Czech Academic Agency
      • main roles: principal researcher (at CTU), management, supervision of students
    • Precise positioning for autonomous train operation with secure communications on new 5G+ mobile networks (01/2020 – 12/2023)
      • Research project no. FW01010187 funded by Technology Agency of Czech Republic
      • main roles: Performance analysis of 5G for communication of autonomous trains
    • Communication in Self-optimizing Mobile Networks with Drones (01/2018 – 06/2021)
      • funded by Czech Science Foundation
      • main roles: principal researcher, positioning of the flying base station and users’ association based on genetic algorithms
    • Cooperation with the International Research Centre in Area of Digital Communication Systems (01/2018 – 12/2019)
      • funded by The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports supports membership of CTU in EURECOM and international collaboration in the area of communication systems
      • main roles: principal researcher, machine learning for communication networks
    • Combined Radio Frequency and Visible Light Bands for Device-to-Device communication (01/2017 – 12/2019)
      • funded by Czech Science Foundation
      • main roles: performance limits, mobility management, mode selection
    • Mobile Edge Computing and Functional Splitting for Scheduling of Radio Resources (10/2016-09/2019)
      • Research project funded by FOXCONN, Taiwan
      • main roles: principal researcher, design and analysis of dynamic MAC functions splitting between BBUs and RRHs
    • Game theoretic aspects of wireless spectrum access (07/2016 – 06/2018)
      • funded by Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of Czech Republic
      • main roles: leader of CTU team, resource allocation, spectrum sharing, emulation of network
    • FP7 TROPIC (09/2012 – 04/2015)
      • funded by European Commission
      • main roles: WP leader (Scenarios, Architecture, and Market Analysis), architecture design, path selection, developent of AR application
    • Prediction Algorithms for Efficient Mobility Management in Wireless Networks (01/2011 – 12/2014)
      • postdoc project funded by Czech Science Foundation
      • main roles: principal researcher, design of prediction algorithms for mobility management (NCL, admission, handover) in future mobile networks
    • FP7 FREEDOM (01/2010 – 12/2011)
      • FP7 project no. ICT-248891 funded by European Commission
      • main roles: Workpackage leader (Control procedures for RRM), Member of coordination and technical project committees, mobility and radio resource management for networks with femtocells, leader of CTU team
    • FP7 ROCKET (01/2009 – 12/2010)
      • FP7 project no. ICT-215282 funded by European Commission
      • main roles: mobility management for OFDMA networks towards IMT Advanced requirements, leader of CTU team
    • Feasibility study of national radio access network based on WiMAX (09/2007 – 12/2007)
      • National project funded by Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic.
    • FP7 FIREWORKS (01/2006 – 12/2007)
      • FP6 project no. IST-027675 funded by European Commission.
      • main roles: PhD student focused on relay stations in OFDM systems
    • Improvement of VoIP speech quality (01/2006-12/2007)
      • Project funded by Sitronics R&D centre, Prague.
      • main roles: Analysis of impact of various disturbtions on VoIP speech quality
    Awards

    Personal awards

    Conferences

    PhD theses

    Master and bachelor students

    • Dean’s award for outstanding master thesis to Tomas Sap (2022)
    • Dean’s award for outstanding master thesis to Martina Matejkova (2019)
    • Dean’s award for outstanding master thesis to Martin Charvat (2018)
    • Dean’s award for outstanding master thesis to Yi-Shin Huang (2017)
    • Dean’s award for outstanding master thesis to Jan Plachy (2014)
    Standardization bodies
    • ETSI – representative of Czech Technical University in Prague, 2013-2017
    • 3GPP – contributor and representative of Czech Technical University in Prague, 2013-2017
    Journal reviews
    • IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
    • IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing
    • IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology
    • IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management
    • IEEE Transactions on Communications
    • IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering
    • IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing
    • IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics
    • IEEE Transactions on ITS
    • IEEE Internet of Things Journal
    • IEEE Communications Magazine
    • IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine
    • IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine
    • IEEE Network Magazine
    • IEEE Wireless Communications Letters
    • IEEE Communications Letters
    • IEEE Networking Letters
    • IEEE Systems journal
    • Computer Networks
    • … and many others
    Editorial boards
    • IEEE Wireless Communications Letters (since 12/2021)
    • Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing (since 2018)
    • KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (2015-2021)
    Conference committees
    • IEEE Globecom 2023 – TPC member
    • IEEE WCNC 2023 – TPC member
    • IEEE PIMRC 2023 – TPC member
    • IEEE ICC 2023 – TPC member
    • IEEE Globecom 2022 – TPC member
    • IEEE PIMRC 2022 – Worskhop CLEEN – Publicity chair and TPC member
    • IEEE WCNC 2022 – TPC member
    • IEEE ICC 2022 – TPC member
    • EuCNC & 6G summit 2022 – TPC member and Workshops Co-Chair
    • IEEE Globecom 2021 – TPC member
    • IEEE WCNC 2021 – TPC member
    • IEEE ICC 2021 – TPC member
    • IEEE Globecom 2020 – TPC member
    • IEEE PIMRC 2020 – TPC member
    • IEEE ICC 2020 workshop CLEEN – Publicity chair & TPC member
    • IEEE Globecom 2019 – TPC member
    • IEEE WCNC 2019 – TPC member
    • IEEE WCNC 2019 workshop CLEEN – Publicity chair & TPC member
    • IEEE VTC 2019 – Spring – TPC member
    • IEEE VTC 2018 – Spring – TPC member
    • IEEE WCNC 2018 – TPC member
    • ICUFN 2018 – Organizing Chair
    • IEEE VTC 2018 – Spring workshop CLEEN – Publicity chair & TPC member
    • IEEE CloudNet 2017 – General co-chair
    • IEEE Globecom 2017: Mobile and Wireless Networks track – TPC member
    • IEEE ICC 2017 workshop WDN-5G – TPC member
    • IEEE WCNC 2017 – TPC member
    • IWCMC 2017 – Steering committee
    • IGBSG 2016 – Track Chair
    • IEEE VTC 2015-Spring
    • IEEE WCNC 2015 workshop WDN-CN’15 – TPC member
    • ISNCC 2015 – TPC member
    • ISNE 2015 – TPC member
    • IEEE GLOBECOM 2014 workshop Broadband Wireless Access – Publicity chair & TPC
    • IEEE PIMRC 2014 workshop WDN-CN2014 – TPC member
    • IEEE WCNC 2014 workshop CLEEN – TPC member
    • IEEE PIMRC 2013 – TPC member
    • IEEE PIMRC 2013 workshop WDN-CN2013 – TPC member
    • IEEE VTC-Fall 2013 workshop CLEEN (Cloud Technologies…) – TPC member
    • IFIP Networking 2012, Prague, May 2012, Organizing committee – Workshop Chair
    • International Conference on Networks, TPC since 2008
    • TPC of various conferences organized by AICIT
    Supervised postdocs
    Supervised PhD students
    Teaching and academic activities
    University committees
    • Member of Scientific council at Faculty of Electrical Engineering, CTU in Prague
    • Member of Scientific council at EURECOM, France
    • Deputy chair of the board for Telecommunication Engineering section in Electrical Engineering and Communications PhD study program
    • Coordinator of master’s double-degree with NTUST, Taiwan
    • Coordinator of master’s double-degree with EURECOM, France
    • Member of board of Electronics and Communications study program at CTU in Prague
    Supervisor of master and bachelor students
    • More than 40 master students
    • Four bachelor students
    Currently taught courses
    • Mobile Networks  (B2M32MKSA)
    • Wireless Technologies  (B2M32BTSA)
    • Data Networks Theory (A8B32DNT)
    Past courses
    • Mobile Communication Networks  (A2M32MKS)
    • Telecommunication systems (X32TSS)
    • Fundamentals of Digital Technology (X32ZCT)
    • Wireless Technologies and Sensor Networks  (B2M32BTS)