The objective of providing QoS guaranteed multimedia services to
mobile users is challenging to achieve and requires innovative
techniques to be developed for various problems within a RAN
(radio-access network). The purpose of this project includes research
and development of innovative and advanced physical layer signal
processing, coding and modulation schemes for enabling high-speed
broadband wireless communications, as well as techniques at the medium
access control (MAC) layer to make use of "cross-layer" strategies to
improve performance on the wireless link. The emphasis is on
"MIMO-centric cross-layer design" to substantially enhance wide-area
wireless network performance both at a single link-level and at the
system-level. The goals include:
- Development of best-in-class MIMO techniques
- Development of high performance limit approaching channel
codes
- Development of efficient radio-resource management
techniques and scheduling mechanisms at the MAC layer to incorporate
cross-layer information.
- Development of core technologies for relay-enabled wireless
networks
- Development of post-MIMO technologies including cooperative
wireless techniques
- Conduct 3GPP standardization activity
Topics
of research include advanced MIMO space-time transceiver architectures
based on SDMA technique, strategies for multi-user MIMO communication,
efficient coding schemes for emerging architectures including
cooperative/multi-relay networks, interference mitigation schemes in
multi-cell systems, efficient PHY/MAC resource allocation scheme for
wireless multihop networks, cognitive radio networks, system level
simulation for accurate and comprehensive evaluation of the ideas that
are developed.
4G Networks
The goal of this project is to develop mechanisms for capacity
improvement in 4G networks with the end goal of enhancing per user
application performance. The research covers both improvements within
the radio-access network (RAN) and the backhaul network. We
consider 4G systems as a whole, and 1) focus on novel cross-layer
mechanisms in the RAN to improve per user/application throughput, 2)
consider antenna movement and base-station positioning within the RAN
to improve link quality to different users using mobile antennas, and
3) focus on novel backhaul mechanisms applicable to flat-IP
architectures for coordinated radio-resource management.
WLAN for Enterprise
The goal of this project is to create a high throughput, Enterprise
WLAN network with increased capacity in terms of throughput and
improved battery life for mobile clients. The techniques that are being
explored in the project to achieve the above goals include coordinated
power and rate control, use of directional antennas for both
space-based and signal-based beamforming and the use of receive
diversity mechanisms.
Unified Communications
The goal of this project is to develop the architecture and the control
flow for an example set of location/context aware software applications
(Location-based services) for the Unified Communications product. The
proposed NEC UC LBS software architecture will make use of indoor
and/or outdoor location information technologies over an Enterprise
Fixed Mobile Convergence (E-FMC) platform. We will develop a common API
that will integrate location information from different location
technologies (middleware) used in different access networks (WLAN,
RFID, IrDA, GPS for cellular). This API, together with presence
information, could be used by the context-aware middleware or could be
directly used by the LBS applications.
Network Virtualization
The project has two major goals. The first goal is to design mechanisms
for building a wide-area virtualized network infrastructure with focus
on wireless and optical components (in collaboration with the optical
research group within NECLA). The second goal is to use this
infrastructure to provide QoS guaranteed end-to-end services on top of
layered virtualized networks that consist of both wired and wireless
components.
