Wireless innovations Next-generation
Online Workshop(WiNOW)
3-6 November, 2025 // Virtual
Xiaoli Chu
University of Sheffield
Xiaoli Chu received the B.Eng. degree in electronic and information engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, in 2001, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and electronic engineering from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2005. From 2005 to 2012, she was with the Centre for Telecommunications Research, King’s College London, U.K. She is currently a Professor with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Sheffield, U.K. She has co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed journals and conference papers, including eight ESI Highly Cited Papers and the IEEE Communications Society 2017 Young Author Best Paper. She has co-authored/co-edited four books: Fog-Enabled Intelligent IoT Systems (Springer 2020), Ultra Dense Networks for 5G and Beyond (Wiley 2019), Heterogeneous Cellular Networks-Theory, Simulation and Deployment (Cambridge University Press 2013), and 4G Femtocells: Resource Allocation and Interference Management (Springer 2013). Dr. Chu received the Best Performing Editor Award of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society in 2024, Exemplary Editor Award 2024 of the IEEE Transactions on Machine Learning in Communications and Networking, and the IEEE Communications Letters Exemplary Editor Award in 2018. She is currently an Editor of IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering, and IEEE Transactions on Machine Learning in Communications and Networking.
Talk Title: Backscatter Communications: Resource Allocation, Performance Analysis, and Applications
Backscatter communications (BackCom) have emerged as a promising paradigm for ultra-low-power and spectrum-efficient wireless connectivity in future Internet of Things (IoT) and 6G networks. This talk provides a comprehensive overview of our recent research on the resource allocation, performance analysis, and applications of BackCom systems, covering wirelessly powered, ambient, and symbiotic architectures. First, we present energy-efficient and fairness-guaranteed resource allocation strategies for wirelessly powered and hybrid active–passive backscatter networks, including their integration with mobile edge computing (MEC) systems. These studies establish optimization frameworks that jointly consider energy harvesting, computation offloading, and communication scheduling to enhance network throughput and computation efficiency. Second, we investigate the outage performance and symbol detection of ambient BackCom systems, where closed-form expressions and asymptotic analyses reveal fundamental performance bounds. Finally, we explore the evolution toward mutualistic symbiotic radio systems, where active and passive transmissions coexist and cooperate for mutual benefit, including scenarios involving hybrid long–short packet communications. Collectively, these studies provide theoretical foundations and design insights for enabling sustainable and intelligent BackCom in future pervasive wireless networks.