Stefan Schwarz - Communication systems
Date: - Location: Eurecom
Abstract: Wireless systems are becoming increasingly complex, with a growing number of parameters to tune, a rising variety and heterogeneity of devices and equipment, and continuously evolving, diverse quality-of-service requirements. While centralized optimization may be theoretically optimal, it is often impractical in real-world deployments. This creates a need for methods that support distributed optimization and coordination among the goals of individual agents (e.g., users, operators, applications), while maintaining or improving network efficiency with manageable computational effort. In this talk, we explore the principles behind using deep reinforcement learning (DRL) as a promising approach for optimizing distributed multi-agent wireless systems. We illustrate its application to cell-free MIMO power allocation and the assignment of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) in multi-operator scenarios, highlighting both the potential benefits and the challenges introduced by non-stationary multi-agent environments. Biography : Stefan Schwarz (Senior Member, IEEE) received the Dr. techn. degree (equivalent to a Ph.D.) in telecommunications engineering from the Technical University (TU) Wien, Austria, in 2013. Since 2021, he has been an Associate Professor at the Institute of Telecommunications, TU Wien, where he leads the Research Unit on Wireless Communications. Since 2016, he has also served as Head of the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Dependable Wireless Connectivity for a Society in Motion. His research interests include wireless communications and channel modeling, signal processing and machine learning, as well as multi-user/agent systems and game theory. He is currently the PI of two nationally funded projects (ESSENCE and RL-CORE) focusing on machine learning enhanced wireless communications, and a Co-PI of the EU-funded MSCA-DN ISAC-NEWTON, researching RIS-augmented integrated sensing and communication systems. He also serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Communications Letters.
