IndikaAnuradha.github.io

Indika A. M. Balapuwaduge (Senior Member, IEEE)

Email: indika.balapuwaduge@uia.no
Office A2101, Electronics and IoT Group, Department of ICT
Faculty of Engineering and Science, University of Agder, Jon Lilletuns vei 9, Grimstad, Norway
Google_Scholar, Research_Gate, Web_of_Science, GitHub,

    I am a Researcher at the Department of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in University of Agder (UiA), Norway. I hold Msc and PhD degrees in Information and Communication Technology from the UiA. I received the 2012 Best Master's Thesis Award from the Faculty of Engineering and Science, UiA.

    My research is focused in the following areas:
    ✍️ Dynamic spectrum sharing in wireless networks
    ✍️ Machine learning-Based intelligent wireless communication
    ✍️ Energy-efficient wireless communication
    ✍️ Analysis of reliability and resilience for wireless networks
    ✍️ Wireless network security

Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy in Information and Communication Technology (Sep 2012 - Nov 2016) University of Agder (UiA), Norway
  • Master of Science in Information and Communication Technology (Aug 2010 - Jul 2012) University of Agder, Norway
  • Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Sep 2003 - Jun 2008) University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka
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    Employment History

  • Researcher: Department of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), University of Agder (Nov 2022 - present)
  • Senior Lecturer: Department of Electrical and Information Engineering (EIE), University of Ruhuna (May 2020 - Oct 2022)
  • Post-doctoral Researcher: Department of Information and Communications Technology, University of Agder (Mar 2017 - Mar 2020)
  • Doctoral Research Fellow: Department of Information and Communications Technology, University of Agder (Sep 2012 - Nov 2016)
  • Lecturer: Department of Electrical and Information Engineering (EIE), University of Ruhuna (Aug 2009 - Aug 2010)
  • Engineer: HUAWEI Technologies Lanka Co. (LTD), Sri Lanka (11.2008 - 08.2009)
  • Student Instructor: Department of Inter-disciplinary Studies, University of Ruhuna (Jul 2008 - Nov 2008)


    • Journal Papers

  • T. Weerasinghe, V. Casares-Giner, I. A. M. Balapuwaduge, and F. Y. Li, Priority Enabled Grant-Free Access with Dynamic Slot Allocation for Heterogeneous mMTC Traffic in 5G NR Networks, IEEE Transactions on Communication, vol. 69, no. 5, May 2021. DOI:10.1109/TCOMM.2021.3053990
  • T. Weerasinghe, I. A. M. Balapuwaduge, and F. Y. Li, Priority-based Initial Access for URLLC Traffic in Massive IoT Networks: Schemes and Performance Analysis, Computer Networks, vol. 178, Sep. 2020. DOI:10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107360
  • H. V. K. Mendis, I. A. M. Balapuwaduge, and F. Y. Li, Dependability-based Reliability Analysis in URLLC Networks: Availability in the Space Domain, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, vol. 27, no. 5, pp. 1915-1930, Oct. 2019. DOI:10.1109/TNET.2019.2934826
  • T. Weerasinghe, I. A. M. Balapuwaduge, and F. Y. Li, Time-Space Domain Availability Analysis under Reliability Impairments, IEEE Networking Letters, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 103-106, Sep. 2019. DOI:10.1109/LNET.2019.2916909
  • I. A. M. Balapuwaduge, F. Y. Li, and V. Pla, Dynamic Spectrum Reservation for CR Networks in the Presence of Channel Failures: Channel Allocation and Reliability Analysis, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, pp. 882 - 898, vol. 17, no. 2, Feb. 2018. DOI:10.1109/TWC.2017.2772240
  • I. A. M. Balapuwaduge, F. Y. Li, and V. Pla, System Times and Channel Availability for Secondary Transmissions in CRNs: A Dependability Theory based Analysis, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, pp. 2771 - 2788, vol. 66, no. 3, Mar. 2017. DOI:10.1109/TVT.2016.2585200
  • I. A. M. Balapuwaduge, F. Y. Li, A. Rajanna, and M. Kaveh, Channel Occupancy-based Dynamic Spectrum Leasing in Multi-channel CRNs: Strategies and Performance Evaluation", IEEE Transactions on Communications, pp. 1313 - 1328, vol. 64, no. 3, Mar. 2016. DOI:10.1109/TCOMM.2016.2521723
  • I. A. M. Balapuwaduge, L. Jiao, V. Pla, and F. Y. Li, Channel Assembling with Priority-based Queues in Cognitive Radio Networks: Strategies and Performance Evaluation, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, pp. 630-645, vol. 13, no. 2, Feb. 2014. DOI:10.1109/TWC.2013.120713.121948
  • L. Jiao, I. A. M. Balapuwaduge, F. Y. Li, and V. Pla, On the Performance of Channel Assembling and Fragmentation in Cognitive Radio Networks, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, pp. 5661-5675, vol. 13, no. 10, Oct. 2014. DOI:10.1109/TWC.2014.2322057
  • E. Jalali, I. A. M. Balapuwaduge, F. Y. Li, and V. Pla, A dynamic channel access strategy for underlay cognitive radio networks: Markov modelling and performance evaluation, Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies, vol. 28, no. 1, Feb. 2015. DOI:10.1002/ett.2928
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    Recent Projects

  • A Massive MIMO Enabled IoT Platform with Networking Slicing for Beyond 5G IoV/V2X and Maritime Services. [Acronym: SOLID-B5G]
    This project is funded by the EEA Norway Grants RO-NO Program 2019. , Project No. RONO-2019-0499.
    In this project, I contributed for proposal writing. This project is one of the 26 projects selected from 285 proposals which were submitted to the same call in Dec. 2019. Currently, I am serving as a Research Engineer.
  • Battery fire detection via IR Cameras. [Students in research projects]
    This project is funded (20K NOK) by University of Agder under Students in research and innovation projects..
  • Orchestrating Internet of Things and Machine Learning for Early Risk Detection to Ensure Inpatients Safety. [Acronym: StaySafe]
    This project is funded by the IKTPLUS-ICT and Digital Innovation, Project No. 309257.
    The main objective of this project is to develop a smart monitoring and decision-making support system, which will be built based on non-intrusive IoT devices and ML aided predictive analytics, for behavior analysis and prevention of agitation and accidents for inpatients in hospital healthcare. In this project, I am serving as a Researcher.
  • Elevating the Quality of Education in ICT towards 2030 through Multilateral Collaborations (2023 - 2026). [Acronym: EQEI]
    The main objective of the EQEI project is to elevate the quality of education and to increase the prominence of our study programs through multilateral education and research collaborations. The project promotes research-based education primarily at the Master level and complementarily at the Bachelor and PhD levels within but not limited to the thematic area of ICT by establishing sustainable partnerships among UiA, uOttawa, and IITBBS. In this project, I will be involved in curriculum development.
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    Research Highlights

    Dynamic Spectrum Allocation (DSA) in Wireless Networks
      While pursuing my Doctoral degree, my research centered around dynamic spectrum allocation (DSA) strategies aimed at achieving satisfactory performance for both primary and secondary users in cognitive radio networks. The focus of my dissertation was on facilitating greater channel access opportunities for secondary users through the implementation of four techniques: channel aggregation, priority-based queues, spectrum leasing, and channel reservation. Enabling real-time and quality of service (QoS) applications in wireless communication networks is a challenging task. This is due to the certain characteristics of such networks, like limited battery capacity, limited processing power, and limited storage. In this TWC, we propose a priority-based queuing system which can be applied over a CRN where the queuing schemes are introduced based on the delay tolerance of interrupted services. This TWC paper received more than 80 citations.
    Resiliency and Dependability Analysis
      The spectrum resource for mobile users is very dynamic. The spectrum availability is highly dependent on traffic behaviours, e.g. in a cognitive radio network, licenced user's random arrivals and departures on their licensed channels. Secondary users may prolong the sensing period to improve sensing accuracy under the uncertain situations, which however consume more sensing energy. To analyze spectrum availability in CRNs, in this TVT, we define a few reliability metrics for channel access in multichannel CRNs that are analogous to the concepts of reliability and availability in classical dependability theory.

    Energy-efficient Communications
      In this TCOMM paper, an energy-efficient grant-free random access protocol which performs dynamic slot allocation in each 5G new radio is proposed. We develop a two-dimensional Markov chain model which integrates different types of traffic via a pseudo-aggregated process. This paper was awarded the runner-up Best Journal Paper award for the year 2021 by the Communication Systems Integration and Modelling (CSIM) Technical Committee of IEEE Communications Society (COMSOC). In another TVT article, we proposes and analyses a dynamic channel reservation (DCR) algorithm for a multi-channel communication network. The key idea of this DCR algorithm is to anticipate resource needs and proactively implement energy efficient measures to ensure QoS requirements of users are met using adaptive resource reservation schemes.

    Machine Learning in Wireless Communications
      Machine learning is increasingly being applied to various aspects of wireless communications. The use of machine learning in wireless communications holds great promise for improving the efficiency, reliability, and security of wireless networks. In this IEEE ICC paper, I proposed a machine learning method to enable effective cell association in massive MTC networks. The concept of the solution can be applied in 5G wireless networks which have a large number of devices. Hidden Markov models are taken as the mathematical tool for predicting traffic behavior.

    Teaching

    My teaching vision is to stimulate learning by engaging students in their learning environment, promoting higher order thinking skills while recognizing their opinions and background to produce highly innovative, creative, skilled and dedicated graduates. In the modern era, students learn better through experience with an inductive approach than the traditional deductive learning approach. Therefore, my philosophy is to create an interactive classroom.

    I have been involved in teaching the following courses at University of Agder.
    📚 IKT414: Security and IoT
    📚 IKT444: Mobile Communication Networks
    📚 IKT 443: WiFi and Ad Hoc Networking
    I have been involved in teaching the following courses at University of Ruhuna.
    📚 EE 8210: Digital Communications
    📚 EE 7209: Digital Signal Processing
    📚 EE 6208: Wireless and Mobile Communications
    📚 EE 5315: Computer Networking
    📚 EE 4310: Communication Theory
    📚 EE 6321: Embedded System Design
    I have developed a Learning Object Repository (LOR) (updating) for the students who are learning Digital Signal Processing as a undergraduate level subject. You can access this LOR via this LINK


    Research Supervision

    I have acted as supervisor and co-supervisor for the following PhD, MSc and BSc students.

  • Thilina N. Weerasinghe: (PhD, graduated 2021, Co-supervisor), now with University of Ruhuna.
    Topic: Ultra-Reliable communication in 5G networks
  • Pål Karlsen, Martin Mollov: (MSc, graduated 2023, Supervisor).
    Topic: Assessment and Analysis of Mental Health Patient Datasets Based on Non-Wearable Sensors
  • Dinithi Vithanage: (MSc, graduated 2020, Co-supervisor), now with University of Wollongong.
    Topic: Efficient cell association techniques in 5G communication networks
  • Aasmund Søraa: (MSc, graduated 2019, Main supervisor), now with Klaveness Digital.
    Topic: A Machine Learning based Prediction Model for Bursty Traffic in 5G mMTC Networks
  • Lasse Jørgensen: (MSc, graduated 2018, Main supervisor), now with Atea Norge.
    Topic: Multi-client traffic emulation for On-board WiFi networks: Implementation and real-Life experiments
  • Diego Centeno Ariza: (MSc, graduated 2018, Main supervisor), now with Atea Norge.
    Topic: Multi-client traffic emulation for On-board WiFi networks: Implementation and real-Life experiments
  • Kalpanie H. V. Mendis: (MSc, graduated 2017, Co-supervisor), now with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
    Topic: Ultra reliable communication in 5G networks: A dependability-based availability analysis in the space domain
  • Elmira Jalali: (MSc, graduated 2013, Co-supervisor), now Senior Network Reliability Engineer at Yahoo.
    Topic: Channel aggregation for underlay cognitive radio networks: Access schemes and performance evaluation
  • Gayan Dilanka: (BSc, graduated 2021, Main supervisor), now with Dialog Axiata PLC.
    Topic: Orchestrator for Edge Computing Platforms to Provision Cloud Services at the Mobile Edge
  • Harith Lakmith: (BSc, graduated 2022, Main supervisor), now with Millennium IT ESP.
    Topic: Autonomous Navigation of a Surveillance Robot in a Simulated Static Indoor Environment
  • Amith Mallawaarachchi: (BSc, graduated 2022, Main supervisor), now with Millennium IT ESP.
    Topic: QoS-aware Dynamic Resource Allocation Schemes for Heterogeneous users in 5G Massive MIMO Networks
  • Isuru Dahanayake: (BSc, graduated 2011, Main supervisor), now with Samsung Electronics.
    Topic: Acoustic echo cancellation for handsfree applications using adaptive filters