Beyond Connectivity: Paving the Road to Perceptive and Intelligent Networks
This talk will outline the motivation behind perceptive and intelligent large-scale networks, highlight the technological pillars driving their development, and discuss the key challenges that must be addressed.
Overview
The evolution of wireless networks is entering a new era, moving beyond mere data connectivity to systems that can perceive, reason, and adapt to their environments. Perceptive and intelligent networks are envisioned to integrate communication, sensing, and computing capabilities to deliver context-aware, reliable, and sustainable connectivity. Such networks will not only transfer information but also interpret the physical and digital worlds, enabling applications ranging from autonomous mobility and immersive extended reality to critical infrastructure monitoring and global situational awareness. Achieving this vision requires rethinking traditional architectures and embracing enablers such as joint communication and sensing, artificial intelligence, multi-modal data fusion, edge intelligence, and non-terrestrial integration. This talk will outline the motivation behind perceptive and intelligent large-scale networks, highlight the technological pillars driving their development, and discuss the key challenges that must be addressed.
Presenters
Hesham ElSawy, Associate Professor, School of Computing, Queen’s University
Brief Biography
Hesham ElSawy (IEEE Senior Member) is an associate professor at the School of Computing, Queen’s University, ON. He received his Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, in 2014. Prior to joining Queen’s he was an assistant professor with King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, a postdoctoral fellow with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, a research assistant with TRTech, Winnipeg, and a telecommunication engineer with the National Telecommunication Institute, Cairo, Egypt. Dr. Elsawy received several academic awards including the IEEE COMSOC Outstanding Young Researcher Award for Europe, Middle East, and Africa Region in 2018, the IEEE COMSOC best tutorial paper award in 2020, the IEEE COMSOC best survey paper award in 2017, and the Early Career Researcher Award, KFUPM in 2020/2021. He is also recognized as an exemplary editor and reviewer by several IEEE journals. His research focuses on developing theoretical foundations and fundamental results for modeling, analysis, and optimization of large-scale complex networks.
