Giovanni Grieco

Counter-drone sensing and 6G drone networks «de' remi facemmo ali al folle volo»

Giovanni Grieco is a scientist at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Ispra, Italy, where he works on detecting the electromagnetic emissions of uncooperative and silent drones. He holds a PhD in Electrical and Information Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Bari, with a background spanning telecommunication engineering, computer science, and cybersecurity.

Email Giovanni Read the publications

person.jsonldschema.org

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  "@type": "Person",
  "name": "Giovanni Grieco",
  "jobTitle": "Project Officer",
  "worksFor": "European Commission, JRC",
  "workLocation": "Ispra, Italy",
  "identifier": "orcid:0000-0002-6326-4244",
  "knowsAbout": ["Counter-UAS", "6G NTN", "ns-3"]
}

The same record search engines and AI assistants read on this page.

174citations

8h-index

6i10-index

19publications

Source: Google Scholar, as of 7 October 2026.

Research

Four threads, one question: how do drones and the networks around them behave — and misbehave — in real airspace?

Counter-UAS detection and sensor fusion

Detecting, tracking and identifying unauthorised drones near critical infrastructure. No single sensor is enough: radar struggles with small plastic airframes, RF detection with autonomous flights, cameras with darkness and range. The work fuses radar, radio-frequency, electro-optical and acoustic streams into one track. Experimental research is being conducted to complement these systems with highly-sensitive equipment able to detect drone electromagnetic emissions.

Sensors: Radar · RF · electro-optical · acoustic
Software: SeDaFuV (C++, open source, self-hosted)
Current project: EMERALD — drone EM emissions, JRC Ispra

A drone over fog at dusk, boxed by a tracking bracket with radar range rings and its predicted path

Related papers

2025
Detection, Tracking, and Identification of Drones: an Overview on Counter-UAS Techniques, and Open Challenges
2025 Integrated Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Conference (ICNS)
2025
Towards an Open-Source Simulation Platform for Counter-UAS Sensor Fusion
2025 16th IFIP Wireless and Mobile Networking Conference (WMNC)
2024
Counter-drone systems and data fusion
JRC Technical Report, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg

Simulating 6G terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks

IoD-Sim is a system-level simulator for the Internet of Drones built on ns-3. It models drones, network access points and the Zone Service Provider over IEEE 802.11, LTE and 5G NR, and since version 4.1 adds LEO and GEO satellites so integrated terrestrial/non-terrestrial 6G scenarios can be described in high-level and reproducible JSON files.

Built on: ns-3 + 5G-LENA NR module
Links: IEEE 802.11 · LTE · 5G NR · LEO/GEO satellite
Scenarios: JSON configuration, no recompilation

A radio telescope at night linked by beams to a LEO satellite and a hovering drone

Related papers

2025
IoD-Sim: An Open-Source Simulator for 6G Integrated Terrestrial/Non-Terrestrial Networks
Computer Networks (Elsevier), vol. 274, 111876
2024
A System-Level Simulation Module for Multi-UAV IRS-Assisted Communications
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 73, no. 5
2023
Preliminary Performance Evaluation of a Satellite-to-HAP Communication Link
European Wireless 2023; 28th European Wireless Conference, Rome
2023
Internet of Drones Simulator: Design, Implementation, and Performance Evaluation
IEEE Internet of Things Journal, vol. 10, no. 2

Experimental UAV communication testbeds

Simulation results only count once they survive real radios. The lab work moves drone control and video over 5G and Wi-Fi 6 using open RAN software stacks, software-defined radios and embedded compute on board — indoors first, then in the field.

RAN stacks: OpenAirInterface · srsRAN
Radios: USRP B210 · USRP X410 · bladeRF xA9
On board: NVIDIA Jetson Orin/Nano · ROS 2 · Wi-Fi 6

A white quadcopter over a forest with signal arcs showing a live radio link

Related papers

2025
Design and Experimental Evaluation of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Communications
PhD thesis, Polytechnic University of Bari
2025
An Indoor Experimental Testbed for 5G-Based UAV Control and Communication
2025 21st International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob)
2025
Towards the Integration of Terrestrial and Non-Terrestrial Networks: a Testbed for in-Lab Evaluation
2025 17th International Congress on Ultra Modern Telecommunications and Control Systems and Workshops (ICUMT)

Security of networked systems

Identity and access control for digital service chains, security plugins for Apache Kafka with JWT/OAuth2 and time-bound ACLs, and fuzzing of 5G control-plane procedures between user equipment and the AMF to surface denial-of-service weaknesses.

Project: H2020 GUARD
Stack: WSO2 · Apache Kafka · Keycloak
Teaching: Ethical Hacking

Network switch and patch cables with glowing data paths marked by shield outlines

Related papers

2022
Authentication and Authorization in Cyber-Security Frameworks: a Novel Approach for Securing Digital Service Chains
2022 IEEE 8th International Conference on Network Softwarization (NetSoft), Milan
2022
A Reference Architecture for Management of Security Operations in Digital Service Chains
Cybersecurity of Digital Service Chains, Lecture Notes in Computer Science vol. 13300, Springer

IoD-Sim, the open simulator behind the papers

IoD-Sim is a system-level simulator for the Internet of Drones built on ns-3. Scenarios — drones, access points, LTE and 5G NR base stations, LEO and GEO satellites — are written as JSON and run without recompiling.

Giovanni started it as his bachelor’s thesis in 2019 and has extended it through his PhD; it is described in the IEEE Internet of Things Journal and in Computer Networks.

telematics-lab/IoD_Sim on GitHub

Quick startfrom the project README

# install deps, fetch ns-3 and apply IoD-Sim patches
$ ./tools/install-dependencies.sh
$ ./tools/prepare-ns3.sh
$ ./tools/configure-iodsim.sh

# build, then run a JSON scenario
$ cd ns3 && ./ns3 build
$ ./ns3 run scenario -- --config=../scenario/simple_wifi.json

Illustration of an IoD-Sim scenario: drones over a city linked to rooftop 5G base stations and a LEO satellite — Drones, 5G NR base stations and a LEO satellite — the kind of scenario one JSON file describes. Illustration.

Selected publications

The most cited and most recent work. Citation counts from Google Scholar.

2026

A Survey on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) Communications: State-of-the-Art, Existing Standards and Future Directions

Fabrizio Granelli, Yan-Ping Lu, Qingqing Wu, Zhenhui Yuan, Aly Sabri Abdalla, Vuk Marojevic, …, Giovanni Grieco, et al.

IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society

doi:10.1109/ojcoms.2026.3675046

@article{granelli2026survey,
  title = {{A Survey on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) Communications: State-of-the-Art, Existing Standards and Future Directions}},
  author = {Fabrizio Granelli and Yan-Ping Lu and Qingqing Wu and Zhenhui Yuan and Aly Sabri Abdalla and Vuk Marojevic and Yifan Jiang and Fatemeh Afghah and Giovanni Geraci and Anandarup Mukherjee and Sabur Baidya and Giovanni Grieco and Abid Yaqoob and Muhammad Abul Hassan and Kamesh R. Namuduri and Ranga Rao Venkatesha Prasad and Laaziz Lahlou and John Sengendo and Gabriel‐Miro Muntean},
  journal = {IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1109/ojcoms.2026.3675046},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1109/ojcoms.2026.3675046}
}

15 citations

2025

IoD-Sim: An Open-Source Simulator for 6G Integrated Terrestrial/Non-Terrestrial Networks

Giovanni Grieco, Daniele Pugliese, Adnan Rashid, Ilaria Cianci

Computer Networks (Elsevier), vol. 274, 111876

doi:10.1016/j.comnet.2025.111876

@article{grieco2025iodsim,
  title = {{IoD-Sim: An Open-Source Simulator for 6G Integrated Terrestrial/Non-Terrestrial Networks}},
  author = {Giovanni Grieco and Daniele Pugliese and Adnan Rashid and Ilaria Cianci},
  journal = {Computer Networks (Elsevier), vol. 274, 111876},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/j.comnet.2025.111876},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2025.111876}
}

2 citations

2025

Detection, Tracking, and Identification of Drones: an Overview on Counter-UAS Techniques, and Open Challenges

Giovanni Grieco, Danilo Amendola, D. Chris Anderson

2025 Integrated Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Conference (ICNS)

doi:10.1109/icns65417.2025.10976862

@inproceedings{grieco2025detection,
  title = {{Detection, Tracking, and Identification of Drones: an Overview on Counter-UAS Techniques, and Open Challenges}},
  author = {Giovanni Grieco and Danilo Amendola and D. Chris Anderson},
  booktitle = {2025 Integrated Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Conference (ICNS)},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1109/icns65417.2025.10976862},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1109/icns65417.2025.10976862}
}

9 citations

2024

A System-Level Simulation Module for Multi-UAV IRS-Assisted Communications

Giovanni Grieco, Giovanni Iacovelli, Daniele Pugliese, Domenico Striccoli, Luigi Alfredo Grieco

IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 73, no. 5

doi:10.1109/tvt.2023.3342298

@article{grieco2024systemlevel,
  title = {{A System-Level Simulation Module for Multi-UAV IRS-Assisted Communications}},
  author = {Giovanni Grieco and Giovanni Iacovelli and Daniele Pugliese and Domenico Striccoli and Luigi Alfredo Grieco},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 73, no. 5},
  year = {2024},
  doi = {10.1109/tvt.2023.3342298},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1109/tvt.2023.3342298}
}

17 citations

2024

Fair Energy and Data Rate Maximization in UAV-Powered IoT-Satellite Integrated Networks

Giovanni Iacovelli, Giovanni Grieco, Antonio Petrosino, Luigi Alfredo Grieco, Gennaro Boggia

IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 72, no. 4

doi:10.1109/tcomm.2023.3343417

@article{iacovelli2024fair,
  title = {{Fair Energy and Data Rate Maximization in UAV-Powered IoT-Satellite Integrated Networks}},
  author = {Giovanni Iacovelli and Giovanni Grieco and Antonio Petrosino and Luigi Alfredo Grieco and Gennaro Boggia},
  journal = {IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 72, no. 4},
  year = {2024},
  doi = {10.1109/tcomm.2023.3343417},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1109/tcomm.2023.3343417}
}

20 citations

2023

Internet of Drones Simulator: Design, Implementation, and Performance Evaluation

Giovanni Grieco, Giovanni Iacovelli, Pietro Boccadoro, Luigi Alfredo Grieco

IEEE Internet of Things Journal, vol. 10, no. 2

doi:10.1109/jiot.2022.3207324

@article{grieco2023internet,
  title = {{Internet of Drones Simulator: Design, Implementation, and Performance Evaluation}},
  author = {Giovanni Grieco and Giovanni Iacovelli and Pietro Boccadoro and Luigi Alfredo Grieco},
  journal = {IEEE Internet of Things Journal, vol. 10, no. 2},
  year = {2023},
  doi = {10.1109/jiot.2022.3207324},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1109/jiot.2022.3207324}
}

40 citations

All 19 publications

Career

From railway diagnostics to the Joint Research Centre, by way of a PhD on drone communications.

2026–Present
Project Officer (Scientist)Runs EMERALD, a project that detects the electromagnetic emissions of drones for counter-terrorism applications.
European Commission, Joint Research Centre — Centre for Advanced Studies
Ispra, Italy
2025
Research Engineer — ISP5G+ projectDesigned 5G and beyond-5G testbeds on OpenAirInterface and srsRAN with USRP B210, USRP X410 and bladeRF xA9 radios.
Polytechnic University of Bari
Bari, Italy
2024–2026
Research Engineer, external service provider to the JRCBuilt SeDaFuV, an open-source C++ proof of concept that identifies and tracks UAVs by fusing radar, RF, optical and acoustic streams.
Piksel S.r.l. for the European Commission Joint Research Centre
Bari, Italy
2024
Research Engineer — RESTART ITA-NTNStudied hybrid terrestrial/non-terrestrial architectures for 5G-Advanced and 6G, focusing on handover and radio resource management across LEO/GEO constellations (3GPP Rel-17+).
CNIT — National Inter-University Consortium for Telecommunications
Bari, Italy
2024
Research TraineeBuilt a counter-UAS platform to protect critical infrastructure, integrating DeDrone detection hardware and PTZ cameras.
European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Geel, Belgium
2023–2025
R&D Embedded & Wireless EngineerDeveloped MANET architectures so UAVs, rovers and ground control stations interoperate, on NVIDIA Jetson Orin and Nano.
Polytechnic University of Bari
Bari, Italy

Full curriculum vitae