Context

Most applications now use wireless communications, even critical applications can operate over a wireless infrastructure. We are already involved in the RAW working group at the IETF to design the new protocols for these real-time networks. We have defined scenarios [1] and management features [2] for this type of network. The achievements of the PhD student are expected to fit in the RAW working group at the IETF (https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/raw).

Scientific Objectives

Digital twins are a popular concept for Industry 4.0 [3]. They model real processes in manufac- turing systems to enable predictive maintenance and continuous optimization. More recently, they have been proven to be useful for networks [4]. Indeed, modern network architectures exploit the Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigm [5], where a collection of controllers orchestrate the network. To our mind, a digital twin represents a key building block for this SDN architecture.

We will explore how digital twins could improve the efficiency of a wireless network infrastruc- ture. Unfortunately, wireless environments are known to be lossy, with time-variant characteristics. While many models exist for the link quality [6], radio propagation [7]. However, a tradeoff between accuracy and computational complexity exists, and a unified framework has to be proposed. Finally, the PhD candidate will also explore how measurements [8] to feed the DT can be implemented in a wireless network to be energy-efficient.