arXiv subjects

Khalid Ali

Publications and source records attributed to Khalid Ali.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Lightweight PID-Based Drift Mitigation for Cellular Traffic Forecasting

As mobile networks transition from Beyond 5G (B5G) towards 6G, accurate traffic forecasting is a prerequisite for improving network management. However, with increasing heterogeneity and a massive surge in connected devices, combined with dynamically evolving traffic patterns, accurate forecasting is a persistent bottleneck. Existing frameworks, while generally effective, often lack efficiency and degrade under drift, thus requiring costly model retraining to restore performance. In this paper, we propose a lightweight error correction framework that improves forecasting accuracy by integrating a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller as a correction layer enhancing Hierarchical Spatio-temporal Models (HiSTM). Unlike retraining-based model adaptation, our framework performs online error correction without modifying the model parameters. Results from the proposed framework, evaluated across drift scenarios and cell-level analysis, demonstrate reduced Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), achieving an average drift mitigation of up to 30.18\% in MAE and 26.68\% in RMSE, thereby validating the robustness of the PID framework as a drift mitigation mechanism for network traffic forecasting.

cs.ET↗

arXiv2026

Spatial PDE-aware Selective State-space with Nested Memory for Mobile Traffic Grid Forecasting

Traffic forecasting in cellular networks is a challenging spatiotemporal prediction problem due to strong temporal dependencies, spatial heterogeneity across cells, and the need for scalability to large network deployments. Traditional cell-specific models incur prohibitive training and maintenance costs, while global models often fail to capture heterogeneous spatial dynamics. Recent spatiotemporal architectures based on attention or graph neural networks improve accuracy but introduce high computational overhead, limiting their applicability in large-scale or real-time settings. We study spatiotemporal grid forecasting, where each time step is a 2D lattice of traffic values, and predict the next grid patch using previous patches. We propose NeST-S6, a convolutional selective state-space model (SSM) with a spatial PDE-aware core, implemented in a nested learning paradigm: convolutional local spatial mixing feeds a spatial PDE-aware SSM core, while a nested-learning long-term memory is updated by a learned optimizer when one-step prediction errors indicate unmodeled dynamics. On the mobile-traffic grid (Milan dataset) at three resolutions (202, 502, 1002), NeST-S6 attains lower errors than a strong Mamba-family baseline in both single-step and 6-step autoregressive rollouts. Under drift stress tests, our model's nested memory lowers MAE by 48-65% over a no-memory ablation. NeST-S6 also speeds full-grid reconstruction by 32 times and reduces MACs by 4.3 times compared to competitive per-pixel scanning models, while achieving 61% lower per-pixel RMSE.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2025

HiSTM: Hierarchical Spatiotemporal Mamba for Cellular Traffic Forecasting

Cellular traffic forecasting is essential for network planning, resource allocation, or load-balancing traffic across cells. However, accurate forecasting is difficult due to intricate spatial and temporal patterns that exist due to the mobility of users. Existing AI-based traffic forecasting models often trade-off accuracy and computational efficiency. We present Hierarchical SpatioTemporal Mamba (HiSTM), which combines a dual spatial encoder with a Mamba-based temporal module and attention mechanism. HiSTM employs selective state space methods to capture spatial and temporal patterns in network traffic. In our evaluation, we use a real-world dataset to compare HiSTM against several baselines, showing a 29.4% MAE improvement over the STN baseline while using 94% fewer parameters. We show that the HiSTM generalizes well across different datasets and improves in accuracy over longer time-horizons.

cs.NI↗

arXiv2025

Enhancing Spatiotemporal Networks with xLSTM: A Scalar LSTM Approach for Cellular Traffic Forecasting

Accurate spatiotemporal traffic forecasting is vital for intelligent resource management in 5G and beyond. However, conventional AI approaches often fail to capture the intricate spatial and temporal patterns that exist, due to e.g., the mobility of users. We introduce a lightweight, dual-path Spatiotemporal Network that leverages a Scalar LSTM (sLSTM) for efficient temporal modeling and a three-layer Conv3D module for spatial feature extraction. A fusion layer integrates both streams into a cohesive representation, enabling robust forecasting. Our design improves gradient stability and convergence speed while reducing prediction error. Evaluations on real-world datasets show superior forecast performance over ConvLSTM baselines and strong generalization to unseen regions, making it well-suited for large-scale, next-generation network deployments. Experimental evaluation shows a 23% MAE reduction over ConvLSTM, with a 30% improvement in model generalization.

cs.LG↗