Pedro Merino-Gomez

Pedro Merino Gómez is Professor of Computer Networks at the University of Málaga (UMA). He is Director of the Institute for Software Technology and Software Engineering of UMA (ITIS Software). His research activity currently focuses on the field of software for mobile networks, and especially on the creation of advanced laboratory environments for research and technology transfer in the field of 5G/6G networks. Currently, Pedro Merino represents UMA in international organizations like 6G IA, SNS JU, ETSI, 3GPP and ERCIM. He is a member of the Trials WG and the Technology Board of SNS JU. He has participated in 16 European projects, being coordinator of EUWIRELESS and technical director of the SAID, 5GENESIS and 6G-SANDBOX projects. In Spain he is coordinating the projects 5G+TACTILE, VICTORIA and VITORIA-SATELLITE to construct a Center of Excellence in 5G/6G called VICTORIA-NETWORK.

He completed his doctoral thesis at the University of Malaga in the field of formal techniques for communications protocols with a Research Staff Training scholarship, partially at the Queen Mary University of London. Along these lines, he has contributed to the development of the automatic software analysis method called model checking and its application to specific problems of industry and public agencies, such as the analysis of the software of Keysight Technologies' mobile network emulators (through several contracts of transfer), or an intelligent reservoir management system for the Andalusian Mediterranean Basin (through contracts with Abengoa and as technical coordinator of the European SAID project). In the perior 2005 and 2008 he coordinated the FMICS (Formal Methods for Industrial Critical Systems) working group, which functions as a network of excellence with more than 100 researchers from 18 countries specialized in formal techniques. In recent years, his activity includes mobile communications networks and the transition from these networks to 5G and 6G, in which virtualization and software control play an essential role. Its main lines of work are mechanisms to improve latency in mobile networks (deterministic networks, software define networks, time sensitive networking, ..) and the construction of 5G experimentation laboratories at the UMA.

Within the framework of contracts and projects, Pedro Merino has collaborated with more than 80 companies and public entities at a national and international level such as Airbus France, Abengoa Spain, ADIF, Atos Spain, Malaga City Council, Ministry of the Environment Andalusia, Cosmote Grecia , DEKRA Spain, Intel Germany, Ericsson Ireland, Fraunhofer, GÉANT Netherlands, INRIA France, Keysigth Technologies Europe and USA, Nordunet Denmark, Nokia Spain, Telefonica R&D, VTT Finland, University College London or Sorbonne Université. He was a member of the executive committee of ERCIM, the largest European computer science research consortium. He has participated in 40 international conference program committees.

Selected publications (full list at dblp)

  1. Delia Rico, María-del-Mar Gallardo, Pedro Merino: Verification of a multi-connectivity protocol for Tactile Internet applications, Computer Communications (2023). DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.comcom.2023.10.013
  2. Francisco Luque-Schempp, Laura Panizo, María-del-Mar Gallardo, Pedro Merino: AutomAdapt: Zero Touch Configuration of 5G QoS Flows Extended for Time-Sensitive Networking. IEEE Access 11:82960-82977 (2023). DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3302264
  3. Delia Rico, Karl-Johan Grinemmo, Anna Brunström, Pedro Merino: Performance Analysis of the Multi-connection Tactile Internet Protocol over 5G. J. Netw. Syst. Manag. 31(3): 49 (2023). DOI. 10.1007/s10922-023-09737-0
  4. Erik Aumayr, Giuseppe Caso, Anne-Marie Bosneag, Almudena Díaz-Zayas, Özgü Alay, Bruno García, Konstantinos Kousias, Anna Brunström, Pedro Merino Gómez, Harilaos Koumaras:Service-based Analytics for 5G open experimentation platforms. Computer Networks 205: 108740 (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.comnet.2021.108740
  5. Francisco Luque-Schempp, Laura Panizo, María-del-Mar Gallardo, Pedro Merino, Javier Rivas: Toward Zero Touch Configuration of 5G Non-Public Networks for Time Sensitive Networking. IEEE Netw. 36(2): 50-56 (2022). DOI: 10.1109/MNET.006.2100442
  6. Valera-Muros, B., Panizo, L., Rios, A., Merino-Gomez, P.: An Architecture for Creating Slices to Experiment on Wireless Networks. Journal of Network and Systems Management 29 (1) (2021). DOI: 10.1007/s10922-020-09571-8
  7. Delia Rico, Pedro Merino: A Survey of End-to-End Solutions for Reliable Low-Latency Communications in 5G Networks. IEEE Access 8: 192808-192834 (2020). DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3032726
  8. Almudena Díaz-Zayas, Giuseppe Caso, Özgü Alay, Pedro Merino, Anna Brunström, Dimitris Tsolkas, Harilaos Koumaras: A Modular Experimentation Methodology for 5G Deployments: The 5GENESIS Approach. Sensors 20(22): 6652 (2020). DOI: 10.1007/s10009-020-00550-7
  9. Almudena Díaz-Zayas, Bruno García, Pedro Merino: An End-to-End Automation Framework for Mobile Network Testbeds. Mob. Syst. Info. 2019: 2563917:1-2563917:8 (2019) DOI: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/misy/2019/2563917/
  10. Espada, Ana Rosario; Gallardo, M. Del Mar; Salmerón, Alberto; Panizo, Laura; Merino, Pedro: A formal approach to automatically analyze extra-functional properties in mobile applications. In Journal of Software: Testing, Verification and Reliability. Wiley, 2019. DOI: 10.1002/stvr.1699
  11. Alvaro Rios , Barbara Valera-Muros , Pedro Merino, Jerry Sobieski : Expanding GÉANT Testbeds Service to Support Pan-European 5G Network Slices for Research in the EuWireless Project. Mob. Syst. Info. 2019 : 6249247:1-6249247:13 (2019). DOI: 10.1155/2019/6249247 DOI: https://www.hindawi.com/journals/misy/2019/6249247/
  12. Cesar A. García-Pérez, Pedro Merino: Experimental evaluation of fog computing techniques to reduce latency in LTE networks. Trans. Emerg. Telecommun. Technol. 29(4) (2018) DOI: 10.1002/ett.3201
  13. María-del-Mar Gallardo, Pedro Merino, Laura Panizo, Alberto Salmerón: Integrating river basin DSSs with model checking. Int. J. Softw. Tools Technol. Transfer 20(5): 499-514 (2018). DOI: 10.1007/s10009-017-0478-x

Selected conferences (full list at dblp)

  1. María-del-Mar Gallardo, Pedro Merino, Laura Panizo: The Role of Abstraction in Model Checking. Analysis, Verification and Transformation for Declarative Programming and Intelligent Systems 2023: 151-169, 2022.
  2. Harilaos Koumaras et al.: A network programmability framework for vertical applications in the beyond 5G era. EuCNC 2022: 375-380.
  3. Delia Rico, Karl-Johan Grinnemo, Anna Brunström, Pedro Merino: Implementation and evaluation of the Multi-connection Tactile Internet Protocol and API. NOMS 2022: 1-6 , 2021.
  4. Lambros Sarakis et al.,: Cost-Efficient 5G Non-Public Network Roll-Out: The Affordable5G Approach. MeditCom 2021: 221-227.
  5. Delia Rico, María-del-Mar Gallardo, Pedro Merino: Modeling and verification of the Multi-connection Tactile Internet Protocol. Q2SWinet 2021: 105-114 , 2019.
  6. Barbara Valera-Muros, Pedro Merino Gómez: Is GAÉNT Testbeds Service compliant with ETSI MANO? 5G World Forum 2019: 502-507.
  7. María-del-Mar Gallardo, Francisco Luque-Schempp, Pedro Merino Gómez, Laura Panizo: How Formal Methods Can Contribute to 5G Networks. From Software Engineering to Formal Methods and Tools, and Back 2019: 548-571.
  8. Iván González Muriel, Álvaro Martín Heredia, Pedro Merino Gómez: Testbed to experiment with LTE WiFi Aggregation. EuCNC 2019: 506-511.
  9. Almudena Díaz-Zayas, Delia Rico, Bruno García, Pedro Merino: A Coordination Framework for Experimentation in 5G Testbeds: URLLC as Use Case. MobiWac 2019: 71-79 , 2018.
  10. Almudena Díaz-Zayas, Andrea F. Cattoni, Carlos Cárdenas, Oscar Castañeda, Janie Baños Polglase, Pedro Merino, Michael Dieudonne:, TRIANGLE: a Platform to Validate 5G KPIs in End to End scenarios. CAMAD 2018: 1-7.
  11. Harilaos Koumaras et al., 5GENESIS: The Genesis of a flexible 5G Facility. CAMAD 2018: 1-6.

Selection of projects

Title of the contract, company with which it is contracted, duration and execution period, coordinating institution, UMA budget, Pedro Merino's role in the project.

  1. 6G-SANDBOX. Supporting Architectural and technological Network evolutions through an intelligent, secureD and twinning enaBled Open eXperimentation facility, European Commission Grant agreement ID: 101096328, 36 months, 2023-2025, €8,546,551, €517,000, Technical manager.
  2. FIDAL - Field Trials beyond 5G, European Commission Grant agreement ID: 101096146 , 36 months, 2023-2025, €17,349,527, €493,750, Co-scientific director at UMA.
  3. 5G+TACTILE: Deterministic communications over 5G with Digital Twins of network and services, MINETAD-Spanish Government, TSI-063000-2021-(11,16,17,25,26), 36 months, 2022-2024, 4M€ Coordinator.
  4. 5G Emulator, MICINN-Spanish Government, EQ19-00-5650-P, 2029-2022, €786,000, scientific director.
  5. Victoria: infrastructure for reseach and innovation in 5G with core at ITIS/UMA, MINETAD, TSI-064100-2022-21, 2022-2025, €2M, Scientific director.
  6. Victoria-Satellite: extending Victoria Network in Malaga to collaborate with ESA in integration of 5G with NTN, MINETAD, TSI-064100-2023-5, €1,985,000
  7. RFOG. Improving latency and reliability for FOG computing for critical applications, MICINN-Spanish Government, RTI2018-099777-B-I00, 36 months, 2019-2022, €179,000 Co-scientific director.
  8. Affordable 5G, High-tech and affordable 5G network roll-out to every corner, European Commission H2020-ICT-42-2020: 5G PPP – 5G core technologies innovation, Grant Agreement 957317, 24 months, 2020-2022, Atos (Spain) , €6.8 M, (€342,000 UMA). Scientific director at UMA.
  9. EVOLVED 5G, Experimentation and Validation Openness for Long-term evolution of VErtical in Industries in 5G era and beyond, ICT-41-2020 - 5G PPP – 5G innovations for verticals with third party services, 36 months, 2020-2023, Telefonica (Spain) , €8M, €323,000 UMA) Co-scientific director at UMA.
  10. 5GEPICENTRE, 5G ExPerimentation Infrastructure hosting Cloud-nativE Netapps for public protection and disaster Relief, European Commission Grant agreement ID: 101016521, 36 months, 2021-2024, €7,883,726, €391,250, Co-scientific director at UMA.
  11. 5Genesis. 5th Generation End-to-end Network, Experimentation, System Integration, and Showcasing, European Commission, H2020-ICT-17 5G End to End Facility, Grant Agreement 815178, 42 months, 2018-2021, Demokritos (Grece), 15.8M €, (€891,000 UMA). European project scientific director.
  12. EuWireless. Design of the European mobile network operator for research, European Commission, H2020-INFRADEV-01-2017 Design Studies, Grant Agreement 777517, 24 months, 2018-2019, UMA (Spain), €2M, (€414,000 UMA). European project coordinator.
  13. Federation for FIRE+ (Fed4FiIRE+), European Commission, H2020- ICT-13-2016 - Future Internet Experimentation - Building a European experimental Infrastructure, Grant Agreement Number 732638, 60 months, 2017-2022, iMEC (Belgium), €11.6M, (€94,000 UMA). Scientific director at UMA.
  14. TRIANGLE. 5G applications and devices benchmarking, European Commission. H2020-ICT-12-2015 - Integrating experiments and facilities in FIRE+, Grant Agreement 688712, 36 months, 2016-2018, Keysight Technologies (Belgium), €2.9M, (€608,000 UMA). Scientific director at UMA.

Selection of contracts

Title of the contract, company with which it is contracted, duration and execution period, coordinating institution, UMA budget, Pedro Merino's role in the project.

  1. Research in Digital Twins and Quality of Experience, Keysight Technologies Belgium, €28,000, 2024-2025), Scientific director
  2. Broadport, subcontracting in H2020 project BroadWay:Enabling a pan-European broadband mobile system for PPDR”, Subcontracting led by Frequentis (Austria), 8.06/6.18.6046 , 8.06/6.18.5654 ,2020-2022 (€60,000+€60,000) . scientific director
  3. MCX Plugtest, Subcontracting by ETSI (France), 8.06/6.18.6643 , 8.06/6.18.6285 , 8.06/6.18.6285 , 8.06/6.18.5957 , 2021,2022,2023 (25,000+25,000+25,000). scientific director
  4. Connecting 5G emulator with core network, 8.06/6.18.5545, 2020-2021, €30,000 Scientific director
  5. SIGO: Innovative solutions for pre-5G communications, Keysight Technologies (formerly Agilent Technologies), 30 months, 2015-2018, €280,000, Scientific director
  6. 4Green, Wireless Devices Global Testing and Certification Management System, Keysight Technologies 36 months, 2012- 2014, €357,000, Scientific director
  7. Development of Technologies and Tools to facilitate the deployment of the new 4G communications networks, AT4 wireless, 48 months, 2009-2012, €1,083,677, Scientific director
  8. Development of a Decision Support System for Dam management, BEFESA-ABENGOA Water- CENIT TECOAGUA, 36 months, 2009-2012, €205,000 Scientific director at UMA

Selection of programm committees

  1. PIMRC (IEEE International Symposium on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications), Member of the scientific committee, 2008 to 2024
  2. FMICS (International Workshop on Formal Methods for Industrial Critical Systems), Member of the scientific committee, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014,. Co-chair in 2007 with Stefan Leue
  3. SPIN (International Symposium on Model Checking of Software), Member of the scientific committee, 2004, 2007, 2015, 2016, co-chair in 2012 with Maria del Mar Gallardo
  4. JICT (International Conference on Science and Technology), 2007. Co-chair.
  5. SAM (Systems Analysis and Modeling), Member of the scientific committee, 2010, 2012, 2014
  6. CITA (Ibero-american Congress on Telematics), Member of the scientific committee, 2001
  7. WCNC (IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference), Member of the scientific committee, 2009
  8. CONQUEST (International Conference on Quality Engineering in Software Technology), Member of the scientific committee ,2007, 2008, 2009.
  9. SEFM (IEEE International Conferences on Software Engineering and Formal Methods), 2008
  10. ICUMT (International Congress on Ultra Modern Telecommunications and Control Systems), Member of the scientific committee, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016
  11. NEW2AN (Next Generation Wired/Wireless Advanced Networking), Member of the scientific committee, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016
  12. rusMART, Member of the scientific committee, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
  13. MSVVEIS (International Workshop on on Modelling, Simulation,Verification and Validation of Enterprise Information Systems ), Member of the scientific committee, 2007 to 2011
  14. SDL Forum (Model Driven Dependability Engineering), Member of the scientific committee, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015
  15. 1EUROPAR, Member of the scientific committee, 2008.
  16. ISSRE04:WITUL (Workshop on Integrated-reliability with Telecommunications and UML Languages), Member of the scientific committee, 2004.
  17. WoRIE (Workshop on Reliable Intelligent Environments), Member of the scientific committee 2013, 201