Research project seeks to perfect intelligent antenna system

Researchers at the University of Waterloo are working on new antenna technology that could significantly increase bandwidth and efficiency of fourth-generation wireless services, and results of the research could be seen in as little as two years. The private sector, government and other universities are also participating in the $13.3-million project.Cash and in-kind commitments have come from Research in Motion, Nortel Networks, Bell Canada, Atria Networks and the Communications Research Centre (CRC). The Ontario Research Fund also seeded the project with a $4.3 million grant.According to professor Amir Khandani, who is spearheading the project as part of his work at the University of Waterloo's electrical and computer engineering department, the initiative aims to develop a networked multiple antenna system that will enable wireless devices to share the same radio frequency spectrum.Known as intelligent multiple antenna structures for adaptive wireless systems, the technology will operate in almost any spectrum band from 1 GHz to 65 GHz and work equally well in both metropolitan and rural areas. While the system has already been proven to work, Khandani says, the current challenge, "is to get it into a smaller size, smaller power consumption and lower cost."The project addresses the fundamental barriers posed by limited radio spectrum, a factor which Khandani believes is hampering growth within the wireless marketplace. Spectrum is a finite resource that nature has given us," he says, "but when you can have a number of users sharing that spectrum, it is a whole new ball game."In areas like downtown Toronto, there is a limited geographic area and available spectrum where service providers can operate. This leads directly to high operating costs. A multiple antenna system, however, allows services providers to multiply the amount of capacity that is available to them. "So instead of having a one story building on a piece of land, you now have a 10 story building," Khandani adds.Nortel is participating in the project in order to perfect a new base station, while RIM is interested in integrating the technology into base stations and handsets. Bell and Atria are looking to increase the overall capacity of their networks.A blended solutionJohn Sydor, research manager at the CRC, says the project's participants are seeking to blend multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) and cognitive radio into a single coherent system that can "reuse frequencies".Sydor says there is a lot of hype right now with MIMO, as it has the potential to offer significant increases in data throughput and range without the need for additional bandwidth or transmission power. "One of the things cellular service providers complain about is that MIMO is expensive to implement, while the amount of capacity increase you get is not that great," he notes, adding more experiments need to be conducted and standards set before MIMO can become a viable commercial product.Cognitive radio has similar potential to MIMO in that it enables wireless devices and networks to intelligently assess how much capacity is available on a given network and adjust their operating parameters to utilize spectrum more efficiently."The issue with MIMO is that it works well in high multi-path areas like downtown cores, but it doesn't work as well outside of that zone," says Sydor. "So we're looking at ways of taking these cognitive radio features and using them in some situations, while using MIMO in others."Sydor says the CRC has collaborated on the project with the goal of improving spectrum utilization, setting standards and working with Canadian industry to transform "blue sky" ideas into viable commercial products. The research centre's contribution has been primarily through the provision of research facilities, equipment and researchers, along with a small amount of direct funding.

Research project seeks to perfect intelligent antenna system

News | August 28, 2008

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