Paolo Testolina

Research Scientist

Education

Ph.D. in Information Engineering - University of Padova, Italy (2022)
M.Sc. in Telecommunication Engineering - University of Padova, Italy (2018)
B.Sc. in Information Engineering - University of Padova, Italy (2016)

Research Interests

Non-Terrestrial Networks
Spectrum Sharing and Coexistence
5G and beyond cellular networks

Paolo Testolina is a Research Scientist at the Wireless Networks and Embedded Systems (WiNES) Laboratory and at the Ultrabroadband Nanonetworking (UN) Laboratory at the Institute for Intelligent Networked Systems, with Prof. Tommaso Melodia and Prof. Josep Jornet. His research focuses on studying and designing wireless communications systems, with a keen interest on channel modeling, spectrum science and everything space-related.

Publications

2026

Journals & Magazines

M. Nguyen, G. Gemmi, T. Aghayev, P. Testolina, M. Polese, and T. Melodia. “Agentic RDZ: Autonomous Zone Management with AI Agents and an FR3 Coexistence Use Case.” arXiv (2026)Preprint

DOI arXiv

M. Polese, M. Nguyen, P. Testolina, and T. Melodia. “From Open RAN to Open Spectrum: A Programmable, Intelligent Architecture for Multi-Service Spectrum Coexistence.” arXiv (2026)Preprint

DOI arXiv

M. Nguyen, P. Testolina, P. Johari, M. Polese, and T. Melodia. “Coordinated Spectrum Coexistence Across Heterogeneous Commercial and Federal Services.” arXiv (2026)Preprint

DOI arXiv

T. Aghayev, M. Elkael, M. Polese, M. Nguyen, G. Gemmi, A. Lacava, A. Saeizadeh, R. Prasad, P. Testolina, A. Feraudo, S. Nanda, P. Johari, S. D'Oro, and T. Melodia. “GENESIS: Harnessing AI Agents for Autonomous 6G RAN Synthesis, Research, and Testing.” (2026)Preprint

DOI arXiv

M. Tsampazi, P. Testolina, M. Polese, and T. Melodia. “Satellite-Terrestrial Spectrum Sharing in FR3 through QoS-Aware Power Control and Spatial Nulling.” (2026)Preprint

DOI arXiv

2025

Journals & Magazines

E. Baena, P. Testolina, M. Polese, D. Koutsonikolas, J. Jornet, and T. Melodia. “Space-O-RAN: Enabling Intelligent, Open, and Interoperable Non Terrestrial Networks in 6G.” IEEE Communications Magazine (to appear), arXiv CS.NI 2502.15936 (2025)Journal

DOI arXiv

Conference Papers

P. Brach del Prever, P. Testolina, A. Masihi, S. Petrushkevich, M. Polese, T. Melodia, and J. Jornet. “Pointing-Error-Induced Fading in an Open-Loop THz Uplink with Hardware Impairments.” Proc. 2nd IEEE Int. Workshop Terahertz Commun., Sens., Security, IEEE Mil. Com. COnference (MILCOM) (2025)Conference

DOI arXiv

We analyze the open-loop mechanical tracking performance of a sub-Terahertz (sub-THz) and Terahertz (THz) uplink communication system. These high-frequency bands enable multi-gigabit links through large bandwidths and narrow beams, but require precise pointing to overcome spreading loss. A tracking system can be used to orient horn antennas toward mobile targets. We develop a mathematical model that captures the mechanical dynamics of a real tracking system, which includes motion latency and acceleration and velocity limits, to quantify pointing errors during satellite passes and integrate these effects into the link budget. We evaluate the trade-offs between beam directionality and pointing tolerance across different Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite trajectories and control strategies. The results link the hardware limitations to the communications performance, providing design guidelines for high-frequency Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) uplink under practical mechanical constraints.

P. Testolina, E. Beshaj, M. Polese, and T. Melodia. “Spectrum Sharing Across Terrestrial and Non-Terrestrial Services in the FR3 Upper Midband.” 2025 IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (DySPAN) (2025)Conference

DOI

2024

Journals & Magazines

P. Testolina, M. Polese, and T. Melodia. “Sharing Spectrum and Services in the 7–24 GHz Upper Midband.” IEEE Communications Magazine (2024)Journal

DOI arXiv

P. Testolina, M. Polese, J. Jornet, T. Melodia, and M. Zorzi. “Modeling Interference for the Coexistence of 6G Networks and Passive Sensing Systems.” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (2024)Journal

DOI

Conference Papers

P. Testolina, M. Polese, P. Johari, and T. Melodia. “Boston Twin: the Boston Digital Twin for Ray-Tracing in 6G Networks.” Proceedings of the 15th ACM Multimedia Systems Conference (2024)Conference

DOI Link

Digital twins are now a staple of wireless networks design and evolution. Creating an accurate digital copy of a real system offers numerous opportunities to study and analyze its performance and issues. It also allows designing and testing new solutions in a risk-free environment, and applying them back to the real system after validation. A candidate technology that will heavily rely on digital twins for design and deployment is 6G, which promises robust and ubiquitous networks for eXtended Reality (XR) and immersive communications solutions. In this paper, we present BostonTwin, a dataset that merges a high-fidelity 3D model of the city of Boston, MA, with the existing geospatial data on cellular base stations deployments, in a ray-tracing-ready format. Thus, BostonTwin enables not only the instantaneous rendering and programmatic access to the building models, but it also allows for an accurate representation of the electromagnetic propagation environment in the real-world city of Boston. The level of detail and accuracy of this characterization is crucial to designing 6G networks that can support the strict requirements of sensitive and high-bandwidth applications, such as XR and immersive communication.

2021

Journals & Magazines

M. Lecci, P. Testolina, M. Polese, M. Giordani, and M. Zorzi. “Accuracy vs. Complexity for mmWave Ray-Tracing: A Full Stack Perspective.” IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (2021)Journal

DOI

Conference Papers

V. Rossi, P. Testolina, M. Giordani, and M. Zorzi. “On the Role of Sensor Fusion for Object Detection in Future Vehicular Networks.” Joint European Conference on Networks and Communications 6G Summit (EuCNC/6G Summit) (2021)Conference

DOI

A. Varischio, F. Mandruzzato, M. Bullo, M. Giordani, P. Testolina, and M. Zorzi. “Hybrid Point Cloud Semantic Compression for Automotive Sensors: A Performance Evaluation.” IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) (2021)Conference

DOI

2020

Conference Papers

P. Testolina, M. Lecci, M. Polese, M. Giordani, and M. Zorzi. “Scalable and Accurate Modeling of the Millimeter Wave Channel.” Proc. of the IEEE Intl. Conf. on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC) (2020)Conference

DOI arXiv

M. Lecci, P. Testolina, M. Giordani, M. Polese, T. Ropitault, C. Gentile, N. Varshney, A. Bodi, and M. Zorzi. “Simplified Ray Tracing for the Millimeter Wave Channel: A Performance Evaluation.” Proc. of the Workshop on Information Theory and Applications (ITA) (2020)Conference

DOI arXiv

M. Lecci, P. Testolina, M. Rebato, A. Testolin, and M. Zorzi. “Machine Learning-Aided Design Of Thinned Antenna Arrays For Optimized Network Level Performance.” 14th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) (2020)Conference

DOI

2019

Conference Papers

P. Testolina, M. Lecci, M. Rebato, A. Testolin, J. Gambini, R. Flamini, C. Mazzucco, and M. Zorzi. “Enabling Simulation-Based Optimization through Machine Learning: A Case Study on Antenna Design.” 2019 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM) (2019)Conference

DOI