CW TEC 2023: The unavoidable complexity of future wireless networks?

Ken Cowley

Senior Solutions Architect,, Alstom Transportation company

Ken has spent fifteen years in railway communications including design and installation of two of the first trackside dedicated broadband networks in the UK, on West Coast Mainline and Heathrow Express, and a combined signalling and voice communications network for Denver Transit, Colorado. He is currently lead architect and technical manager for the mmWave trackside network being built to deliver multipurpose broadband connectivity to Caltrain services in the Bay Area and for the Internet On Board system, including trackside radio network, being delivered as part of the new Réseau Express Métropolitain in Montreal. He is also technical lead on the integration of current generation LEO and HAP connectivity into Nomad’s aggregating router technology.

---

Mark Grayson

Global Technology and Standardization Group, CISCO

Mark Grayson is a Cisco Fellow in Cisco’s Global Technology and Standardization Group, where he currently has broad responsibility for supporting Cisco's 5G strategy, including defining the role of Wi-Fi based access in 5G environments, chairing the WBA’s OpenRoaming program, leading Cisco’s multi-vendor RAN virtualization efforts, being co-chair of the O-RAN Alliance’s Fronthaul Working Group, as well as supporting Cisco’s enterprise team defining systems for supporting 5G enterprise use cases.

He has over 30 years of experience in the wireless industry, ranging from the development of military HF systems, cellular handset RF/DSP design, the definition of mobile satellite communication architectures, architecting service provider Wi-Fi solutions, the evolution of traditional cellular systems through to the creation of the latest virtualized RAN solutions.

He holds a first class Honors degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the University of Birmingham (England) together with a PhD in Radio Communications. Mark has been granted over 150 patents in the area of mobile communications and is the co-author of IP Design for Mobile Networks (2009) and Building the Mobile Internet (2011), both published by Cisco Press.

---

Nick Johnson

Head, UKTIN

Nick was founder and CTO of ip.access, the leading small cell infrastructure business based in Cambridge UK from its inception in 2000 to acquisition by Mavenir in 2020. As well as leading the ip.access product line from GSM to 5G, he chaired the Radio and Physical Layer Working Group in the Small Cell Forum and introduced the world to FAPI - the industry standard software/platform interface for small cells.

Nick brings an unequalled commercial experience to the UKTIN and is looking forward to it helping those seeking to exploit and contribute to the unrivalled inventive spirit of the UK, as well as informing the UK Innovation ecosystem into the foreseeable future.

---

Maria Lema

Co-founder, Weaver Labs

María Lema is a Co-Founder of Weaver Labs, a Telecoms-software company building a blockchain-based network management tool to open up access to connectivity. Maria leads commercial and strategy activities, as well as building partnerships and handling all company operations. In addition to having a Ph.D. in Telecoms, María has also led all operational activities at King's College London in the 5G Tactile Internet Lab powered by Ericsson.

María often disseminates her work at many important events within the industry and her work has been covered by many top-level media such as CNN business, The Telegraph Business Review, Raconteur, and The Guardian.

She was recently listed as one of Capacity Media's 20 Women to Watch in Telecoms 2022 and was shortlisted Entrepreneur of the Year 2022.

---

Peter Love

4G/5G Densification Architect, Nokia

No bio provided

---

Sylvia Lu

CEO & Founder, YOOVIP

Sylvia Lu is an award-winning Chartered Engineer and Non-Executive Director. Sylvia has over 16 years of experience in the Telecom industry for four mobile generations with semiconductor vendors. Sylvia provides guidance on the impact of emerging technologies on products and corporate strategy, influences global standards, accelerates the adoption of new technologies, and provides independent advice to industry and policy stakeholders.

Sylvia serves on several national and global industry Boards: she is an elected board director of CW (Cambridge Wireless), and serves on the Advisory Board of UKTIN, which provides independent advice on the telecoms sector, champions the opportunities in telecoms research, development, and innovation for the UK, and helps UKTIN provide impartial input to government. She also served on the Board of 5G-ACIA (5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation), joined forces with global industry stakeholders to influence 5G development and deployment in line with industrial imperatives to accelerate Industry 4.0.

She holds a first-class Electronic Engineering degree, a Master of Science degree in Communications and Signal Processing from the University of Bristol. She graduated with a Distinction from the University of Oxford in PGDip Strategy & Innovation, and an Executive MBA degree from the University of Cambridge. Sylvia is also an artist.

---

Vicky Messer

VP of Product Management, RANsemi

Vicky Messer is VP of Product Management at RANsemi with over 30 years of experience in product management, product marketing, research and development in the technology sector, primarily wireless. Vicky currently leads product management, technical marketing and partership activities at RANsemi, and is a work item lead and board member of Small Cell Forum (SCF).

Vicky was awarded the SCF ‘Outstanding Individual Contribution to SCF award’ in 2020, the SCF Industry Award 2023 for Women in Wireless and the Electronics Weekly Women of the Year (Design Focused) award in 2024.

Vicky is a certified IET registration mentor, and currently mentors a local young female engineer. In May 2023 Vicky joined Industrial Advisory Board Bath University Electronics and Electrical Engineering.

---

Andrew Murphy

Lead Research Engineer, BBC Research & Development

Andrew Murphy has worked at BBC Research and Development for over 20 years, joining the department directly after graduating from the University of Cambridge with a Masters degree in Electrical and Information Sciences. He has led the development of both hardware and software to support research in a number of fields and has worked within standardisation groups such as Digital Video Broadcasting and 3GPP. He has written and edited a number of European Telecommunications Standards Institute standards associated with digital broadcasting. Andrew is currently leading BBC R&D’s research into the delivery of the BBC’s content and services over mobile networks.

---

John Okas

CCO, Real Wireless

John has worked in wireless and telecommunications throughout his career. Initially with Motorola and Racal in engineering and product marketing roles. He was a founding director of NTL (now Arqiva), initially as Business Development Director building and managing the complete commercial organisation. He also managed the R&D Group which developed one of the first commercially available MPEG video compression systems. Then as Managing Director - Telecommunications he was responsible for growing NTL's wireless business using NTL’s extensive tower portfolio and nationwide field operations capability and entering the fixed telecommunications and satellite services markets. Moving to Pell Frischmann, the consulting engineers, he started a telecommunications business and was involved in several large transportation projects including the Highways Agency's NRTS Project which updated the communication systems on the strategic Road Network and he first got involved in smart metering. Currently as CCO for Real Wireless he undertakes business strategy and development activities, as well as delivering various projects. Recent projects include assessing the implications of the sunset of 2G and 3G networks in the UK and analysing various aspects of smart metering in the UK. He takes a strong interest in the evolving NTN and M2M markets and the evolution of energy communication networks.

---

Moray Rumney

Director, Rumney Telecom

Moray Rumney received a BSc in EE from Heriot-Watt University in 1984. He joined Hewlett-Packard that year and remained with the company through the transition to Agilent Technologies in 1999 and Keysight Technologies in 2015. Moray joined ETSI in 1991 and 3GPP in 1999 where he participated in the development of cellular communications standards and conformance test methods. His recent work has focused on radiated test methods for mobile phones. He was editor and major contributor to Agilent’s book “LTE and the Evolution to 4G Wireless”. From 2018 to 2021 Moray represented Keysight at 3GPP RAN plenary who oversee the development of the 5G radio standards. His recent interests include expert witness work, engineering consulting services, and the safety debate around cellular technology including the evolution of test methods to validate that base stations and mobile phones comply with safety regulations.

---

Professor Simon Saunders

Visiting Professor, King's College London

No bio provided

---

Nafiseh Shariati Eshkevari

Master Researcher, Ericsson Research UK

Nafiseh holds a PhD in Telecommunications from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. She is a Master Researcher at Ericsson Research United Kingdom, a newly established 6G research centre to collaborate closely with the UK 6G research ecosystem.

Prior to this role, Nafiseh was working as a researcher at Ericsson Research Sweden and a pre-sales lead at Marketing Area of Europe and Latin America.

Her work experiences include leading and driving research activities for 5G RAN, deployments and multi-antenna systems; identification and development of 6G technology components; and delivering strategic and technical consultancy towards telecom operators and internal stakeholders such as Ericsson product units. She is an author and inventor of several scientific papers, journals and patents, and has been awarded as an Ericsson key contributor in 2021.

---

Philip Steele

Future Technologies Evangelist, Octopus Energy

Phil is the Future Technologies Evangelist at Octopus Energy, leading the research & development team, and applying cutting edge technology to develop new innovation across the whole of the energy chain. 

Some of the tech-led innovation Phil is working on includes the Octopus Agile tariff, making the grid more flexible to cope with the realities of intermittent renewable generation, and Powerloop, a project that could turn millions of electric cars into mini battery packs to supply the grid when renewables energy is in short supply. 

Phil joined Octopus Energy following the acquisition of his entech startup nCube, a pioneer in IOT platform development, with award-winning tech that acts as a bridge to connect IOT devices, using Z-Wave, WiFi, Zigbee, Bluetooth and LAN.  

Prior to nCube, Phil helped launch a mobile advertising startup in Canada, and delivered numerous innovations at O2 such as messaging, pre-pay & mobile internet. He regularly subjects his wife and three children to trialling out his latest gadgets in energy tech. 

---

Andy Sutton

Network Architect, BT

Andy Sutton is a Principal Network Architect within BT Architecture and Strategy team. He is responsible for 5G end to end network architecture, RAN architecture evolution and mobile backhaul strategy and architecture. Andy holds an MSc in mobile communications from the University of Salford and has over 30 years of experience within the telecommunications industry. Andy’s research interests include distributed and centralised RAN and core architectures and protocols, network dimensioning, QoS and mobile backhaul (optical transmission, microwave and millimetre wave radio systems, network architecture and protocols along with synchronisation and time distribution in telecommunications networks). He also works on low latency and ultra-reliable networks architecture and design. During his career Andy has worked for Mercury Communications Ltd, Orange, H3G, EE and BT. Andy holds the post of Visiting Professor at the University of Liverpool and University of Salford. Andy is a chartered engineer and holds fellowships from the IET, BCS and ITP. Andy contributes to international telecommunications standardisation activities and several industry forums. Andy also has an interest in the history and heritage of telecommunications and is a CW Wireless Heritage SIG Champion.

---

Professor Rahim Tafazolli

Research Fellow, University of Surrey

Rahim Tafazolli, Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering, IET, WWRF and Regius Professor of Electronic Engineering, Professor of Mobile and Satellite Communications, Founder and Director of 5GIC, 6GIC and ICS (Institute for Communication Systems) at the University of Surrey. He has over 30 years of experience in digital communications, research and teaching. He has authored and co-authored more than 1000 research publications and is regularly invited to deliver keynote talks and distinguished lectures to international conferences and workshops. He was advisor to the Mayor of London (Boris Johnson) on London 2050 Infrastructure.

---

Yue Wang

Head of 6G Research, Samsung

Yue Wang is the currently Chief Technologist at China Telecom. Prior to this role she was the Head of Advanced Network Research, and Head of 6G Research Group, subsequently, at Samsung Research UK. She leads a team of talented researchers working on cutting edge 5G and 6G network technologies such as system architecture, AI-native networks and O-RAN.

Yue is widely recognised for her extensive technical expertise, strategic and thought leadership in 5G, 6G, and AI within the telecommunication industry. She is the Chair of the UKTIN AI Expert Working Group, where she has the honour to lead a group of highly respected experts analysing telco AI’s forward-looking opportunities and challenges across technology, business, economy, and society. She has also led large scale (19 partners, 8M EURO) H2020 project, is an inventor of numerous patents, has been Secretary and Rappetour of ETSI ENI, delegate of O-RAN WG3, and a frequent speaker in conferences, having recently presented in events such as MWC and TMF DTW.

Prior to joining Samsung, Yue held various roles in the US and the UK, all on Communications Research and Standards. Yue received her PhD from University of Victoria, Canada. She is the recipient of ETSI ENI Award for her ‘extraordinary contributions’ in 2019, and CW 'Outstanding Woman Engineer of the Year Award' in 2020. 

---

Ian Wassell

University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory

Dr Ian Wassell joined the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory as a Senior Lecturer in January 2006. Prior to this appointment, he was with the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering for approximately six and a half years.

He received the PhD degree from the University of Southampton in 1990, where he investigated Viterbi Equalisation for wireless and mobile systems, and the BSc., BEng. Degrees from the University of Loughborough in 1983. He has in excess of 25 years experience in the simulation and design of radio communication systems gained via a number of positions in industry and higher education. He has published more than 200 publications since joining the University of Cambridge in May 1999, and has successfully supervised 23 PhD students and 6 MPhil students. He is now leading the research on wireless communications within the Digital Technology Group at the Computer Laboratory.

He is also a fellow of Churchill College and has supervised second year linear systems and communication topics to Churchill engineering students for a number of years. He is a Member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and has also served on the local Cambridge committee of the IET.

---