Hrishikesh Venkataraman, PhD, is a senior researcher and Enterprise Ireland (EI) principal investigator with Performance Engineering Laboratory at the Irish national research center—The RINCE Institute, at Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland. He obtained his PhD from Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, in 2007, for his research on wireless cellular networks. He obtained his master's degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur, India, in 2004, and did his master’s thesis from Vodafone Chair for Mobile Communications, Technical University Dresden, Germany, in 2003–2004 under the Indo-German DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) Fellowship. His research interests include mobile multimedia, wireless communications, and energy in wireless. Dr. Venkataraman has published more than 30 papers in journals, international conferences, and book chapters, and has won a Best Paper Award at an international conference at the University of Berkeley, California, in October 2009. Currently, Dr. Venkataraman is an executive editor of European Transactions on Telecommunications (ETT) and is a founding member of the UKRI (United Kingdom/Republic of Ireland) chapter of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Vehicular Technology Society.Dr. Ramona Trestian joined the Design, Engineering and Mathematics Department, School of Science and Technology, Middlesex University in August 2013 where she currently is a Lecturer in Computing and Communications Engineering. She was previously an IBM-IRCSET Exascale Postdoctoral Researcher with the Performance Engineering Laboratory (PEL) at Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland since December 2011. The position was in collaboration with IBM Research and Development department located in Dublin. In March 2012 she was successfully awarded the PhD from Dublin City University, Ireland. In 2007 she was awarded the B.Eng. degree in Telecommunications from the Electronics, Telecommunications and the Technology of Information Department, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania in 2007. Her research interests include mobile and wireless communications, adaptive multimedia systems, multimedia communications, heterogeneous wireless environments, handover and network selection strategies as well as software defined networks.

• SECTION I 5G RAN ARCHITECTURES AND APPLICATIONS1 Frameless Network Architecture for User-Centric 5G Radio Access NetworksXIAODONG XU, ZHAO SUN, AND JIAXIANG LIU2 Distributed Architecture of 5G Mobile Networks for Efficient Computation Management in Mobile Edge ComputingZDENEK BECVAR, MATEJ ROHLIK, PAVEL MACH, MICHAL VONDRA, TOMAS VANEK, MIGUEL A. PUENTE, AND FELICIA LOBILLO3 Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access Schemes for Next-Generation 5G Networks: A SurveyNAMADEV BHUVANASUNDARAM, HUAN X. NGUYEN, RAMONA TRESTIAN, AND QUOC-TUAN VIEN4 Performance Evaluation of NOMA under Wireless Downlink Cloud Radio Access Networks EnvironmentsQUOC-TUAN VIEN, NGOZI OGBONNA, HUAN X. NGUYEN, RAMONA TRESTIAN, AND PURAV SHAH5 Cloud Computing: The Flexible FutureJOANNA KUSZNIER, XUAN THUY DANG, AND MANZOOR AHMED KHANSECTION II 5G RAN VIRTUALIZATION SOLUTIONS6 Software-Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualization for C-RAN SystemsMASSIMO CONDOLUCI, TOKTAM MAHMOODI, AND GIUSEPPE ARANITI7 Software-Defined Networking in the World of C-RANBOLAGALA SRAVYA AND HRISHIKESH VENKATARAMAN8 Managing Mobility with SDN: A Practical WalkthroughXUAN THUY DANG AND MANZOOR AHMED KHAN9 Autonomic Network ManagementMANZOOR AHMED KHAN10 Distributed Data Aggregation and Compression for 5G Virtual RAN IoT Sensor ApplicationsNIKOS DELIGIANNIS AND SPYRIDON LOUVROS11 5G C-RAN Uplink Cross-Layer Optimization to Support Massive Traffic Sensor Network ServicesSPYRIDON LOUVROS AND NIKOS DELIGIANNISIndex

Hrishikesh Venkataraman, PhD, is a senior researcher and Enterprise Ireland (EI) principal investigator with Performance Engineering Laboratory at the Irish national research center—The RINCE Institute, at Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland. He obtained his PhD from Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, in 2007, for his research on wireless cellular networks. He obtained his master's degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur, India, in 2004, and did his master’s thesis from Vodafone Chair for Mobile Communications, Technical University Dresden, Germany, in 2003–2004 under the Indo-German DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) Fellowship. His research interests include mobile multimedia, wireless communications, and energy in wireless. Dr. Venkataraman has published more than 30 papers in journals, international conferences, and book chapters, and has won a Best Paper Award at an international conference at the University of Berkeley, California, in October 2009. Currently, Dr. Venkataraman is an executive editor of European Transactions on Telecommunications (ETT) and is a founding member of the UKRI (United Kingdom/Republic of Ireland) chapter of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Vehicular Technology Society.Dr. Ramona Trestian joined the Design, Engineering and Mathematics Department, School of Science and Technology, Middlesex University in August 2013 where she currently is a Lecturer in Computing and Communications Engineering. She was previously an IBM-IRCSET Exascale Postdoctoral Researcher with the Performance Engineering Laboratory (PEL) at Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland since December 2011. The position was in collaboration with IBM Research and Development department located in Dublin. In March 2012 she was successfully awarded the PhD from Dublin City University, Ireland. In 2007 she was awarded the B.Eng. degree in Telecommunications from the Electronics, Telecommunications and the Technology of Information Department, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania in 2007. Her research interests include mobile and wireless communications, adaptive multimedia systems, multimedia communications, heterogeneous wireless environments, handover and network selection strategies as well as software defined networks.

• SECTION I 5G RAN ARCHITECTURES AND APPLICATIONS1 Frameless Network Architecture for User-Centric 5G Radio Access NetworksXIAODONG XU, ZHAO SUN, AND JIAXIANG LIU2 Distributed Architecture of 5G Mobile Networks for Efficient Computation Management in Mobile Edge ComputingZDENEK BECVAR, MATEJ ROHLIK, PAVEL MACH, MICHAL VONDRA, TOMAS VANEK, MIGUEL A. PUENTE, AND FELICIA LOBILLO3 Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access Schemes for Next-Generation 5G Networks: A SurveyNAMADEV BHUVANASUNDARAM, HUAN X. NGUYEN, RAMONA TRESTIAN, AND QUOC-TUAN VIEN4 Performance Evaluation of NOMA under Wireless Downlink Cloud Radio Access Networks EnvironmentsQUOC-TUAN VIEN, NGOZI OGBONNA, HUAN X. NGUYEN, RAMONA TRESTIAN, AND PURAV SHAH5 Cloud Computing: The Flexible FutureJOANNA KUSZNIER, XUAN THUY DANG, AND MANZOOR AHMED KHANSECTION II 5G RAN VIRTUALIZATION SOLUTIONS6 Software-Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualization for C-RAN SystemsMASSIMO CONDOLUCI, TOKTAM MAHMOODI, AND GIUSEPPE ARANITI7 Software-Defined Networking in the World of C-RANBOLAGALA SRAVYA AND HRISHIKESH VENKATARAMAN8 Managing Mobility with SDN: A Practical WalkthroughXUAN THUY DANG AND MANZOOR AHMED KHAN9 Autonomic Network ManagementMANZOOR AHMED KHAN10 Distributed Data Aggregation and Compression for 5G Virtual RAN IoT Sensor ApplicationsNIKOS DELIGIANNIS AND SPYRIDON LOUVROS11 5G C-RAN Uplink Cross-Layer Optimization to Support Massive Traffic Sensor Network ServicesSPYRIDON LOUVROS AND NIKOS DELIGIANNISIndex

Hrishikesh Venkataraman, PhD, is a senior researcher and Enterprise Ireland (EI) principal investigator with Performance Engineering Laboratory at the Irish national research center—The RINCE Institute, at Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland. He obtained his PhD from Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, in 2007, for his research on wireless cellular networks. He obtained his master's degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur, India, in 2004, and did his master’s thesis from Vodafone Chair for Mobile Communications, Technical University Dresden, Germany, in 2003–2004 under the Indo-German DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) Fellowship. His research interests include mobile multimedia, wireless communications, and energy in wireless. Dr. Venkataraman has published more than 30 papers in journals, international conferences, and book chapters, and has won a Best Paper Award at an international conference at the University of Berkeley, California, in October 2009. Currently, Dr. Venkataraman is an executive editor of European Transactions on Telecommunications (ETT) and is a founding member of the UKRI (United Kingdom/Republic of Ireland) chapter of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Vehicular Technology Society.Dr. Ramona Trestian joined the Design, Engineering and Mathematics Department, School of Science and Technology, Middlesex University in August 2013 where she currently is a Lecturer in Computing and Communications Engineering. She was previously an IBM-IRCSET Exascale Postdoctoral Researcher with the Performance Engineering Laboratory (PEL) at Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland since December 2011. The position was in collaboration with IBM Research and Development department located in Dublin. In March 2012 she was successfully awarded the PhD from Dublin City University, Ireland. In 2007 she was awarded the B.Eng. degree in Telecommunications from the Electronics, Telecommunications and the Technology of Information Department, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania in 2007. Her research interests include mobile and wireless communications, adaptive multimedia systems, multimedia communications, heterogeneous wireless environments, handover and network selection strategies as well as software defined networks.

• SECTION I 5G RAN ARCHITECTURES AND APPLICATIONS1 Frameless Network Architecture for User-Centric 5G Radio Access NetworksXIAODONG XU, ZHAO SUN, AND JIAXIANG LIU2 Distributed Architecture of 5G Mobile Networks for Efficient Computation Management in Mobile Edge ComputingZDENEK BECVAR, MATEJ ROHLIK, PAVEL MACH, MICHAL VONDRA, TOMAS VANEK, MIGUEL A. PUENTE, AND FELICIA LOBILLO3 Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access Schemes for Next-Generation 5G Networks: A SurveyNAMADEV BHUVANASUNDARAM, HUAN X. NGUYEN, RAMONA TRESTIAN, AND QUOC-TUAN VIEN4 Performance Evaluation of NOMA under Wireless Downlink Cloud Radio Access Networks EnvironmentsQUOC-TUAN VIEN, NGOZI OGBONNA, HUAN X. NGUYEN, RAMONA TRESTIAN, AND PURAV SHAH5 Cloud Computing: The Flexible FutureJOANNA KUSZNIER, XUAN THUY DANG, AND MANZOOR AHMED KHANSECTION II 5G RAN VIRTUALIZATION SOLUTIONS6 Software-Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualization for C-RAN SystemsMASSIMO CONDOLUCI, TOKTAM MAHMOODI, AND GIUSEPPE ARANITI7 Software-Defined Networking in the World of C-RANBOLAGALA SRAVYA AND HRISHIKESH VENKATARAMAN8 Managing Mobility with SDN: A Practical WalkthroughXUAN THUY DANG AND MANZOOR AHMED KHAN9 Autonomic Network ManagementMANZOOR AHMED KHAN10 Distributed Data Aggregation and Compression for 5G Virtual RAN IoT Sensor ApplicationsNIKOS DELIGIANNIS AND SPYRIDON LOUVROS11 5G C-RAN Uplink Cross-Layer Optimization to Support Massive Traffic Sensor Network ServicesSPYRIDON LOUVROS AND NIKOS DELIGIANNISIndex