COST

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is one of the longest-running European instruments supporting cooperation among scientists and researchers across Europe. Prof. Dr. Xin is currently serving on Management Committee Board of Denmark for several COST projects in the ICT domain including IC1304, TD1207, IC1101, IC1004, IC0906, and IC0902.

IC1304 is an ICT project on Autonomous Control for a Reliable Internet of Services. Currently, we are witnessing a paradigm shift from the traditional information-oriented Internet into an Internet of Services (IoS). This transition opens up virtually unbounded possibilities for creating and deploying new services. Eventually, the ICT landscape will migrate into a global system where new services are essentially large-scale service chains, combining and integrating the functionality of (possibly huge) numbers of other services offered by third parties, including cloud services. At the same time, as our modern society is becoming more and more dependent on ICT, these developments raise the need for effective means to ensure quality and reliability of the services running in such a complex environment. Motivated by this, the aim of this Action is to create a European network of experts, from both academia and industry, aiming at the development of autonomous control methods and algorithms for a reliable and quality-aware IoS.

TD1207 is an ICT project on Mathematical Optimization in the Decision Support Systems for Efficient and Robust Energy Networks. Energy Production and Distribution (EP&D) is among the biggest challenges of our time, since energy is a scarce resource whose efficient production and fair distribution is associated with many technical, economical, political and ethical issues like environmental protection and people health. EP&D networks have rapidly increased their size and complexity, e.g. with the introduction and interconnection of markets within the EU. Thus, there is an increasing need of systems supporting the operational, regulatory and design decisions through a highly inter-disciplinary approach, where experts of all the concerned fields contribute to the definition of appropriate mathematical models. This is particularly challenging because these models require the simultaneous use of many different mathematical optimization tools and the verification by experts of the underlying engineering and financial issues. The COST framework is instrumental for this project to be able to coordinate the inter-disciplinary efforts of scientists and industrial players at the EU level.

IC1101 is an ICT project on Optical Wireless Communications. Wireless transmission via optical carriers opens doors of opportunity in areas as yet largely unexplored. Offering significant technical and operational advantages, optical wireless communication (OWC) can be, in some applications, a powerful alternative to and, in others, complementary to existing radio frequency (RF) wireless systems. Variations of OWC can be employed in a diverse range of communication applications ranging from very short-range (on the order of millimetres) optical interconnects within integrated circuits through outdoor inter-building links (on the order of kilometres) to satellite links (larger than 10,000 kilometres). In many respects, OWC research is still in its infancy and calls for extensive research to begin to harness the enormous potential of the optical spectrum. This COST Action will serve as a high-profile consolidated European scientific platform for interdisciplinary OWC research activities, spanning from characterization of diverse propagation media to modeling, design and development of devices, components, algorithms/protocols and systems. It will make significant contributions to the fundamental scientific understanding, technical knowledge, engineering design and applications while promoting community awareness of this emerging field. Development of novel and efficient communication technologies resulting from integrated research activities made possible through this Action will be a significant enabler for future-generation heterogeneous communication networks supporting a wide range of wireless services/applications.

IC1004 is an ICT project on Cooperative Radio Communications for Green Smart Environments (GSEs). This Action addresses research issues in the field of cooperative radio communications to make our society cleaner, safer, and more energy efficient. The main objective of this project is to increase knowledge of cooperative communications applied to GSEs, by exploring and developing new methods, models, techniques, strategies and tools, in a context enriched by deep industry-academia links.

IC0906 is an ICT project on Wireless Networking for Moving Objects. The main objective of this Action is to advance the state-of-the-art concerning networking aspects of scenarios integrating moving objects of the most varied kinds, ranging from personal use devices to sensors, into the Internet of the Future. In particular, the Action will coordinate the development of new algorithms, techniques, protocols models and tools that will facilitate the integration of moving objects into pervasive and ambient communications. The Internet of the Future will incorporate a large number of autonomous wireless objects moving with diverse patterns and speeds while communicating via several radio interfaces. Examples of such objects may include humans, cars or unmanned aerial vehicles, with every object acting as a networking device generating, relaying and/or absorbing data. Achieving the Internet of the Future, will require global interoperability amongst objects/devices, not typically common place due to inherent features of today’s Internet. To overcome the current shortcomings, a number of research challenges have to be addressed in the area of networking, including protocol engineering, development of applications and services, as well as realistic use-cases. The Action will increase the knowledge and coordinate research efforts of national and international projects in the area of Wireless Networking for Moving Objects (WiNeMO). Its activity will foster wide dissemination of research results, serving as an internationally recognized reference point through capacity building of WiNeMO stakeholders offering appropriate networking opportunities to early-stage researchers. The results will be also demonstrated through joint living labs and show cases for researchers, decision makers and public exhibitions.

IC0902 is an ICT project on Cognitive Radio and Networking for Cooperative Coexistence of Heterogeneous Wireless Networks. The main objective of this Action is to integrate the cognitive concept across all layers of communication systems, resulting in the definition of a European platform for cognitive radio and networks.