School of Physics, Engineering and Technology
Professor David Grace MEng, DPhil (York) Senior MIEEE, MIET
Professor (Research), Head of Communication Technologies Research Group, Co-Director of York - Zhejiang Lab for Cognitive Radio and Green Communications, Guest Professor Zhejiang University
Email: david.grace@york.ac.uk
Homepage: http://www.davidgrace.info
Tel: +44 (0)1904 32 2396
Research Area: Communication Technologies Group
Areas of Expertise:Intelligent Networks, including Cognitive Radio, Radio Resource Management, Topology Management, Wireless Architecture Design, Wireless Systems, High Altitude Platform Systems
Biography
Biography
David Grace received his PhD from University of York in 1999, with the subject of his thesis being
‘Distributed Dynamic Channel Assignment for the Wireless Environment’. He has been a member of
staff at the University since 1994 and he is now Professor (Research). He leads the Communication
Technologies Discovery Theme and Challenging Environments Translational Theme within School of
Physics, Engineering and Technology. He is also Director of the Centre for High Altitude Platform
Applications and pillar lead for Advanced Communications within Institute for Safe Autonomy.
Current research interests include non-terrestrial networks, aerial platform-based communications,
application of artificial intelligence to wireless communications; 6G system architectures; dynamic
spectrum access and interference management. He is currently leads the EPSRC HiQ project,
developing quantum key distribution via high altitude platforms. He is a recent lead investigator on
H2020 MCSA SPOTLIGHT, UK Government funded MANY, dealing with 5G trials in rural areas. He
was technical lead on the 14-partner FP6 CAPANINA project that dealt with broadband
communications from high altitude platforms. He is an author of over 280 papers, and author/editor
of 2 books. He is the former chair of IEEE Technical Committee on Cognitive Networks for the period
2013/4. He is a founding member of the IEEE Technical Committee on Green Communications and
Computing. From 2014-8 he was a non-executive director of Stratospheric Platforms Ltd. In 2000,
he jointly founded SkyLARC Technologies Ltd, and was one of its directors.
Teaching
Selected Activities At York
2009 – onwards Taught MSc Project Supervisor for team based project
Lectures on University of York Postgraduate MSc Communications Engineering programme, for:
2007 – 2008 Emerging Technologies: Cognitive Radio (1 lecture)
2006 – 2008 Emerging Technologies: High Altitude Platforms (2 lectures)
Lecturer on University of York Postgraduate IGDS programme, for:
2000 – 2005 Wireless Information Systems
– Lecture Future Wireless Systems
2000 Spectrum Management
– Lectures Distributed Dynamic Channel Assignment
High Altitude Platforms,
Model Development Using OPNET
Selected National and International Activities
Lecturer on COST IC0902 / ICT-ACROPOLIS / COST-TERRA Summer School, Application of Cognitive Radio and Spectrum Sharing to Energy Saving, Kings College London, July 2013
CORNET Short Course on Cognitive Communications, Israel, a 3 day intensive course that took place in June 2011. I was the course leader, responsible for development of the overall curriculum, as well as specific courses.
York – Zhejiang Summer School on Cognitive Communications, a 7 day intensive Summer School that took place from 25-31 October 2010, with Research Councils UK funding. Joint leader, responsible for 8 other lecturers, and responsible for development of the overall curriculum, as well as specific courses.
Invited Tutorial: Delivering Communications Services from High Altitude Platforms, ASMS’06, Herrsching, Germany, 29 May 2006
Tutorial Leader at IEEE International Conference on Communications, New York on ‘Broadband Communications from High Altitude Platforms’. IEEE ICC is one of the most prestigious conferences on communications, 2002.
Research
Research Interests
Application of artificial intelligence to radio resource and network topology management for
mixed wireless systems, including vehicular networks and 6G systems.
Radio resource management in general including, dynamic spectrum access, cognitive radio,
coexistence and spectrum sharing, application of economics to spectrum assignment, and
distributed dynamic channel assignment, including specialist knowledge of their application
to non-terrestrial networks, including high altitude platforms and wireless ad hoc networks.
System level design, interference studies and mitigation techniques for mixed wireless
systems, incorporating current and future standards.
Future backhaul/fronthaul architectures, including cloud RAN; Software Defined Networking
and Network Function Virtualisation.
Ongoing and Previous Projects and Activities
Radio Networks
- ITwins: July 2022 – December 2023 Co-investigator for an EPSRC IAA Project that
will establish a techno-social lab, investigating use of artificial intelligence in future
6G networks for autonomous systems. - SPOTLIGHT Marie-Curie ITN: A four year project investigating use of massive MIMO and mm-wave communications for next generation communications.
- 5G-AURA Marie-Curie ITN: A four year project that commenced in October 2015. This examined future 5Gdeployments. York activities will include advanced MAC and Physical Layers. Leader of the training workpackage and York PI.
- GREENBACK: An 18 month project funded by Huawei, Sweden that started in January 2015, which is examining future 5G backhaul/fronthaul options for ultra-dense small cell networks. This includes the application of intelligent resource and topology management. York Principal Investigator.
- NetCoM: A 3 year EPSRC funded project that started September 2013, that will investigate the use of physical layer network coding for 5G and beyond 5G systems. Responsibility for the development of an (intelligent) MAC layer for such systems along with system level performance. Co-Investigator.
- FP7 ABSOLUTE: Aerial Base Stations with Opportunistic Links for Unexpected & Temporary Events. An integrated project that is extending the capability of of LTE-A to cover disaster scenarios and other temporary events. York and Workpackage Leader for Cognitive Radio aspects. October 2012 - September 2015.
- FP7 BuNGee: Broadband Next Generation Access. A European project that looked at use of cooperative MIMO and cognitive radio, capable of creating self-organising backhaul networks. January 2010 - June 2012. York Co-investigator.
- MOD Competition of Ideas Project 'Cognitive Routing for Tactical Ad Hoc Networks'. Principal Investigator for the project that looked at cognitive radio and cognitive networking aspects. October 2007 - September 2008. Principal Investigator.
- The Use of Licensed Exempt Spectrum for frequencies above 30GHz (Ofcom). Consortium based project that included: Quotient Associates and Independents. The activity took place August-September 2006. Co-Investigator.
- Nominated researcher for NEWCOM an FP6 Network of Excellence. I took part in the Department A activities on Ad Hoc Networks. The 18-month activity commenced in March 2004.
- Spectral efficiency and system capacity evaluation of ad hoc and cellular communications networks which use MIMO (Radio Communications Agency). Consortium based project that included University of Bristol, BTexact, Toshiba, and York EMC Services. The project took place May 2003 - March 2004.
- FLOWS - A European Framework 5 project ( January 2002 - December 2004) examining 4th Generation communications networks. I was part of the team evaluating the convergence benefits of different architectures and broadband standards in different usage scenarios. I acted as day-to-day project manager for York's aspects.
- Distributed Dynamic Channel Assignment for Tactical Communications (DERA) - project over 4 years, examining DCA techniques for future military multimedia communications. Schemes extensively modelled in both OPNET and MATLAB.
High Altitude Platforms
- HiQ: January 2021 – November 2022 An EPSRC project developing and testing
quantum key distribution via high altitude platforms. This project is a partnership
resource project funded by EPSRC Quantum Communications Hub. - FP7 ABSOLUTE: Aerial Base Stations with Opportunistic Links for Unexpected & Temporary Events. An integrated project that is extending the capability of of LTE-A to cover disaster scenarios and other temporary events. Includes practical trials of aerial platform based technologies. October 2012 - September 2015. York Principal Investigator.
- Principal Scientific Officer for the 3-year FP6 CAPANINA Project that started in November 2003. Responsible for the project's technical programme. The project investigated broadband delivery from several types of aerial platform network. The project had 14 industrial/academic partners spread across 7 European countries and Japan. CAPANINA is the follow-on to the Framework 5 HeliNet Project (see below).
- USEHAAS - FP6 Specific Support Action to determine the research strategy for future aeronautical development of high altitude platforms. The 18-month project commenced in March 2005.
- COST 297 - on High Altitude Platforms and Other Services - Chair of WG1 Radio Communications. This 4-year activity commenced in 2005.
- A project supported by BNSC (with SkyLARC Technologies and BTexact) looked at the implications of V-band on HAP systems that was completed in July 2003. This work included evaluating the spectral efficiency of multiple platform configurations.
- The European Framework 5 project HeliNet (January 2000 - March 2003), where I acted as project manager for the broadband communications aspects. The research included system level design tradeoffs and resource allocation strategies in providing multimedia services to urban users in the mm-wave bands. York Co-Investigator.
Other
- Propagation Modelling for Land Mobile Radio (DERA) - ray tracing techniques to
model propagation in urban areas. Examined the effect of database inaccuracies on
output results. - Clock Recovery for Giga-Bit LANs (British Aerospace) - advised on the most
appropriate techniques for passive star fibre LANs.
People
Research Associates
Direct line management responsibility for:
Current: Dr Yi Chu
Former: Dr Farah Al Salami, Shammi Farhana Islam, Tareq al Shami Salahedin Rehan, Dr
Qiyang Zhao, Dr Yunbo Han, Dr Tao Jiang, Dr Yiming Liu, Dr Pairoj Likitthanasate, Dr
Guanhua Chen, Dr Konstantinos Katzis;
Postgraduate Students
Supervisor to several MSc, MPhil and PhD students in the group with common research
interests.
Current PhD supervisees: Wijdan Alsaedi (2 nd Supervisor), Muheeb Ahmed, Qiao Wang
Shammi Farhana Islam (2 nd Supervisor), Kayode Popoola
Former supervisees: Steve Arum, Sumaila Anand Mahama, Mahmudhul Haque Kafi(2nd
Supervisor), Tareq Al Shami, Sunghyun Park (2 nd Supervisor), Junfei Qui, Danial Zakaria,
Shipra Kapoor, Aftab Ahmed, Nurul Sidek, Jialu Lun, Zhehan Li, Rudraksh Shrivastava,
Abimbola Fisusi, Sinan Nuuman, Nils Morozs (2nd Supervisor), Salahedin Rehan, Lawal
Mohammed Bello (2nd Supervisor), Selahattin Kosunalp (2nd Supervisor), Abdul Karim
Oloyede, Aizat Ramli, Elizar, Qiyang Zhao, Yi Chu (2nd Supervisor), Yunbo Han, RuoFan
Jin, Kunyoung Lee, Meng Fei Yang, Hai Bin Li, Tao Jiang, Bo Han, Jian Qiu (2nd
Supervisor), Jingxin Chen, Pairoj Likitthanasate, YuMing Lu, Yiming Liu, Guanhua Chen,
Charles Thomas Mary, Zhiyu Peng, Zhe Yang, Yang Zhang, Konstantinos Katzis,
Konstantinos Akelestos, Linjun Dong, Zijun Zhao, Maninder Jeet Kaur (1 year visiting
student).
External
Selected Research Collaborations
Co-Director of York-Zhejiang Lab for Cognitive Radio and Green Communications
- a joint structure between York and Zhejiang University, designed to enhance research in cognitive radio and green communications. The structure was signed into force by York’s Vice Chancellor and President of Zhejiang in April 2010.
Founder and Chair of WUN Cognitive Communications Consortium
- now with members from over 90 organisations worldwide
Outside Positions of Responsibility
Advisor to Special Interest Group Green and Sustainable Networking and Computing with Cognition and Cooperation
Non-Executive Director of High Technology Start Up Company
Previous activities
Chair for IEEE Technical Committee on Cognitive Networks 2013 -2014
Chair of WUN Cognitive Communications Consortium 2009 -2015
Vice-Chair Special Interest Group on Cognitive Green Communications and Computing Networks 2013-14
Member of IEEE Comsoc Technical Advisory Council 2013-14
Chair of COST 297 - HAPCOS WG1 'Radio Communications' 2005-9
Director of SkyLARC Technologies Ltd 2001-2009.
Non Exec Director of Stratospheric Platforms Ltd 2014-18
Technical Committee Memberships
IEEE Technical Committee on Cognitive Networks
IEEE Technical Committee on Green Communications and Computing
IEEE Satellite and Space Committee
Research Council Activity
Member of EPSRC Review College
Member of EC Expert Evaluators Database
Expert Evaluator for H2020 Projects
Reviewer for EPSRC, NERC, Slovak research and Development Agency, Innovation Funding Agency of the Flemish (Belgian) Government, Academy of Finland, Commonwealth Scholarship Association
Selected Keynote Speaker Presentations
Aerial Platform based Wireless Communications – Will the Myth now become Reality?, June 2015, DroNet Workshop Keynote, Part of MobiSys 2015, Florence, Italy
'Cognitive' Green Radio - How can Intelligence Save Energy?, IEEE International Symposium on Wireless Communications Systems (ISWCS), August 2012, Paris, France
Cognitive Communications – The Intelligent Future?, IET CCWMC 2009, December 2009 Shanghai, China and Nov 2010, VTT CAP Seminar, VTT, Finland
Communications from High Altitude Platforms – The Achievements of the Last 10 Years, October 2008, HAPCOS Workshop, Friedrichshafen, Germany
High Altitude Platforms for Communications, May 2006, International Wireless Telecommunications Summit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The FP6 CAPANINA Project: Broadband Communications Delivery from High Altitude Platforms, September 2005, UAVNET Workshop, London
Broadband Communications from High Altitude Platforms, February 2002, CSIR Industry Briefing on HAPs in Pretoria, South Africa
Selected Best Paper Awards
D. Grace, J. Chen, T. Jiang, P.D. Mitchell, Using Cognitive Radio to Deliver ‘Green’ Communications, CROWNCOM’09, Hannover, Germany, June 2009 2013- Best readings in Green Communications – Paper included on list published by the IEEE Technical Committee on Green Communications and Computing
N. Morozs, T. Clarke, D. Grace, A Novel Adaptive Call Admission Control Scheme for Distributed Reinforcement Learning Based Dynamic Spectrum Access in Cellular Networks, IEEE ISWCS 2013, August 2013 Best Paper Award
T. Jiang, D. Grace, Y. Liu, Two Stage Reinforcement Learning Based Cognitive Radio with Exploration Control, IET Communications, Vol.5, Iss. 5, pp. 644-51, 2011, doi: 10.1049/iet-com.2009.0803 WUN CogCom Best Paper Award 2013 - Distributed Artificial Intelligence Category
T. Jiang, D. Grace and P.D. Mitchell, Efficient Exploration in Reinforcement Learning Based Cognitive Radio Spectrum Sharing, IET Communications, Vol 5, Iss. 10, pp. 1309-17, July 2011, doi: 10.1049/iet-com.2010.0258 WUN CogCom Best Paper Award 2012 - Distributed Artificial Intelligence Category
J. Thornton, D. Grace, Effect of Antenna Aperture Field on Co-Channel Interference, Capacity and Payload Mass in High Altitude Platform Communications, ETRI Journal, Vol. 26, Number 5, October 2004, pp.467 – 474 Paper of the Year 2004
Panel Member on Conference Panel Sessions (Most prestigious in bold)
Within the field of wireless communications, being invited to take part in a conference panel session is normally only given to leaders within their research area, and they are there to voice their respected opinions. After a short ‘perspective’ presentation, panellists take part in a debate and discussion led by the chair, the most prestigious corresponding to the quality of the conference.
Stratospheric Platforms Systems Workshop (SPSW) 2001, 2003, 2005, Tokyo, Japan – The largest event in the field organised by NICT, Japan
What Role for HAPs? IEEE PIMRC 2004, Barcelona, Spain
High Altitude Platforms – The New Communications Infrastructure, Wireless Personal Mobile Conference (WPMC) 2004 (also Co-Organiser), Abano Terme, Italy
Broadband Fixed Wireless Access, WPMC2005, Aalborg, Denmark
The Networked Vehicle, IEEE VTC05-Spring, Stockholm, Sweden
Communications for Emergency and Crisis Management, International Conference on Telecommunications 2006, Madeira, Portugal
Mobile and Wireless Communications for Emergency and Crisis Management, IEEE International Conference on Wireless Communications Systems (ICWCS) 2006, Valencia, Spain
The Role of High Altitude Platforms in Providing Communications for Emergency and Disaster Management, IEEE PIMRC 2007, Athens, Greece (unable to attend, presented on my behalf)
The Role of High Altitude Platforms in Providing Communications for Emergency and Disaster Management, WPMC 2007, Jaipur, India
Machine Learning for Radio Resource and Topology Management in Self-Organising Networks, Huawei Future of Wireless, Stockholm, Sweden, June 2015
Journal and Conference Paper Reviewer (Most prestigious in bold)
IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronics Systems, IEEE Communications Letters, IEEE Wireless Communications, IEEE Journal in Selected Areas on Communications, IEE Proceedings-Communications, IET Microwaves, Antennas and Propagation, IET Networks, Electronics Letters, IEEE Proceedings, IEEE Communications Magazine, IEEE Network, ETRI Journal, IEICE Trans. on Communications, Computer Networks, EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking. For conferences: IEEE SoftCom 2002 (International Conference on Software, Telecommunications and Computer Networks), IEEE VTC 2003, 2007-Spring, 2008-Spring, 2008-Fall, IEEE PIMRC 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 IEEE GLOBECOM 2004, 2008-Wireless Communications, 2009. WEIMC 2006, IEEE ICC 2004, 2006, 2008, IST Mobile Summit 2005, 2006, 2007, CROWNCOM 2007, ISWC 2007, M-CNIT 2008, IWSSC08, ICWMC09, SPACOMM 2009, ICCCN 2009, IEEE Greencom 2014
Conference Activities
Selected Organising Committees
Track Chair of 2nd EAI International Conference on 5G for Ubiquitous Connectivity, Guildford, UK, 2015
Advisory Board of CROWNCOM 2015
A General Chair for Green Cognitive Communications and Computer Networking Workshop at IEEE INFOCOM 2014, Toronto, Canada
A Symposium Chair: Cognitive Networks, IEEE ICC 2013, June 2013, Budapest Hungary (the largest and most prestigious conference on communications)
General Chair, IEEE International Symposium on Communications and Information Technology (ISCIT) 2011, Hangzhou, China
Finance Chair, IEEE International Symposium on Wireless Communications Systems 2010, York, UK
A TPC Chair COGCOM 2009 - A workshop organised in conjunction with IEEE ICCCN'09, San Francisco, USA
A TPC Chair COGCOM 2008 - A workshop organised in conjunction with CHINACOM'08, Hangzhou, China
Technical Programme Committees (Most prestigious in bold)
Interworking 2004, IST Mobile Summit 2005-2007, Wireless Euro-Mediterranean International Conference 2005, IEEE IWSSC 2005-2007, APCC 2005, WHAPS 2005, IEEE VTC’06-Spring, IEEE VTC’07-Spring, IEEE VTC MS’08 -Spring, IEEE VTC’08-Fall, IEEE VTC’09-Fall, IEEE VTC’09-Spring, IEEE VTC’10-Spring, IEEE VTC’10-Fall, IEEE VTC’11-Fall, IEEE VTC’12-Spring, IEEE VTC’12-Fall, IEEE VTC’13-Spring, IEEE VTC’13-Fall, IEEE VTC’14-Fall, IEEE VTC’15-Spring, IEEE VTC’ 16-Spring, IEEE ICC-GS’07, IEEE Globecom08-Satellites, IEEE Globecom08-Cognitive Radio, IEEE Globecom’10 SAC, IEEE Globecom’11 CRN, IEEE Globecom’11 CRN, GCS, IEEE ICC-WCS’07, IEEE ICC-GS’08, IEEE ICC09-Cognitive Networks, ICC09-Wireless Networking, IEEE ICC’10, IEEE, ICC’11, IEEE ICC’12, IEEE ICC’13, IEEE ICC’14, IEEE ICC’15, IEEE ICC’16, MCWC’06, CROWNCOM’07, IEEE CCNC’10 Short Papers, IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (CCNC’08), Moshsraka International Conference on Communication and Information Technology (M-CIT 2007), MIC-CNIT08, IWSSC 2008-9, IEEE PIMRC 2008-11, , I-CENTRIC08, MIC-CCA08, CCNC08-Short Papers, CMC09, SPACOMM09, IWCMC09, EuCAP09, CENTRIC09, ICSIT 2011, IET ICWCA’12, IEEE ISWCS 2013, Latincom 2013, IEEE Milcom 2013, IEEE Latincom’13, IEEE CCS 2014, IEEE DySPAN 2015
External Examining (PhD)
2008, Sedat Gormus, University of Bristol, UK
2009, Qiwei Zhang, University of Twente, Netherlands
2009, Peng Jiang, Queen Mary University of London, UK
2010, Kok Lim Yau, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
2012, Prabhjot Kaur, National Institute of Technology, Jalandar, India
2012, Syed Shah Irfan Hussain, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
2012, Faisal Tariq, Open University, UK
2013, Raed Manna, University of Sydney, Australia
2013, Xing Liu, University of Surrey, UK
2013, Brendan Lawton, University College Cork, Ireland
2014, Ahmed Sohail, University of Surrey, UK
2014, Pol Blasco Moreno, Imperial College London, UK
2015, Dileep Kumar Verma, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India
2015, Samantha Gamboa, Telecom Bretagne, France, (as Rapporteur)
2015, Meftah Mehdawi, University of Hull, UK
2016, Shaswar Baban, King’s College London, PhD
2016, Alexandra Bousia, University Polytechnic of Catalyuna, Spain, PhD
2016, Yusuf Sambo, University of Surrey, PhD
2018, Georgios Chochlidakis, King’s College London, PhD
2018, Ghaith Radhi Hassan Al-Juboori, University of Bristol, PhD
2018, Abdulkareem Sarki Karasuwa, University of South Wales, PhD
2018, Ahmed O. Abdul Salam Al-Juboori, University of Bradford, PhD
2021, Enric Pardo Grino, King’s College London, PhD
2021, Yantong Wang, King’s College London, PhD
2022, Mohammad Amzad Hossain, National University of Ireland, Galway, PhD