Emrecan Demirors
Research Faculty
Education
- Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Northeastern University in 2017
I am a Research Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University. I am conducting research at the Wireless Networks and Embedded Systems Laboratory. Previously, I was an Associate Research Scientist with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University, from 2017 to 2019. I received my Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Northeastern University in 2017, under the supervision of Professor Tommaso Melodia. I had previously received my B.S. and M.S degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Bilkent University, Ankara, TURKEY in 2009 and 2011, respectively, under the supervision of Professor Hayrettin Koymen. From 2010 to 2011, I was a Systems Engineer at Meteksan Defence Industry Inc., Ankara, TURKEY.
Publications
2025
Conference Papers
2024
Journals & Magazines
This demo presents SeizNet, an innovative system for predicting epileptic seizures benefiting from a multi-modal sensor network and utilizing Deep Learning (DL) techniques. Epilepsy affects approximately 65 million people worldwide, many of whom experience drug-resistant seizures. SeizNet aims at providing highly accurate alerts, allowing individuals to take preventive measures without being disturbed by false alarms. SeizNet uses a combination of data collected through either invasive (intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG)) or non-invasive (electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG)) sensors, and processed by advanced DL algorithms that are optimized for real-time inference at the edge, ensuring privacy and minimizing data transmission. SeizNet achieves > 97% accuracy in seizure prediction while keeping the size and energy restrictions of an implantable device.
“A Novel Closed-Loop Electrical Brain Stimulation Device Featuring Wireless Low-Energy Ultrasound Power and Communication.”
Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface
(2024)Journal
“Design and performance evaluation of SEANet, a software-defined networking platform for the Internet of Underwater Things.”
Computer Networks
(2024)Journal
Conference Papers
“OTFS for Mobile Underwater Acoustic Communications: Parameter Selection and Testing on Software-Defined Modems.”
{Proceedings of the Underwater Communications and Networking Conference (UComms)
(2024)Conference
In this paper, we introduce SeizNet, a closed-loop system for predicting epileptic seizures through the use of Deep Learning (DL) method and implantable sensor networks. While pharmacological treatment is effective for some epilepsy patients (with ~65M people affected worldwide), one out of three suffer from drug-resistant epilepsy. To alleviate the impact of seizure, predictive systems have been developed that can notify such patients of an impending seizure, allowing them to take precautionary measures. SeizNet leverages DL techniques and combines data from multiple recordings, specifically intracranial electroencephalogram (iEEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors, that can significantly improve the specificity of seizure prediction while preserving very high levels of sensitivity. SeizNet DL algorithms are designed for efficient real-time execution at the edge, minimizing data privacy concerns, data transmission overhead, and power inefficiencies associated with cloud-based solutions. Our results indicate that SeizNet outperforms traditional single-modality and non-personalized prediction systems in all metrics, achieving up to 99% accuracy in predicting seizure, offering a promising new avenue in refractory epilepsy treatment.
“Comparison of Doppler Estimation Methods in Mobile Underwater Acoustic Communication.”
OCEANS 2024 - Halifax
(2024)Conference
2023
Journals & Magazines
“Experimental Evaluation of Forward Error Correction Techniques for High-Rate Underwater Acoustic Communication Systems.”
Proc. of the Underwater Acoustics Conference & Exhibition (UACE)
(2023)Article
Conference Papers
“MArena: SDR-based Testbed for Underwater Wireless Communication and Networking Research.”
Proceedings of ACM WiNTECH
(2023)Conference
“Field Experiments with Doppler Compensation in High-Frequency Underwater Acoustic Communication System.”
Proceedings of IEEE ICC 2023
(2023)Conference
“SonAIr: Real-Time Deep Learning For Underwater Acoustic Spectrum Sensing and Classification.”
2023 19th International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems and the Internet of Things (DCOSS-IoT)
(2023)Conference
“Software-Defined Distributed SIMO System for Underwater Communication.”
2023 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC): Mobile and Wireless Networks Symposium (IEEE ICC'23 - MWN Symposium)
(2023)Conference
2022
Journals & Magazines
“Coexistence of Multi-Dimensional Chirp Spread Spectrum in Underwater Acoustic Networks.”
(2022)Journal
“Breaking Through the Air-Water Interface with Software-Defined Visible Light Networking.”
IEEE Internet of Things Magazine
(2022)Journal
“Underwater Ultrasonic Wireless Power Transfer: A Battery-Less Platform for the Internet of Underwater Things.”
IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing
(2022)Journal
Conference Papers
“A Software-defined Underwater Acoustic Networking Platform for Underwater Vehicles.”
Proceedings of IEEE ICC 2022
(2022)Conference
“Modeling and Optimization of Visible Light Carrierless Amplitude and Phase Modulation Links.”
ICC 2022 - IEEE International Conference on Communications
(2022)Conference
2021
Journals & Magazines
“WNOS: Enabling Principled Software-Defined Wireless Networking.”
IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking
(2021)Journal
Conference Papers
“Software-Defined Visible Light Networking for Bi-Directional Wireless Communication Across the Air-Water Interface.”
2021 18th Annual IEEE International Conference on Sensing, Communication, and Networking (SECON)
(2021)Conference
2020
Journals & Magazines
Arena is an open-access wireless testing platform based on a grid of antennas mounted on the ceiling of a large office-space environment. Each antenna is connected to programmable software-defined radios (SDR) enabling sub-6 GHz 5G-and-beyond spectrum research. With 12 computational servers, 24 SDRs synchronized at the symbol level, and a total of 64 antennas, Arena provides the computational power and the scale to foster new technology development in some of the most crowded spectrum bands. Arena is based on a three-tier design, where the servers and the SDRs are housed in a double rack in a dedicated room, while the antennas are hung off the ceiling of a 2240 square feet office space and cabled to the radios through 100 ft-long cables. This ensures a reconfigurable, scalable, and repeatable real-time experimental evaluation in a real wireless indoor environment. In this paper, we introduce the architecture, capabilities, and system design choices of Arena, and provides details of the software and hardware implementation of various testbed components. Furthermore, we describe key capabilities by providing examples of published work that employed Arena for applications as diverse as synchronized MIMO transmission schemes, multi-hop ad hoc networking, multi-cell 5G networks, AI-powered Radio-Frequency fingerprinting, secure wireless communications, and spectrum sensing for cognitive radio.
Current cellular networks rely on closed and inflexible infrastructure tightly controlled by a handful of vendors. Their configuration requires vendor support and lengthy manual operations, which prevent Telco Operators (TOs) from unlocking the full network potential and from performing fine grained performance optimization, especially on a per-user basis. To address these key issues, this paper introduces CellOS, a fully automated optimization and management framework for cellular networks that requires negligible intervention (“zero-touch”). CellOS leverages softwarization and automatic optimization principles to bridge Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and cross-layer optimization. Unlike state-of-the-art SDN-inspired solutions for cellular networking, CellOS: (i) Hides low-level network details through a general virtual network abstraction; (ii) allows TOs to define high-level control objectives to dictate the desired network behavior without requiring knowledge of optimization techniques, and (iii) automatically generates and executes distributed control programs for simultaneous optimization of heterogeneous control objectives on multiple network slices. CellOS has been implemented and evaluated on an indoor testbed with two different LTE-compliant implementations: OpenAirInterface and srsLTE. We further demonstrated CellOS capabilities on the long-range outdoor POWDER-RENEW PAWR 5G platform. Results from scenarios with multiple base stations and users show that CellOS is platform-independent and self-adapts to diverse network deployments. Our investigation shows that CellOS outperforms existing solutions on key metrics, including throughput (up to 86% improvement), energy efficiency (up to 84%) and fairness (up to 29%).
“The Implantable Internet of Medical Things: Toward Lifelong Remote Monitoring and Treatment of Chronic Diseases.”
ACM GetMobile
(2020)Journal
Conference Papers
Networks of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), composed of hundreds, possibly thousands of highly mobile and wirelessly connected flying drones will play a vital role in future Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G networks. However, how to control UAV networks in an automated and scalable fashion in distributed, interference-prone, and potentially adversarial environments is still an open research problem. This article introduces SwarmControl, a new software-defined control framework for UAV wireless networks based on distributed optimization principles. In essence, SwarmControl provides the Network Operator (NO) with a unified centralized abstraction of the networking and flight control functionalities. High-level control directives are then automatically decomposed and converted into distributed network control actions that are executed through programmable software-radio protocol stacks. SwarmControl (i) constructs a network control problem representation of the directives of the NO; (ii) decomposes it into a set of distributed sub-problems; and (iii) automatically generates numerical solution algorithms to be executed at individual UAVs.We present a prototype of an SDR-based, fully reconfigurable UAV network platform that implements the proposed control framework, based on which we assess the effectiveness and flexibility of SwarmControl with extensive flight experiments. Results indicate that the SwarmControl framework enables swift reconfiguration of the network control functionalities, and it can achieve an average throughput gain of 159% compared to the state-of-the-art solutions.
“CoBeam: Beamforming-based Spectrum Sharing With Zero Cross-Technology Signaling for 5G Wireless Networks.”
Proc. of IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM)
(2020)Conference
“Design, Development, and Testing of a Smart Buoy for Underwater Testbeds in Shallow Waters.”
Proceedings of IEEE/MTS Global OCEANS 2020
(2020)Conference
2019
Journals & Magazines
“U-Verse: A Miniaturized Platform for End-to-End Closed-Loop Implantable Internet of Medical Things Systems.”
Proc. of ACM Conf. on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys)
(2019)Journal
“High-Data Rate Carrierless Impulsive Communications for Underwater Acoustic Networks.”
Proc. of the Underwater Acoustics Conference & Exhibition (UACE)
(2019)Article
Conference Papers
Arena is an open-access wireless testing platform based on a grid of antennas mounted on the ceiling of a large office-space environment. Each antenna is connected to programmable software-defined radios enabling sub-6 GHz 5G-and-beyond spectrum research. With 12 computational servers, 24 software defined radios synchronized at the symbol level, and a total of 64 antennas, Arena provides the computational power and the scale to foster new technology development in some of the most crowded spectrum bands. Arena is based on a clean three-tier design, where the servers and the software defined radios are housed in a double rack in a dedicated room, while the antennas are hung off the ceiling of a 2240 square feet office space and cabled to the radios through 100 ft long cables. This ensures a reconfigurable, scalable, and repeatable real-time experimental evaluation in a real wireless indoor environment. This article introduces for the first time architecture, capabilities, and system design choices of Arena, and provide details of the software and hardware implementation of the different testbed components. Finally, we showcase some of the capabilities of Arena in providing a testing ground for key wireless technologies, including synchronized MIMO transmission schemes, multi-hop ad hoc networking, multi-cell LTE networks, and spectrum sensing for cognitive radio.
Arena is an open-access wireless testing platform based on a grid of antennas mounted on the ceiling of a 2240 square feet office-space environment. Each antenna is connected to programmable software-defined radios enabling sub-6 GHz 5G-and-beyond spectrum research. With 12 computational servers, 24 software defined radios synchronized at the symbol level, and a total of 64 antennas, Arena provides the computational power and the scale to foster new technology development in some of the most crowded spectrum bands, ensuring a reconfigurable, scalable, and repeatable real-time experimental evaluation in a real wireless indoor environment. We demonstrate some of the many possible capabilities of Arena in three cases: MIMO Capabilities, Ad Hoc Network, and Cognitive Radio Network.
In this paper we present HIRO-NET, Heterogeneous Intelligent Robotic Network. HIRO-NET is an emergency infrastructure-less network tailored to address the problem of providing connectivity in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster, where no cellular or wide area network is operational and no Internet access is available. HIRO-NET establishes a two-tier wireless mesh network where the Lower Tier connects nearby survivors in a self-organized mesh via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)and the Upper Tier creates long-range VHF links between autonomous robots exploring the disaster stricken area. HIRO-NET main goal is to enable users in the disaster to exchange text messages in order to share critical information and request help from first responders. The mesh network discovery problem is analyzed and a network protocol specifically designed to facilitate the exploration process is presented. We show how HIRO-NET robots successfully discover, bridge and interconnect local mesh networks. Results show that the Lower Tier always reaches network convergence and the Upper Tier can virtually extend HIRO-NET functionalities to the range of a small metropolitan area. In the event of an Internet connection still being available to some user, HIRO-NET is able to opportunistically share and provide access to low data-rate services (e.g. Twitter, Gmail)to the whole network. Results suggest that a temporary emergency network to cover a metropolitan area can be created in tens of minutes.
“LiBeam: Throughput-Optimal Cooperative Beamforming for Indoor Visible Light Networks.”
IEEE INFOCOM 2019 - IEEE Conference on Computer Communications
(2019)Conference
2018
Journals & Magazines
“A High-Rate Software-Defined Underwater Acoustic Modem With Real-Time Adaptation Capabilities.”
IEEE Access
(2018)Journal
Conference Papers
“Novel pMUT-Based Acoustic Duplexer for Underwater and Intra-Body Communication.”
2018 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS)
(2018)Conference
“An Acoustically Powered Battery-less Internet of Underwater Things Platform.”
2018 Fourth Underwater Communications and Networking Conference (UComms)
(2018)Conference
This article investigates the basic design principles for a new Wireless Network Operating System (WNOS), a radically different approach to software-defined networking (SDN) for infrastructure-less wireless networks. Departing from well-understood approaches inspired by OpenFlow, WNOS provides the network designer with an abstraction hiding (i) the lower-level details of the wireless protocol stack and (ii) the distributed nature of the network operations. Based on this abstract representation, the WNOS takes network control programs written on a centralized, high-level view of the network and automatically generates distributed cross-layer control programs based on distributed optimization theory that are executed by each individual node on an abstract representation of the radio hardware.We first discuss the main architectural principles of WNOS. Then, we discuss a new approach to automatically generate solution algorithms for each of the resulting subproblems in an automated fashion. Finally, we illustrate a prototype implementation of WNOS on software-defined radio devices and test its effectiveness by considering specific cross-layer control problems. Experimental results indicate that, based on the automatically generated distributed control programs, WNOS achieves 18\%, 56\% and 80.4\% utility gain in networks with low, medium and high levels of interference; maybe more importantly, we illustrate how the global network behavior can be controlled by modifying a few lines of code on a centralized abstraction.
“pMUT-based High Data Rate Ultrasonic Wireless Communication Link for Intra-Body Networks.”
Proc. of ACM International Symposium on Mobile Ad Hoc Networking and Computing (MobiHoc)
(2018)Conference
“Demo Abstract: WNOS: An Optimization-based Wireless Network Operating System.”
Proc. of IEEE Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM)
(2018)Conference
2017
Conference Papers
“DNS++: A Manifest Architecture for Enhanced Content-Based Traffic Engineering.”
Proc. of IEEE Global Communications Conference, Exhibition \& Industry Forum (GLOBECOM)
(2017)Conference
“iSonar: Software-defined Underwater Acoustic Networking for Next-generation Amphibious Smartphone.”
Proc. of ACM Intl. Conf. on Underwater Networks & Systems (WUWNet)
(2017)Conference
2016
Conference Papers
“Chirp-Based LPD/LPI Underwater Acoustic Communications with Code-Time-Frequency Multidimensional Spreading.”
Proc. of ACM Intl. Conf. on Underwater Networks \& Systems (WUWNet)
(2016)Conference
“High Data Rate Ultrasonic Communications for Wireless Intra-Body Networks.”
Proc. of IEEE Symposium on Local and Metropolitan Area Networks (LANMAN)
(2016)Conference
2015
Journals & Magazines
“Software-defined underwater acoustic networks: toward a high-rate real-time reconfigurable modem.”
IEEE Communications Magazine
(2015)Journal
Conference Papers
As of today, Underwater Acoustic Networks (UANs) are heavily dependent on commercially available acoustic modems. While commercial modems are often able to support specific applications, they are typically not flexible enough to satisfy the requirements of next-generation UANs, which need to be able to adapt their communication and networking protocols in real-time based on the environmental and application conditions. To address these needs, we present SEANet (Software-dEfined Acoustic Networking), a modular, evolving software-defined framework for UAN devices that offers the necessary flexibility to adapt and satisfy different application and system requirements through a well-defined set of functionalities at the physical, data-link, network, and application layers of the networking protocol stack. SEANet is based on a structured modular architecture that enables real-time reconfiguration at different layers, provides a flexible platform for the deployment of new protocol designs and enhancements, and ensures software portability for platform independence. Moreover, we present a prototype of a low-cost, fully reconfigurable underwater sensing platform that implements the SEANet framework, and discuss performance evaluation results from water tank tests.
“Poster: Realizing All-spectrum Cognitive Networking on a Software-defined Radio Testbed.”
Proc. of Workshop on Wireless of the Students, by the Students,for the Students (S3)
(2015)Conference
“Demo: ROCH: Software-defined Radio Toolbox for Experimental Evaluation of All-spectrum Cognitive Networking.”
Proc. of Workshop on Software Radio Implementation Forum
(2015)Conference
“RcUBe: Real-Time Reconfigurable Radio Framework with Self-Optimization Capabilitites.”
Proc. of IEEE Intl. Conf. on Sensing, Communication, and Networking (SECON)
(2015)Conference
“All-spectrum cognitive channelization around narrowband and wideband primary stations.”
Proc. of IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM)
(2015)Conference
“An IP-Based Manifest Architecture for ICN.”
Proc. of ACM International Conference on Information-Centric Networking (ICN)
(2015)Conference
2014
Journals & Magazines
“Demonstration of All-Spectrum Cognitive Channelization on GNU Radio and USRPN-210.”
Proc. of NATO Symp. on Cognitive Radio and Future Network (IST-123)
(2014)Article
Conference Papers
“Design of A Software-defined Underwater Acoustic Modem with Real-time Physical Layer Adaptation Capabilities.”
Proc. of ACM Intl. Conf. on Underwater Networks & Systems (WUWNet)
(2014)Conference
“Receiver Configuration and Testbed Development for Underwater Cognitive Channelization.”
Proc. of IEEE Asilomar Conf. on Signals, Systems, and Computers
(2014)Conference
“Network Throughput Improvement in Cognitive Networks by Joint Optimization of Spectrum Allocation and Cross-layer Routing.”
Proc. of NATO Symp. on Cognitive Radio and Future Network (IST-123)
(2014)Conference
2013
Book Chapters
Summary The objective of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive account of recent advances in underwater acoustic communications and networking. To do so, it briefly describes the typical communication architecture of an underwater network. The chapter discusses the key notions of underwater acoustic propagation and the state of the art in acoustic communication techniques at the physical layer. It presents the recent advances in protocol design at the medium access and network layers of the protocol stack. The chapter reviews the state of the art in medium access control protocols for underwater acoustic sensor networks (UW-ASNs), respectively. It describes the advances in cross-layer design techniques. Finally, it provides a detailed discussion of the existing underwater acoustic platforms for experimental evaluation of underwater networks. Controlled Vocabulary Terms Cross layer design; media access protocol; underwater acoustic communication; wireless sensor networks