Dimitrios Koutsonikolas
Associate Professor,
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Contact
- d.koutsonikolas@northeastern.edu
- 360 Huntington Ave - 435 ISEC
Boston, MA 02115
Office
- 424 ISEC
Research Focus
5G and Beyond networks and latency-critical applications (AR, VR, CAVs) over 5G
About
Dimitrios Koutsonikolas joined Northeastern’s Electrical and Computer Engineering department in January 2021. Previously, he was a tenured Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University at Buffalo (UB), The State University of New York. His research interests are broadly on experimental wireless networking and mobile computing, with a current focus on 5G and Beyond networks and latency-critical applications (AR, VR, CAVs) over 5G, millimeter-wave networking, and energy-aware protocol design. He is currently serving as the Editor-in Chief for IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing. He has served as the General Co-Chair for IEEE LANMAN 2024, IEEE WoWMoM 2023, and ACM EWSN 2018 and TPC Co-Chair for IEEE ICNP 2026, IEEE LANMAN 2023, IEEE HPSR 2023, IEEE DCOSS 2022, IEEE WoWMoM 2021, and IFIP Networking 2021. He has received the IEEE Region 1 Technological Innovation (Academic) Award in 2019, the UB Teaching Innovation Award in 2018, the NSF CAREER Award in 2016, the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Senior Teacher of the Year Award in 2017 and the Early Career Researcher of the Year Award in 2015, and the UB CSE Senior Researcher of the Year Award in 2019 and Early Career Faculty Teaching Award in 2015. He is a Distinguished Member of the ACM and a Senior Member of the IEEE.
Education
- PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, 2010
Honors & Awards
- ACM Distinguished Member, 2025
- ACM mmNets Best Paper Award 2019
- IEEE Region 1 Technological Innovation (Academic) Award, September 2019
- UB Teaching Innovation Award, June 2018
- Best Paper Award, IEEE WCNC 2017
- UB SEAS Senior Teacher of the Year Award, December 2017
- NSF CAREER Award, 2016
- UB SEAS Early Career Researcher of the Year Award, November 2015
- Best Paper Awards: IEEE GLOBECOM 2023, ACM WiNTECH 2022, ACM mmNets 2019, IEEE WCNC 2017, SENSORCOMM 2007
- Best Paper Award Runner-Up: IEEE IEEE NG-OPERA 2024, ACM CoNEXT 2017, ACM WiNTECH 2017
- Best Dataset Award, PAM 2021
- Community Contribution Paper Award Runner-Up: ACM CoNEXT 2025
Professional Affiliations
- ACM (Distinguished Member)
- IEEE (Senior Member)
- IEEE Computer Society
- IEEE Communications Society
- USENIX
Research Overview
5G and Beyond networks and latency-critical applications (AR, VR, CAVs) over 5G
NU Wireless Networking and Systems Lab
We conduct research in the broad areas of experimental wireless networking and mobile computing, including high performance/energy efficient protocol design and implementation, testbed prototyping, and measurement-based performance characterization. Our current focus is on 5G/NextG networks, latency-critical applications (AR, VR, CAVs) over 5G, millimeter-wave networking, and energy-aware protocol design for smartphones.
Selected Research Projects
- TARGET: Latency-aware Edge Computing for VR/AR in 5G and Beyond Networks
- – co-Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation
- An Open, Programmable Platform to Conquer the 5G and 6G Wireless Spectrum
- – Principle Investigator, National Science Foundation
- NSF: CAREER: A Millimeter-Wave Multi-Layer WLAN Architecture for Multi-Gigabit, Always-On Connectivity
- – Principle Investigator, National Science Foundation
- NeTS: Medium: Collaborative Research: Scaling WLANs in Spectrum, User Density, and Robustness
- – Principle Investigator, National Science Foundation
Research Centers and Institutes
Department Research Areas
Selected Publications
- Exploring the 5G Digital Divide in the Non-Contiguous US: LEO Satellites to the Rescue?.
Sizhe Wang, Moinak Ghoshal, Yufei Feng, Imran Khan, Phuc Dinh, Omar Basit, Zhekun Yu, Y. Charlie Hu, and Dimitrios Koutsonikolas.
In Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Measurements and Modeling of Computer Systems (SIGMETRICS 2026), Ann Arbor, Michigan, June 8-12, 2026 - Replication: Performance of Cellular Networks on the Wheels.
Moinak Ghoshal, Omar Basit, Imran Khan, Z. Jonny Kong, Sizhe Wang, Yufei Feng, Phuc Dinh, Y. Charlie Hu, and Dimitrios Koutsonikolas.
In Proceedings of the 25th ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC 2025), Madison, WI, USA, October 28-31, 2025. - 5G Metamorphosis: A Longitudinal Study of 5G Performance from the Beginning.
Omar Basit, Imran Khan, Moinak Ghoshal, Y. Charlie Hu, and Dimitrios Koutsonikolas.
In Proceedings of the 25th ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC 2025), Madison, WI, USA, October 28-31, 2025. - A First Large-Scale Study of Operational 5G Standalone Networks.
Moinak Ghoshal, Omar Basit, Sizhe Wang, Phuc Dinh, Imran Khan, Yufei Feng, Zhekun Yu, Y. Charlie Hu, and Dimitrios Koutsonikolas.
In Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on emerging Networking EXperiments and Technologies (CoNEXT 2025), Hong Kong, December 1-4, 2025. - Vivisecting Beam Management in Operational 5G mmWave Networks.
Yufei Feng, Phuc Dinh, Moinak Ghoshal, Eduardo Baena, Hamza Bouchebbah, and Dimitrios Koutsonikolas.
In Proceedings of the 21st ACM International Conference on emerging Networking EXperiments and Technologies (CoNEXT 2025), Hong Kong, December 1-4, 2025. - Performance of Cellular Networks on the Wheels.
Moinak Ghoshal, Imran Khan, Z. Jonny Kong, Phuc Dinh, Jiayi Meng, Y. Charlie Hu, and Dimitrios Koutsonikolas.
In Proceedings of the 23rd ACM Internet Measurement Conference (IMC 2023), Montreal, Canada, October 24-26, 2023.
Dec 10, 2025
Koutsonikolas Elevated to ACM Distinguished Member
ECE Associate Professor Dimitrios Koutsonikolas was recognized as a Distinguished Member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for his contributions to improving the performance of millimeter wave networks.
Feb 07, 2025
Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things Hosts Industry Conference, Showcases Research
The Institute for the Wireless Internet of Things highlighted its leadership role in wireless and smart connected systems research at its two-day conference, “Toward Open 6G Networks.” The institute plays an essential role in fostering partnerships between industry, government, and universities to develop wireless technologies for the future.
Jun 05, 2024
Best Paper Runner-Up for X5G Open Testbed
ECE PhD students, and ECE and WIOT faculty and research staff received the Best Paper Runner-Up for their paper, “An Open, Programmable, Multi-Vendor 5G O-RAN Testbed With NVIDIA ARC and OpenAir Interface,” at the 2nd Workshop on Next-Generation Open and Programmable Radio Access Networks (NG-OPERA).
May 22, 2024
Enhancing AR/VR Performance in 5G Networks
ECE Professor Edmund Yeh and Associate Professor Dimitrios Koutsonikolas, in collaboration with Mai Vu from Tufts University, were awarded a $600,000 NSF grant for “TARGET: Latency-aware Edge Computing for VR/AR in 5G and Beyond Networks.”
Nov 13, 2023
WIoT Team Wins Best Paper Award at IEEE Globecom 2023
Several College of Engineering faculty and students affiliated with the Institute for Wireless Internet of Things, together with the IMDEA Networks Institute of Madrid, received the Best Paper Award at the IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM) 2023.
Sep 23, 2021
$3M Award to Improve the Performance of 5G and 6G Wireless Networks
ECE Associate Professor Dimitrios Koutsonikolas, Professor Stefano Basagni, Professor Kaushik Chowdhury, Associate Professor Josep Jornet, and William Lincoln Smith Professor Tommaso Melodia were awarded a $3M award to create “An Open, Programmable Platform to Conquer the 5G and 6G Wireless Spectrum.”
Jan 08, 2021
New Faculty Spotlight: Dimitrios Koutsonikolas
Dimitrios Koutsonikolas joins the Electrical and Computer Engineering department in January 2021 as an Associate Professor.