Archives (January - May, 2007)
June 8, 2007
Congratulations to Taeyoung Yang, winner of the 2007 Best Poster Award.
The winner of this award was selected by attendees at the 17th annual symposium hosted by Wireless @ Virginia Tech this past June. Taeyoung's poster was titled "Mitigation of Near-Field Interactions Without Sacrificing Far-Field Performance." Taeyoung's advisor is Dr. Bill Davis.June, 2007
Drs. Dietrich, Bae, and Reed have begun the project Distributed Computing for Collaborative Software Radio for the Office of Naval Research. The three year project examines distributed models and algorithms for building a theoretical foundation for cooperative software radio applications. That is, the project focuses on distributed computing across several radios to support complex applications by developing a jointly optimized computing/communications structure. To demonstrate the new foundational concepts, two general problems, relevant to future Naval and Marine Corps operations, are addressed. These areas are distributed MIMO and data fusion. Power consumption and availability of “convenient” power are key metrics used to judge the relevant merits of the structure.
June, 2007
Public safety cognitive radio (PSCR) systems – Antennas (Scott Bates & Dr. W. A. Davis)
Public safety cognitive radio (PSCR) systems are of interest to police, fire, and other safety and rescue organizations. PSCR systems are based on software defined radio architectures, which allow a very flexible means of changing both the modulation frequency and type of modulation in real time, in order to adapt to the radio frequency environment in an optimal way. A requirement for this application is the ability to simultaneously transmit and receive different signals which might be decades apart in frequency. Ultra Wideband (UWB) antennas present a viable design for this requirement. In certain applications, like a PSCR system, it is desirable to have the performance of a UWB antenna in a small physical size. This combination can pose a design challenge, especially at frequencies in the VHF band, where some of the applications are located. For example, a common UWB type antenna is the square monopole. The appropriate size for this antenna to operate at a frequency of 30 MHz is 2 m on a side. Clearly, this is much too large an antenna for a PSCR hand-held device. We are investigating ways to miniaturize UWB antennas while striving to optimize impedance bandwidth and retain an omnidirectional pattern around the antenna.June, 2007
Dr. William Tranter and Dr. Rodger E. Ziemer from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, have been invited by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. to release the 6th edition of “Principle of Communications: Systems, Modulation, and Noise.” This book will contain updated versions of computational computer examples, written in MATLAB; simulation computer examples; and a wide variety of problems which allows for practice on concepts given in the text. The purpose of the book is to provide, in a single volume, a thorough treatment of the principles of communication at the physical layer suitable for college seniors, beginning graduate students, and practicing engineers.
June, 2007
S. M. Hasan, a Ph.D. student working with Dr. Ellingson, has won the “2007 William Bazzy Fellowship.” The William Bazzy Fellowship Program, open to graduate students or working engineers, was initiated in 2006 to promote continued study, research, and advancement in the field of RF and microwave engineering. The fellowship program is named in honor of William Bazzy, founder of Microwave Journal® and builder of a renowned international producer of magazines, books, online information products, and events serving the high tech community around the world. A $5,000 fellowship is awarded each spring.
June, 2007
Rekha Menon defended for her Ph.D. on April 30. Her co-advisors were Drs. Reed and Buehrer for her dissertation, “Interference Avoidance based Underlay Techniques for Dynamic Spectrum Sharing.” Dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) is a new paradigm for spectrum allocation that is expected to lead to more efficient spectrum usage and alleviate the spectrum-scarcity that has been perceived in recent years. DSS refers to the opportunistic, dynamic, and uncoordinated use of the spectrum by multiple, possibly non-cooperating, systems. It allows bands which may be underutilized by incumbent or legacy systems to be shared by agile or cognitive radios on a “do no harm” basis.
May, 2007
Dr. Chris Anderson has accepted an Assistant Professor position at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. Dr. Anderson was previously advised by Dr. T. S. Rappaport. Since 2002, he has been working with Dr. Reed in the area of hardware design for software radios, with an emphasis on open-source, low-cost platforms.
May 21, 2007
Workshop on Interdisciplinary Wireless Communication Systems Research and Education in U.S. Universities
On May 21-22, 2007, Wireless@VT, along with the Department of Defense/Office of the Secretary of Defense (DoD/OSD), sponsored a workshop on wireless education, held in Arlington, VA. Participation was by invitation only and included DoD program managers, lab directors, and major contractors involved in communications technologies, along with leading experts from U.S. universities.
May 7, 2007
Dr. Reed is guest editor for the upcoming Proceedings of the IEEE issue on cognitive radio.
April 11, 2007
Mohamed Eltoweissy of W@VT and Moustafa Youssef from the University of Maryland were workshop co-chairs for the first IEEE International Workshop on Research Challenges in Next Generation Networks for First Responders and Critical Infrastructures (NetCri07), which was held on April 11, 2007 in conjunction with IEEE IPCCC 2007 in New Orleans, Louisiana. more
April, 2007
NEW FACULTY : Dr. Brent Ledvina more
April, 2007
Dr. Eltoweissy, with Athman Bouguettaya in Computer Science, have begun their NSF-funded project, “Reputation Management for Web Services.” This project will continue through 2009.
April, 2007
Wireless@VT has been awarded a Phase II contract by AeroAstro, Inc. to continue development of a reconfigurable Digital Extra-Vehicular Activity Radio (DEVAR) in support of NASA's Exploration Initiative. more
April, 2007
Tektronix has donated an arbitrary waveform generator model AWG7102 with options (memory expansion and high output bandwidth and interleave operation). more
April, 2007
A Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) was signed in December 2006 between Virginia Tech and the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDEC), Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC), and the Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD), Fort Belvoir, VA. The subject of the CRADA that runs over a 5-year period is “Development of Signal Processing Capabilities and Electromagnetic Propagation Models to Detect and Discriminate Landmines.” The CRADA is a collaboration of research activities in areas of mutual interest. The PI on the Virginia Tech side is Amir Zaghloul, with Co-PIs Gary Brown, Lamine Mili, and Mike Buehrer.
April 6, 2007
CITI (The Columbia Institute for Tele- Information), Clemson University, and Virginia Tech presented “Smart Radio, Smart Markets and Policies,” on April 6, 2007 in Arlington, VA. The conference brought together members of the electrical engineering community involved in developing new technologies, with those involved in developing the economic models and regulatory policies needed to facilitate the introduction of new technologies. Dr. Reed spoke on Wireless@VT’s current research on software defined radio. more
April 2, 2007
Dr. Ronan Farrell from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth visited campus on April 2 to present the seminar “Commercialization of Cognitive Radio” for W@VT faculty and students. more
March 27, 2007
Linda Doyle, Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering, Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland, visited the Advanced Research Institute (ARI) on March 23. While there, topics of mutual interest, including cognitive radio and cognitive radio networks, were discussed, as well as current projects underway. One project under development is a joint course on cognitive radio and cognitive radio networks to be delivered via video. Linda is leader of the Emerging Networks (EN) research strand in the Science Foundation of the Irelandfunded Centre for Telecommunications Value-Chain Research (CTVR). more
March 20, 2007
Mohamed Eltoweissy gave an invited seminar on March 20, 2007 at The Catholic University of America in their IEEE/ACM Seminar Series. The title of the seminar was “Enabling Secure Communications in Sensor Networks.”
March 7, 2007
W@VT Welcomes our Newest Affiliate! L3 Communication is our newest affiliate. more
March 7, 2007
The 30th Wireless Communications Expo will be held in March in Las Vegas, NV.
March 7, 2007
Dr. Thomas Hou is the Co-Chair of the Technical Program Committee for the Second International Conference on Cognitive Radio Oriented Wireless Networks and Communications (CrownCom 2007), to be held in Orlando, FL in August 2007. more.
March 7, 2007
Two papers by Wireless @ VT faculty Dr. Thomas Hou and his students will appear in IEEE Infocom 2007, to be held in May in Anchorage, AK.
February 2, 2007
Prof. Xiaojun Lin of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of Purdue University, visited campus on February 2, 2007 to discuss “Provably-Efficient Distributed Channel-Assignment Algorithms for Multi-Channel Multi-Radio Ad Hoc Wireless Networks.”
January 18, 2007
The SDR Forum held its 52nd general meeting on January 16-18, 2007, in San Diego, CA.
