1st International Workshop on Trustworthy and Explainable Artificial Intelligence for Networks (TX4Nets) 2024
Scope of the workshop
In light of next communication networks characterized by zero-touch network management, network operators have started the deployment of automated AI-based frameworks addressing various use cases including resource allocation, failure prediction and identification, traffic prediction. However, these deployments predominantly function as black boxes, with practitioners unable to comprehend the internal reasoning or decision processes of these automated AI-based frameworks.
In this context, eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) emerges as a promising collection of frameworks and technologies designed to enhance the transparency of black-box models. XAI achieves this by providing explanations for the decisions made, enabling practitioners to eliminate bias influencing models, understand when to trust or distrust model decisions, and gain insights into the problem at hand. In addition to this, it also becomes of paramount importance to design and adopt models and methods that are inherently able to quantify their uncertainty in taking decisions based on conformal prediction. This, in turn, facilitates a reliable and Trustworthy deployment of machine learning and Artificial Intelligence models.
While the application of Trustworthy and Explainable Artificial Intelligence has been extensively explored in diverse domains such as healthcare and finance, its implementation in communication networks has been relatively sparse, despite being considered of paramount importance. This workshop seeks to address this gap by shedding light on the potential applications of Trustworthy and Explainable AI in achieving transparent AI-based automation for networking. The primary objective of the workshop is to foster collaboration among AI/ML and telecom engineers, facilitating the sharing and exchange of experiences and ideas related to all aspects of trustworthy and explainable AI for network management.
This workshop will be held exclusively in-person.
Topics of interest:
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- XAI for Model Trustworthiness in Networks
- XAI for Trustworthy Network management
- XAI-driven Network Performance Optimization
- Trustworthiness in AI Models for Communication Networks
- XAI for trustworthy AI in Optical, Wireless, Microwave, B5G/6G Networks
- XAI for Optical, Wireless, or Microwave Networks
- XAI for Autonomous Networks
- XAI for Zero Touch Networks
- XAI for the Edge/Cloud and Internet-of-Things
- XAI for network security, privacy, resilience, reliability, and safety
- XAI Applied to Networking
- XAI Applied to Network Management
- XAI applied to Failure Management
- Security and Explainability in AI for Communication Networks
- Reliability and Explainability in AI for Communication Networks
- Human-in-the-Loop Systems for AI in Communication Networks
- Fair Resource Allocation in Communication Networks
- Model Uncertainty Quantification and Explainability for Communication Networks
- Model Uncertainty Quantification and Explainability for Network Security
- Conformal Prediction applied to Communication Networks
- Impact of Adversarial Attacks on Communication Networks AI Model Trustworthiness
- Case Studies and Deployments of XAI in Communication Networks
- XAI for Open RAN in 6G Networks
- Ethical Considerations in AI for Communication Networks
- Interoperability and Standards in AI for Communication Networks
- Regulatory Landscape for AI in Communication Networks
- New Business Models for XAI
- Explainable Reinforcement Learning in Communication Networks
- Causal Machine Learning for Networking
- Causal Reinforcement Learning for Networking
- AI for trustworthy IoT and autonomous systems applications
- XAI for federated learning based solutions of 5G/6G and future networks
- XAI for transfer learning based solutions of 5G/6G and future networks
- XAI for digital twin based solutions of 5G/6G and future networks
Important Dates
- Paper submission deadline:
March 21, 2024April 14, 2024 (firm) - Notification of acceptance: April 27, 2024
- Camera-ready deadline: May 2, 2024
- Workshop: June 3, 2024
Paper submission
Submitted papers should be written in English by following the IEEE conference format (double-column, 10pt font), with a maximum length limit of 6 (six) printed pages, including all figures, references, and appendices.
Papers should be submitted through EDAS in PDF through the following submission link:
https://www.edas.info/newPaper.php?c=31469&track=123080
Only original papers that have not been published or submitted for review elsewhere will be considered for publication in the proceedings.
Papers will appear in the conference proceedings and will be submitted for inclusion into IEEE Xplore subject to meeting IEEE Xplore’s scope and quality requirements.
At least one author of each accepted paper is required to register and present the work in the workshop.
Workshop Organizing Team
- Omran Ayoub (University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland, Switzerland)
- Cristina Rottondi (Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy)
- Sebastian Troia (Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy)
- Tania Panayiotou (University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus)
- Marco Savi (Università di Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy)
TPC Co-Chairs
- Sebastian Troia (Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy)
- Marco Savi (Università di Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy)
- Omran Ayoub (University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland, Switzerland)
Technical Program Committee Members
- Georgios Ellinas, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
- Yvan Pointurier, Huawei, France
- Andrea Bianco, Politecnico di Torino, Italy
- Mounia Lourdiane, Telecom Sud Paris, France
- Carlos Natalino da Silvia, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
- Davide Andreoletti, University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland, Switzerland
- Jacopo Talpini, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Italy
- Sadananda Behera, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India
- Marija Furdek, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
- Marco Cominelli, Università degli Studi di Brescia, Italy
- Panayiotis Kolios, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
- Nicolas Souli, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
- Memedhe Ibrahimi, Politecnic di Milano, Italy
- Giannis Savva, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
- Konstantinos Manousakis, University of Cyprus, Cyprus
- Oleg Karandin, Politecnico di Milano, Italy
- Lareb Zar Khan, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna Pisa, Italy
Technical Program (Monday, June 3, 2024)
14:00 - 14:20 |
Welcome |
| Omran Ayoub (University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland, Switzerland) Tania Panayiotou (University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus) |
|
14:20 - 15:10 |
Keynote |
| Session Chair: Omran Ayoub (University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland, Switzerland) | |
| Explainable Reinforcement Learning: Towards Trustworthy Autonomous Network Operations | |
| Carlos Natalino Da Silva (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden) | |
15:10 - 16:30 |
Session 1: Explainability to Interpret and Optimize |
| Session Chair: Silvia Giordano (University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland, Switzerland) | |
| Traffic Prediction- and Explainable Artificial Intelligence-based Dynamic Routing in Software-Defined Elastic Optical Networks | |
| Róza Goscien (Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland) | |
| Explainable Artificial Intelligence for Interpretable Multimodal Architectures with Contextual Input in Mobile Network Traffic Classification | |
| Francesco Cerasuolo (University of Napoli Federico II, Italy) Idio Guarino (University of Naples Federico II, Italy) Vincenzo Spadari (Università Degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Italy) Giuseppe Aceto (University of Napoli Federico II, Italy) Antonio Pescapé (University of Napoli Federico II, Italy) |
|
| Navigating Explainable Privacy in Federated Learning | |
| Chamara Sandeepa (University College Dublin, Ireland) Thulitha Senevirathna (University College Dublin, Ireland) Bartlomiej Siniarski (University College Dublin, Ireland) Shen Wang (University College Dublin, Ireland) Madhusanka Liyanage (University College Dublin, Ireland) |
|
| Explainable Artificial Intelligence-Guided Optimization of a Multilayer Network Regression Model | |
| Katarzyna Duszynska (Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland) Pawel Polski (Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland) Michal Wlosek (Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland) Aleksandra Knapinska (Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland) Piotr Lechowicz (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden) Krzysztof Walkowiak (Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland) |
|
16:30 - 17:00 |
Coffee break |
17:00 - 17:50 |
Tutorial |
| Session Chair: Tania Panayiotou (University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus) | |
| Uncertainty Quantification in Neural Networks for Reliable AI-based Network Management | |
| Jacopo Talpini (University of Milano-Bicocca) | |
17:50 - 18:45 |
Session 2: Explainability, Privacy and Trust |
| Chair: Carlos Natalino Da Silva (Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden) | |
| Invited Talk (TBD) | |
| Silvia Giordano (University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland, Switzerland) | |
| Reputation-based Trustworthiness Degree in Interference-variable Vehicular Networks | |
| Claudia Leoni (Roma Tre University, Italy) Anna Maria Vegni (Roma TRE University, Italy) Valeria Loscrí (Inria Lille-Nord Europe, France) Abderrahim Benslimane (University of Avignon & LIA/CERI, France) |
|
| Federated Learning for Network Traffic Prediction | |
| Sadananda Behera (National Institute of Technology Rourkela, India) Saroj Kumar Panda (LTIMindtree, India) Tania Panayiotou (University of Cyprus & KIOS Research Center, Cyprus) Georgios Ellinas (University of Cyprus & KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence, Cyprus) |
|
18:45 - 19:00 |
Conclusion and Final Remarks |
| Omran Ayoub (University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland, Switzerland) Tania Panayiotou (University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus) |