The Institute of Radiocommunications is an organizational unit of the Faculty of Computing and Telecommunications of the Poznan University of Technology, with its activities focused on scientific research, higher education and research supervision in the area of wireless communications. The Institute has modern scientific infrastructure, specialized laboratories and experienced staff. It cooperates with businesses, and implements research and development projects funded by the industry, national agencies and European Commission. Research results are published in prestigious scientific books and journals, and are subject of license agreements and patents. Students and doctorate candidates are also involved in scientific research and projects, pursuing their bachelor-, master- and doctoral degrees under the supervision of the Institute’s scientific staff. The Institute cooperates with universities and research-and-development centers from Europe, Asia, Africa and North America, and its employees are members and leaders of important organizations in the area of radiocommunication.
The Institute pursues research on contemporary and future radio access networks, in particular on the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-generation cellular systems (4G, 5G and 6G). It concerns new physical-, data-link control-, medium-access control-, and network-layer techniques for achieving key performance indicators (KPI) stated for 4G, 5G and 6G. New solutions, including non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) using diverse power allocation, and space-division multiple access (SDMA) using adaptive antennas, are investigated. Moreover, effective algorithms for radio-resource management in cells of various types, and for interference coordination in pico- and femto-cells are also the subjects of research. An important direction of research is efficient duplex transmission in relay links, as well as flexible selection of relaying nodes for quality-of-service improvement in cellular networks. The investigated topic related to specific challenging applications is ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC), one of the main segments of 5G systems.
The increasing popularity of nanosatellites, e.g. in Cubesat form factor, requires new types of radio links delivering high-throughput and high-reliability communications for downloading the data from satellite payload. Research in the area of satellite communications focuses on baseband/physical layer, as well as data-link-layer algorithms and protocols which can be used for the development of cheap communication modules implemented using the Software Defined Radio (SDR) technique. In particular, energy-efficient modulation types are investigated, having in mind the limited power available on-board the satellite. Due to the tight radio link budget, advanced synchronization and channel coding schemes are considered as well. Machine learning based algorithms for optimum transmission parameters selection is another field of interests. The selected solutions are implemented using the Software Defined Radio technique, based on off-the-shelf SDR platforms and general-purpose processors, as well as dedicated hardware including FPGA chips and integrated transceivers.
See more information about satellite connectivity.
Research in the area of cognitive radio technologies includes theoretical studies and experimental trials on the acquisition of context information related to the radio environment, machine learning methods for the improvement of the quality of this information, as well as the principles of signal transmission in radio communication networks using it. In particular, the research focuses on autonomous and cooperative sensing and spectrum sharing policies based on either centralized or distributed coordination of dynamic spectrum access. Radio Environment Maps (REMs) are being investigated for their use in cognitive radio systems for the reduction of interference between systems utilizing a range of the radio frequency band. Moreover, physical-layer algorithms are being investigated that increase the spectral efficiency of systems with frequency-neighboring signal spectra.
Communication between vehicles and vehicles and infrastructure (V2X) which is one of the significant topics of 5G development, is a subject of investigations in the Institute. Part of the research was performed in the framework of cooperation with Nokia Solutions and Networks. The research team investigated traffic safety, meant as the minimization of vehicle collision probability, in the case of vehicle platoons (convoys) when a wireless communication system (e.g., IEEE 802.11p) is applied within a moving platoon. The team considered vehicle control algorithms ensuring reliability and string stability from the system theory point of view. The next research topic is lengthening the vehicle platoon by applying so-called virtual communication leaders. Subsequent research topics are related to radio resource management algorithms aiming at the minimization of packet collision probability by applying Mode 3 and 4 LTE system specialized in V2X communications. Recent investigations focus on databases and edge intelligence to support dynamic spectrum access for vehicle platooning.
Research related to communication with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) concentrate on air to ground radio channel modeling for both long-range (LOS/NLOS) and medium-range (LOS) UAV communication systems, physical layer solutions for control and telemetry radio links with high reliability and high-speed data links, as well as energy-efficient solutions for UAV communications. Original synchronization, modulation/demodulation and channel coding/decoding methods and algorithms are developed and investigated for the physical layer of UAV communication systems. The selected solutions are implemented using the Software Defined Radio (SDR) technique, based on off-the-shelf SDR platforms and general-purpose processors, as well as dedicated hardware including FPGA chips and integrated transceivers.
An important area of research in the Institute are the so-called green communications, which encompass techniques aiming at high energy efficiency in the next-generation communication and computing networks. These techniques are designed to minimize the energy per successfully transmitted and processed information unit (bit), whereas all network segments are analyzed, i.e., end-user equipment, wireless part (radio access network), wireline part (core network, Internet, long-distance optical links) and data centers implementing computational tasks. Optimization of these separate segments is considered, as well as joint optimization of the tasks transmission, offloading and computing in the network of various configurations based on edge-, cloud- and fog computing. Moreover, brain-inspired energy-efficient communication networking is a key topic of research in the Institute.
The Institute pursues research on physical layer algorithms in modern mobile radiocommunication systems. They are connected with multitone modulation using orthogonal (OFDM) and non-orthogonal subcarriers (FBMC) and non-contiguous, fragmented spectrum bands. Research work is directed towards the minimization of the out-of-band emission, reduction of non-linear distortions, reliable reception of signals and synchronization algorithms. Another field of studies encompasses channel coding using various types of error correction codes, namely, convolutional codes, turbo codes, selected types of LDPC codes and polar codes with several decoding algorithms. Moreover, bit-interleaved coded modulation with iterative decoding is investigated. Applications and improvements of transmission and reception diversity techniques are also being explored, in particular Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO) and massive MIMO (M-MIMO) technologies, and beamforming algorithms in antenna matrices.
Beginning with the introduction of commercial manufacturing of integrated circuits, electronic testing has a history of almost 60 years, and its importance cannot be overestimated. The unprecedented proliferation of digital devices in telematics, medicine, defense systems, or transportation, clearly underlines the extreme significance of their test quality. Failure to find defective circuits that constitute the heart of many life-critical or mission-critical mechanisms may lead to severe consequences. The goal of our group is to create new methods to allow the development of computer-aided tools supporting automated test generation, test data compression, built-in self-test, and design for testability. The corresponding research results are presented in prestigious publications and numerous US patents. Furthermore, several solutions have been commercialized, primarily by our industrial partner Mentor, A Siemens Business, with the introduction of award-winning VLSI test technologies, often the first solutions of this kind on the market.
Research in cybersecurity focuses on methods of detection and mitigation of attacks launched via the radio interface and new methods of data encryption, authentication, and security monitoring. Algorithms for detecting anomalies in radiocommunication traffic are being developed using artificial intelligence (AI) methods, particularly machine learning (ML), and strategies for eliminating their effects. Methods are also being developed to detect and counteract attacks on the AI algorithms used in radio networks. The research also includes lightweight encryption and authentication algorithms characterized by low complexity and low energy consumption.
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The Institute’s researchers cooperate with national and international companies, implementing projects and research framework agreements with Mentor, A Siemens Business (formerly Mentor Graphics Corporation) in Wilsonville, OR, USA, Nokia Wrocław R&D in Poland, Huawei Technologies Sweden AB, Fairspectrum in Helsinki, Finland, Military Aviation Plant no. 2 in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and others.
The teaching offer of the Institute of Radiocommunications includes courses (lectures, classes, laboratory classes, projects and seminars) in wireless communications on three levels: elementary, advanced and expert. In lectures, students are taught the theoretical aspects of wireless data transmission, signal processing, development of wireless networks and systems, and software engineering. Theoretical knowledge on radiocommunication technologies and wireless networks is supplemented with practical experience obtained during laboratory and project tasks.
Thanks to thorough knowledge and practical experience in the area of mobile and wireless technologies, graduates of Information and Communication Technologies find jobs with wireless network operators, electronics and telecommunication equipment manufacturers (e.g. Nokia, Samsung, Alcatel, Mentor, A Siemens Business, COMARCH), radiocommunication service providers (e.g. wireless Internet providers, WLAN providers and administrators, etc.), and other ICT companies; students also launch their own start-up businesses.
ul. Polanka 3
61-131 Poznań, Polska
office_cr@put.poznan.pl
Tel.: +48 61 665 3930
Fax: +48 61 665 3823