In this paper, we set out to answer the question on which is better: neural network quantization or pruning? By answering this question, we hope to inform design decisions made on neural network hardware going forward. We provide an extensive comparison between the two techniques for compressing deep neural networks.

Channel state information (CSI) acquisition is a challenging problem in massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) networks. Radio maps provide a promising solution for radio resource management by reducing online CSI acquisition. However, conventional approaches for radio map construction require location-labeled CSI data, which is challenging in practice. This paper investigates unsupervised angular power map construction based on large timescale CSI data collected in a massive MIMO network without location labels. A hidden Markov model (HMM) is built to connect the hidden trajectory of a mobile with the CSI evolution of a massive MIMO channel. As a result, the mobile location can be estimated, enabling the construction of an angular power map. We show that under uniform rectilinear mobility with Poisson-distributed base stations (BSs), the Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) for localization error can vanish at any signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), whereas when BSs are confined to a limited region, the error remains nonzero even with infinite independent measurements. Based on reference signal received power (RSRP) data collected in a real multi-cell massive MIMO network, an average localization error of 18 meters can be achieved although measurements are mainly obtained from a single serving cell.

The quality and experience of mobile communication have significantly improved with the introduction of 5G, and these improvements are expected to continue beyond the 5G era. However, vulnerabilities in control-plane protocols, such as Radio Resource Control (RRC) and Non-Access Stratum (NAS), pose significant security threats, such as Blind Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. Despite the availability of existing anomaly detection methods that leverage rule-based systems or traditional machine learning methods, these methods have several limitations, including the need for extensive training data, predefined rules, and limited explainability. Addressing these challenges, we propose a novel anomaly detection framework that leverages the capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) in zero-shot mode with unordered data and short natural language attack descriptions within the Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) architecture. We analyse robustness to prompt variation, demonstrate the practicality of automating the attack descriptions and show that detection quality relies on the semantic completeness of the description rather than its phrasing or length. We utilise an RRC/NAS dataset to evaluate the solution and provide an extensive comparison of open-source and proprietary LLM implementations to demonstrate superior performance in attack detection. We further validate the practicality of our framework within O-RAN's real-time constraints, illustrating its potential for detecting other Layer-3 attacks.

It also enables potential positive knowledge transfer across tasks/domains, leading to improved accuracy and data-efficient training.

Modern enterprises generate vast streams of time series metrics when monitoring complex systems, known as observability data. Unlike conventional time series from domains such as weather, observability data are zero-inflated, highly stochastic, and exhibit minimal temporal structure. Despite their importance, observability datasets are underrepresented in public benchmarks due to proprietary restrictions. Existing datasets are often anonymized and normalized, removing scale information and limiting their use for tasks beyond forecasting, such as anomaly detection, root-cause analysis, and multi-modal reasoning. To address this gap, we introduce TelecomTS, a large-scale observability dataset derived from a 5G telecommunications network. TelecomTS features heterogeneous, de-anonymized covariates with explicit scale information and supports a suite of downstream tasks, including anomaly detection, root-cause analysis, and a question-answering benchmark requiring multi-modal reasoning. Benchmarking state-of-the-art time series, language, and reasoning models reveals that existing approaches struggle with the abrupt, noisy, and high-variance dynamics of observability data. Our experiments also underscore the importance of preserving covariates' absolute scale, emphasizing the need for foundation time series models that natively leverage scale information for practical observability applications.

The rapid development of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has catalyzed a transformative technological revolution across all walks of life. As the backbone of wideband communication, optical networks are expecting high-level autonomous operation and zero-touch management to accommodate their expanding network scales and escalating transmission bandwidth. The integration of GenAI is deemed as the pivotal solution for realizing zero-touch optical networks. However, the lifecycle management of optical networks involves a multitude of tasks and necessitates seamless collaboration across multiple layers, which poses significant challenges to the existing single-agent GenAI systems. In this paper, we propose a GenAI-driven hierarchical multi-agent framework designed to streamline multi-task autonomous execution for zero-touch optical networks. We present the architecture, implementation, and applications of this framework. A field-deployed mesh network is utilized to demonstrate three typical scenarios throughout the lifecycle of optical network: quality of transmission estimation in the planning stage, dynamic channel adding/dropping in the operation stage, and system capacity increase in the upgrade stage. The case studies, illustrate the capabilities of multi-agent framework in multi-task allocation, coordination, execution, evaluation, and summarization. This work provides a promising approach for the future development of intelligent, efficient, and collaborative network management solutions, paving the way for more specialized and adaptive zero-touch optical networks.

Generative ML models are increasingly popular in networking for tasks such as telemetry imputation, prediction, and synthetic trace generation. Despite their capabilities, they suffer from two shortcomings: (i) their output is often visibly violating well-known networking rules, which undermines their trustworthiness; and (ii) they are difficult to control, frequently requiring retraining even for minor changes. To address these limitations and unlock the benefits of generative models for networking, we propose a new paradigm for integrating explicit network knowledge in the form of first-order logic rules into ML models used for networking tasks. Rules capture well-known relationships among used signals, e.g., that increased latency precedes packet loss. While the idea is conceptually straightforward, its realization is challenging: networking knowledge is rarely formalized into rules, and naively injecting them into ML models often hampers ML's effectiveness. This paper introduces NetNomos a multi-stage framework that (1) learns rules directly from data (e.g., measurements); (2) filters them to distinguish semantically meaningful ones; and (3) enforces them through a collaborative generation between an ML model and an SMT solver.

This position paper presents A4FN, an Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) architecture for intent-driven automation in Flying Networks (FNs) using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as access nodes. A4FN leverages Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) to enable real-time, context-aware network control via a distributed agentic system. It comprises two components: the Perception Agent (PA), which semantically interprets multimodal input -- including imagery, audio, and telemetry data -- from UAV-mounted sensors to derive Service Level Specifications (SLSs); and the Decision-and-Action Agent (DAA), which reconfigures the network based on inferred intents. A4FN embodies key properties of Agentic AI, including autonomy, goal-driven reasoning, and continuous perception-action cycles. Designed for mission-critical, infrastructure-limited scenarios such as disaster response, it supports adaptive reconfiguration, dynamic resource management, and interoperability with emerging wireless technologies. The paper details the A4FN architecture, its core innovations, and open research challenges in multi-agent coordination and Agentic AI integration in next-generation FNs.

Abstract--The increased use of software in the operation and management of telecommunication networks has moved the industry one step closer to realizing autonomous network operation. One consequence of this shift is the significantly increased need for testing and validation before such software can be deployed. Complementing existing simulation or hardware-based approaches, digital twins present an environment to achieve this testing; however, they require significant time and human effort to configure and execute. This paper explores the automatic generation of digital twins to provide efficient and accurate validation tools, aligned to the ITU-T autonomous network architecture's experimentation subsystem. We present experimental results for an initial use case, demonstrating that the approach is feasible in automatically creating efficient digital twins with sufficient accuracy to be included as part of existing validation pipelines. I. INTRODUCTION Autonomous networks represent the holy grail of network and service management, aiming to achieve self-configuring, self-optimizing, and self-healing capabilities with minimal human intervention [1].