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Program Manager
Dr. Xi Li is Program Manager and Senior Researcher in the Space and Terrestrial Systems Research Group (previously 6G Networks) at NEC Laboratories Europe, Germany, and the Vice-Chair of 6G-IA SNS-JU Architecture Working Group. She is also the Technical Lead of EU MultiX project on developing multi-technology, multi-sensor fusion, multi-band and multi-static ISAC. She received her M.Sc. in 2002 from the Technical University of Dresden and Ph.D. in 2009 from University of Bremen, Germany. Previously, she was a senior researcher fellow and lecturer at the University of Bremen and a solution designer at Telefonica. She has published 120+ peer-reviewed publications (Google Scholar Citations 2259, h-index 26, i10-index 60). She serves as TPC member of multiple conferences and workshops (ICC, WCNC, CSCN, PIMRC, GlobeCom, etc.), as well as organizer of 6GArch workshop series on 6G Architecture. She is also an inventor of 26 patents including 15 granted ones and is active in contributing to IETF with 3 published RFCs. She received the best overall award at IETF’99 Hackathon in 2017. Her main research interests include satellite, aerospace and aerial communications, autonomous networks and robotics, network digital twin, agentic AI systems, ISAC, and 6G Architecture.
Group Involvement, NEC Laboratories Europe
Space and Terrestrial Systems
Research Interests
- Satellite, aerospace and aerial communications
- Autonomous networks and robotics
- Network digital twin
- Agentic AI systems
- ISAC
- 6G Architecture
Publications
- L. Zanzi, X. Li, M. Liebsch, F. Satoshi, D. Kalaswan and S. Mio, "From Monitoring to Prediction: Hands-on Experience on Building a Cloud-Native Network Digital Twin for 5G Core," ICC 2026 - IEEE International Conference on Communications, Glasgow, United Kingdom, 2026, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/ICC59461.2026.11587512.
- C. S. -H. Hsu, X. Li, L. Zanzi, Z. Yang, C. Papagianni and X. Costa-Pérez, "MapViT: A Two-Stage ViT-Based Framework for Real-Time Radio Quality Map Prediction in Dynamic Environments," ICC 2026 - IEEE International Conference on Communications, Glasgow, United Kingdom, 2026, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/ICC59461.2026.11587241.
- Xi Li, Jacopo Pegoraro, Antonio de la Oliva, Vincenzo Sciancalepore, Juan Brenes, Valerio Frascolla, Neda Petreska, Zhuangzhuang Cui, Sebastian Robitzsch, Daniela Raddino, Lanfranco Zanzi, Alejandro Blanco, Jesús Gutiérrez, Joerg Widmer, Xavier Costa-Pérez, "MultiX: Advancing 6G-RAN Through Multi-Technology, Multi-Sensor Fusion, Multi-Band and Multi-Static Perception," in IEEE Wireless Communications, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 223-230, Aug. 2026, doi: 10.1109/MWC.2025.3629589.
- L. Zanzi, V. Sciancalepore, P. Li, A. Aijaz, Photios A Stavrou, Marios Kountouris, O. Forceville, X. Li, M. Hua, D. Gündüz, Z. Chen, JH Inacio de Souza, F Costanzo, EC. Strinati, S. Fiorellino, P. Di Lorenzo, R Fantini, "Towards a Semantic and Goal-Oriented O-RAN Architecture: The 6G-GOALS Approach," in IEEE Wireless Communications, doi: 10.1109/MWC.2026.3702654
- Adrian Lendinez, Lanfranco Zanzi, Xi Li, Sandra Moreno, Guillem Garí, Christina Lessi, Vladimir Guroma, Renxi Qiu, Xavier Costa-Pérez, "Experimental Evaluation of Radio-aware Semantic Map with 5G-Enabled Mobile Robots," 2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Hangzhou, China, 2025, pp. 18051-18057, doi: 10.1109/IROS60139.2025.11246785.
- C. Shih-Huan Hsu, J. Martín-Pérez, D. De Vleeschauwer, L. Valcarenghi, X. Li and C. Papagianni, "A Deep RL Approach on Task Placement and Scaling of Edge Resources for Cellular Vehicle-to-Network Service Provisioning," in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 3262-3280, Aug. 2025, doi: 10.1109/TNSM.2025.3570102.
- Milan Groshev, Lanfranco Zanzi, Carmen Delgado, Xi Li, Antonio de la Oliva, Xavier Costa-Pérez, "Energy-Aware Joint Orchestration of 5G and Robots: Experimental Testbed and Field Validation," in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 3046-3059, Aug. 2025, doi: 10.1109/TNSM.2025.3555126.
- Luis Roda-Sanchez, Lanfranco Zanzi, Xi Li, Guillem Garí, Xavier Costa-Pérez, "Network Digital Twin for 5G-Enabled Mobile Robots ", IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC) 2025, Milan, Italy, 2025, doi: 10.1109/WCNC61545.2025.10978546.
- Xi Li, Agapi Mesodiakaki, Marios Gatzianas, George Kalfas, Anastasios-Stavros Charismiadis, Dimitris Tsolkas, Lanfranco Zanzi, Apostolis Salkintzis, Dan Warren, Andreas Gavrielides, Marios Sophocleous, Marco Gramaglia, Anastasius Gavras, Tezcan Cogalan, Haeyoung Lee, Ömer Bulakci , "Integrating nApps in 5G for Verticals: Architecture Innovation and Technology Enablers," in IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 63, no. 1, pp. 161-167, January 2025, doi: 10.1109/MCOM.001.2300803.
- Ethan Sanchez Hidalgo, J. Xavier Salvat Lozano, Jose A. Ayala-Romero, Andres Garcia-Saavedra, Xi Li, Xavier Costa-Perez, “ MemorAI: Energy-Efficient Last-Level Cache Memory Optimization for Virtualized RANs”, IEEE International Conference on Machine Learning for Communication and Networking (ICMLCN), 2024, pp. 25-30, doi: 10.1109/ICMLCN59089.2024.10624821.
- Adrian Lendinez, Lanfranco Zanzi, Sandra Moreno, Guillem Garí, Xi Li, Renxi Qiu, Xavier Costa-Pérez, "Enhancing 5G-Enabled Robots Autonomy by Radio-Aware Semantic Maps," 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Detroit, MI, USA, 2023, pp. 6267-6272, doi: 10.1109/IROS55552.2023.10342279.
- Ömer Bulakçi, Xi Li, Marco Gramaglia, Anastasius Gavras, Mikko Uusitalo, Patrik Rugeland, Mauro Boldi, 6G book titled “Towards sustainable and trustworthy 6G: challenges, enablers, and architectural design”, Publish Date: June 6, 2023, Publisher: Now Publishers, ISBN: 9781638282389. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1561/9781638282396
- Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/10363715
- Arnau Romero, Carmen Delgado, Lanfranco Zanzi, Xi Li, Xavier Costa-Pérez: “OROS: Online Operation and Orchestration of Collaborative Robots using 5G”, IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management 2023, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 4216-4230, Dec. 2023, doi: 10.1109/TNSM.2023.3281976.
- J. X. S. Lozano, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Li and X. C. Perez, "AIRIC: Orchestration of Virtualized Radio Access Networks With Noisy Neighbours," in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 432-445, Feb. 2024, doi: 10.1109/JSAC.2023.3339749.
- C. Delgado, L. Zanzi, X. Li and X. Costa-Pérez, "OROS: Orchestrating ROS-driven Collaborative Connected Robots in Mission-Critical Operations," 2022 IEEE 23rd International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks (WoWMoM), Belfast, United Kingdom, 2022, pp. 147-156, doi: 10.1109/WoWMoM54355.2022.00026.
- Xi Li, Carla Fabiana Chiasserini, Josep Mangues-Bafalluy, Jorge Baranda, Giada Landi, Barbara Martini, Xavier Costa-Pérez, Corrado Puligheddu, Luca Valcarenghi, "Automated Service Provisioning and Hierarchical SLA Management in 5G Systems," in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 4669-4684, Dec. 2021, doi: 10.1109/TNSM.2021.3102890.
- Carlos Guimarães, Xi Li, Chrysa Papagianni, Josep Mangues-Bafalluy, Luis M Contreras, Andres Garcia-Saavedra, Juan Brenes, Diego San Cristobal, Jesus Alonso, Aitor Zabala, Jani-Pekka Kainulainen, Alain Mourad, Manuel Lorenzo, Carlos J Bernardos "Public and Non-Public Network Integration for 5Growth Industry 4.0 Use Cases," in IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 59, no. 7, pp. 108-114, July 2021, doi: 10.1109/MCOM.001.2000853.
- J. Martín-Pérez, K. Antevski, A. Garcia-Saavedra, X. Li and C. J. Bernardos, "DQN Dynamic Pricing and Revenue Driven Service Federation Strategy," in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 3987-4001, Dec. 2021, doi: 10.1109/TNSM.2021.3117589.
- Jorge Baranda Hortiguela, Josep Mangues-Bafalluy, Ricardo Martinez, Luca Vettori, Kiril Antevski, Carlos J Bernardos, Xi Li, "Realizing the Network Service Federation Vision: Enabling Automated Multidomain Orchestration of Network Services," in IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 48-57, June 2020, doi: 10.1109/MVT.2020.2979558.
- Kiril Antevski, Jorge Martín-Pérez, Andres Garcia-Saavedra, Carlos J Bernardos, Xi Li, Jorge Baranda, Josep Mangues-Bafalluy, Ricardo Martnez, Luca Vettori, "A Q-learning strategy for federation of 5G services," ICC 2020 - 2020 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Dublin, Ireland, 2020, doi: 10.1109/ICC40277.2020.9149082.
- L. Diez, A. Garcia-Saavedra, V. Valls, X. Li, X. Costa-Perez and R. Agüero, "LaSR: A Supple Multi-Connectivity Scheduler for Multi-RAT OFDMA Systems," in IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 624-639, 18 October 2018, doi: 10.1109/TMC.2018.2876847.
- A. Garcia-Saavedra, J. X. Salvat, X. Li and X. Costa-Perez, "WizHaul: On the Centralization Degree of Cloud RAN Next Generation Fronthaul," in IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, vol. 17, no. 10, pp. 2452-2466, 1 Oct. 2018, doi: 10.1109/TMC.2018.2793859
- Xavier Costa‐Pérez, Andrés Garcia‐Saavedra, Fabio Giust, Vincenzo Sciancalepore, Xi Li, Zarrar Yousaf, Marco Liebsch, “Network slicing for 5G networks”, in Journal 5G Networks: Fundamental Requirements, Enabling Technologies, and Operations Management, pp. 327-370, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2018, doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119333142.ch9
- Antonio De la Oliva, Xi Li, Xavier Costa-Perez, Carlos J Bernardos, Philippe Bertin, Paola Iovanna, Thomas Deiss, Josep Mangues, Alain Mourad, Claudio Casetti, Jose Enrique Gonzalez, Arturo Azcorra, "5G-TRANSFORMER: Slicing and Orchestrating Transport Networks for Industry Verticals," in IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 56, no. 8, pp. 78-84, August 2018, doi: 10.1109/MCOM.2018.1700990.
- Xi Li, Ramon Casellas, Giada Landi, Antonio De La Oliva, Xavier Costa-Perez, Andres Garcia-Saavedra, Thomas Deiss, Luca Cominardi, Ricard Vilalta, "5G-Crosshaul Network Slicing: Enabling Multi-Tenancy in Mobile Transport Networks," in IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 55, no. 8, pp. 128-137, Aug. 2017, doi: 10.1109/MCOM.2017.1600921.
- X. Li et al., "Novel Resource and Energy Management for 5G integrated backhaul/fronthaul (5G-Crosshaul)," 2017 IEEE International Conference on Communications Workshops (ICC Workshops), Paris, France, 2017, pp. 778-784, doi: 10.1109/ICCW.2017.7962753.
- Xavier Costa-Perez, Andres Garcia-Saavedra, Xi Li, Thomas Deiss, Antonio De La Oliva, Andrea Di Giglio, Paola Iovanna, Alain Moored, "5G-Crosshaul: An SDN/NFV Integrated Fronthaul/Backhaul Transport Network Architecture," in IEEE Wireless Communications, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 38-45, February 2017, doi: 10.1109/MWC.2017.1600181WC.
- Sergio González, Antonio de la Oliva, Xavier Costa‐Pérez, Andrea Di Giglio, Fabio Cavaliere, Thomas Deiß, Xi Li, Alain Mourad, “5G-Crosshaul: An SDN/NFV control and data plane architecture for the 5G integrated Fronthaul/Backhaul”. Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies, vol. 27, pp. 1196–1205. July 2016, doi: 10.1002/ett.3066.
- Xi Li, Giada Landi, Jose Núñez-Martínez, Ramon Casellas, Sergio González, Carla Fabiana Chiasserini, Jorge Rivas Sanchez, Domenico Siracusa, Leonardo Goratti, David Jimenez, Luis M Contreras, "Innovations through 5G-Crosshaul applications," 2016 European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC), Athens, Greece, 2016, pp. 382-387, doi: 10.1109/EuCNC.2016.7561067.
- M. Li, P. N. Tran, X. Li and A. Timm-Giel, "QoE-Driven Joint Radio and Transport Optimized EPS Bearer Rates of Multi-Services in LTE," 2015 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), San Diego, CA, USA, 2015, pp. 1-7, doi: 10.1109/GLOCOM.2015.7417225.
- X. Li, O. Mehani, R. Agüero, U. Toseef, Y. Zaki and C. Görg, "Evaluating user-centric multihomed flow management in multi-user scenarios," 2013 IEEE 14th International Symposium on "A World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks" (WoWMoM), Madrid, Spain, 2013, pp. 1-7, doi: 10.1109/WoWMoM.2013.6583448.
- Xi Li, Radio Access Network Dimensioning for 3G UMTS, published by Vieweg+ Teubner Verlag, Springer, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-8348-8111-3
- Xi Li, Umar Toseef, Thushara Weerawardane, Wojciech Bigos, Dominik Dulas, Carmelita Goerg, Andreas Timm-Giel, Andreas Klug, "Dimensioning of the LTE access transport network for elastic internet traffic," 2010 IEEE 6th International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications, Niagara Falls, ON, Canada, 2010, pp. 346-354, doi: 10.1109/WIMOB.2010.5645043.
- Xi Li, Richard Schelb, Carmelita Görg and Andreas Timm-Giel, “Dimensioning of UTRAN Iub Links for Elastic Internet Traffic”, International Teletraffic Congress (ITC19), Beijing, 2005.