The 2nd IEEE Middle East and North Africa Communications Conference (IEEE MENACOMM’19) was held on 19-21 November 2019 at The Diplomat Radisson Blu Hotel in Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain. The conference was organized and sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society Bahrain Chapter (ComSoc Bahrain chapter), University of Bahrain (UoB) and Bahrain Society of Engineers (BSE). IEEE MENACOMM’19 is technically co-sponsored by the IEEE ComSoc chapters consortium (Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia) in addition to three newly joined ComSoc chapters (Iraq, and Morocco and Oman).
The Technical Program Committee (TPC) of the Conference accepted 61 scientific papers, out of 164 papers submitted, yielding an acceptance rate of 37 percent. The conference papers were distributed and presented in 12 technical sessions. In addition to a “special video and live streaming interactive session”, there was an added facility provided for those who could not attend to present their work. All papers will be indexed in IEEEXplore. The conference attracted more than 200 scientists and researchers from 30 different countries around the world to discuss the latest advanced technologies in communications in the following three tracks: (1) Emerging Communications Technologies and Future Trends; (2) Physical Layer and Fundamentals; (3) Network, MAC and Cross layer Design.
IEEE MENACOMM’19 invited six world class distinguished Keynote speakers from academia and industry. Their speeches highlighted the state-of-the art advancements in wireless communications as follows.
- “6G: Connecting the Unconnected”, Prof. Mohamed- Slim Alouini, KAUST, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
- “Network Slicing for 5G”, Prof. Adlen Ksentini, EMEA ComSoc Director, France.
- “5G – Ushering in the 4th Industrial Revolution”, Prof. Andrew Nix, Faculty of Engineering, University of Bristol, United Kingdom.
- “Sensor-less Sensing: The Future of Ubiquitous Context-Awareness for the IoT”, Prof. Moustafa Youssef, ACM Distinguished Scientist, Fellow IEEE, Founder and Director, The Wireless Research Center Alexandria University, Egypt.
- “UAV and Mobile Networks: Synergies, Challenges and Perspectives”, Prof. Enrico Natalizio, LORIA Laboratory, Université de Lorraine, France.
- “Creating Future 5G Digital Opportunities in MENA region: Industry Perspective”, Muhammad Atif Jamil, Smart City, 5G Solutions & Data Analytics, Middle East Region Director, Huawei Technologies, UAE.
In addition to regular sessions, MENACOMM’19 also featured a special panel session with a panel of experts sharing exciting and often controversial viewpoints on the topic of “Future of 5G and Next Generation Networks in EMEA Region, Opportunities and Challenges”. The panelists were Prof. Adlen Ksentini, MENA IEEE ComSoc Director, France. Prof. Andrew Nix, University of Bristol, UK and Mr. Muhammad Atif Jamil, 5G Solutions ME Region Director, Huawei and the panel was Moderated by Prof. Mohab Mangoud. The following themes were discussed: Perspectives on 5G future applications and services, Opportunities that 5G will offer and Key challenges in rolling out 5G.
The MENACOMM’19 technical and organizing committees of dedicated and outstanding volunteers achieved their goal to make MENACOMM’19 a successful event and received excellent feedback from the attendees.
MENACOMM’19 offered a great opportunity for long term and sustainable collaborations between researchers in MENA region and other countries. Moreover, attendees expressed their valuable professional experience and the good memories remains from the social tour of the landmarks of the kingdom of Bahrain that was organized by the conference. At the end of the conference, the steering committee held a meeting to evaluate the conference and discussed the candidates and the preparation for the coming version, IEEE MENACOMM 2020, whishing the COMSOC chapter that will take over the organization to maintain the same quality and even better. For more details about the conference, visit: http://menacomm2019.org