Cifre Phd: Towards Sustainability by Design for 6G Networks

Join us in creating the technology that helps the world act together 

Nokia is committed to innovation and technology leadership across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. Your career here will have a positive impact on people’s lives and will help us build the capabilities needed for a more productive, sustainable, and inclusive world. 

We challenge ourselves to create an inclusive way of working where we are open to new ideas, empowered to take risks and fearless to bring our authentic selves to work.

  

The team you’ll be part of

Strategy and Technology lays the path for Nokia’s future technology innovation and identifies the most promising areas for Nokia to create new value. We set the company’s strategy and technology vision, offer an unparalleled research foundation for innovation, and provide critical support infrastructure for Nokia.

Nokia Strategy & Technology, including Nokia Bell Labs and Nokia Standards, is the renowned research arm of Nokia, having invented many of the foundational technologies that underpin information and communications networks and all digital devices and systems. This research has produced nine Nobel Prizes, five Turing Awards and numerous other awards.

The department of Architecture, Security & Automation in Nokia Standards, Paris, offers the opportunity for a master graduate to pursue a Ph.D. degree in communication engineering or computer science in collaboration with one of Nokia’s renown partner universities. The thesis work will be conducted in Paris and is expected to be completed within 3 years.

Scope of the Ph.D. thesis

The integration of AI into 6G networks will pave the way to a new era of intelligent and adaptive communication. AI and machine learning will play a crucial role in enhancing the energy efficiency of 6G networks, offering benefits such as optimized power allocation, reduced idle resource usage, and improved network infrastructure. Through intelligent resource management and optimization algorithms, 6G networks can minimize energy consumption, leading to cost savings and reduced environmental impact. 

However, it’s worth noting that AI and ML models themselves demand significant computational power, which can result in substantial energy consumption, affecting not only the network but also user equipments. For example, training a single, deep learning, natural language processing (NLP) model (GPU) can lead to approximately 600,000 lb of carbon dioxide emissions which is similar to amount of carbon dioxide emissions produced by five cars over the cars’ lifetime [1]. Other studies have shown that ‘Google’s AlphaGo Zero generated 96 tonnes of CO2 over 40 days of research training which amounts to 1000 h of air travel or a carbon footprint of 23 American homes’. 

This contrast poses a significant challenge for 6G in achieving sustainability by design.

To achieve a sustainable 6G network that aligns with global sustainability goals, it’s crucial to focus on several key aspects. First, defining sustainability metrics and indicators is essential to measure environmental performance (e.g energy consumption, carbon footprint…). Next, integrating sustainability principles into the network design. This includes, but is not limited to, leveraging energy-efficient native AI design and management, developing novel energy-efficient communication protocols, and establishing optimized data collection and pre-processing methods. 

Understanding the dynamics of energy cost and network performance is essential for embedding management capabilities that minimize negative impacts. While social and economic impacts are also important, our primary focus remain on environmental sustainability, emphasizing strategies to reduce carbon emissions, improve energy efficiency, and optimize resource use to align with global environmental goals.

This proposed Ph.D. aims to tackle the challenges of sustainability by design in the context of 6G, with a focus on Sustainable AI and its associated fields, such as data frugality and AI/ML traffic load management. The Ph.D. program includes the following key steps:

 

– Step 1: Energy Modeling

– Conduct a comprehensive review of the current state of the art, exploring various approaches to energy consumption modeling.

– Identifying metrics and indicators of sustainability in the context of 6G, including but not limited to AI/ML.

– Modeling energy consumption and efficiency in the context of 6G:  e.g. AI/ML lifecycle, data management, including collection, pre-processing, storing, exposure and retrieval, including but not limited to AI/ML…

– Perform tests, measurements, and comparative studies based on some relevant 6G use cases to estimate energy consumption.

– Step 2: sustainability by design in the context of 6G

• Energy Optimization/Savings:
  • Conduct a review of the state of the art, regarding energy optimization techniques.
  • Propose novel energy optimization approaches and policies tailored specifically to 6G.
• Energy-efficient end-to-end AI/ML integration and embedding into 6G by design:
  • Identifying 6G network’s pain points in energy consumption: determining which procedures and domains consume the most energy, as well as understanding the energy consumption profiles and proportions.
  • Propose novel approaches for energy-efficient end-to-end AI/ML embedding into 6G to achieve sustainability by design.  This may cover sustainable AI aspects as well as data frugality and AI/ML traffic load management.
• Conduct experiments and evaluations to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.

– Step 3: Solution Integration

Integrate the developed solutions into our testbed environment, creating a practical implementation of the proposed methodologies.

 

Beyond these specific steps, the broader objectives of this Ph.D. include intellectual property, publishing scientific findings, and contributing to relevant standardization efforts where applicable. 

 

Your skills and experience

 We are looking for highly motivated candidates who are enthusiastic about developing breakthrough innovations and participate in cutting-edge research in Nokia. Applicants should fulfill the following qualifications:

• A diploma or master’s degree in communications engineering, information theory, or computer science
• Good knowledge in AI/ML and communication networks, as well as concepts and tool chains in machine learning (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow),
• High proficiency in relevant programming languages for simulation (e.g., C++)
• High proficiency in relevant programming languages for prototyping and evaluation (e.g., Python)
• Highly proficient in spoken and written English,
• Ability to work independently and proactively define research targets and methodology,
• Ready to collaborate in a diverse team with members of different cultural backgrounds,
• Willingness and ability to get engaged in novel disruptive research areas, which will require the applicant to learn new skills.

  

What we offer

Nokia offers flexible and hybrid working schemes, continuous learning opportunities, well-being programs to support you mentally and physically, opportunities to join and get supported by employee resource groups, mentoring programs and highly diverse teams with an inclusive culture where people thrive and are empowered. Nokia is committed to inclusion and is an equal opportunity employer 

Join us at Nokia, where your work isn’t just about technology; it’s about creating a more connected, inclusive, and sustainable future.

Nokia is committed to inclusion and is an equal opportunity employer

Come create the technology that helps the world act together

Nokia is committed to innovation and technology leadership across mobile, fixed and cloud networks. Your career here will have a positive impact on people’s lives and will help us build the capabilities needed for a more productive, sustainable, and inclusive world.
We challenge ourselves to create an inclusive way of working where we are open to new ideas, empowered to take risks and fearless to bring our authentic selves to work

What we offer
 
Nokia offers continuous learning opportunities, well-being programs to support you mentally and physically, opportunities to join and get supported by employee resource groups, mentoring programs and highly diverse teams with an inclusive culture where people thrive and are empowered.

Nokia is committed to inclusion and is an equal opportunity employer

Nokia has received the following recognitions for its commitment to inclusion & equality:

• One of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere
• Gender-Equality Index by Bloomberg
• Workplace Pride Global Benchmark

At Nokia, we act inclusively and respect the uniqueness of people. Nokia’s employment decisions are made regardless of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by law.
We are committed to a culture of inclusion built upon our core value of respect.

Join us and be part of a company where you will feel included and empowered to succeed.