RICERCA ITALIANA     

CWMC - Center for Wireless Multimedia Communications

Politecnico di Torino

Abstract

The research activities of CERCOM will focus on the unifying theme "Universal wideband access to multimedia Internet services." CERCOM intends to coordinate the wide range of skills and experiences that can be found at the Electronics and Computer Science Departments of Politecnico di Torino on the themes of wideband wireless communication systems for multimedia applications. CERCOM will plan and develop the research activities with a constructive and continuous cooperation with the industries, to become an excellence site in Europe and worldwide, to attract from all over the world outstanding researchers and teachers, to form students ready to contribute in industries and research centers, and to inspire in the students and researchers of the Center the interest for start-ups in the field. <<<

Principal Investigator

Sergio BENEDETTO Politecnico di TORINO

International Relationship

2.4.1 Research Centers

The proponents have many cooperations with various Italian and foreign universities and research Centers. Among these, the most significant are listed below:

* Jet Propulsion Laboratory of Pasadena and California Institute of Technology, on very high performing channel codes

* Center for Wireless Communications of the University of California, San Diego, in the field of power efficient protocols

* University of California at Los Angeles, on wireless channel access protocols and on fiber devices for mobile systems

* University of California at Berkeley, on harware-software codesign and on cellular neural networks

* Helsinki University of Technology and Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, on analysis and design of nonlinear circuits, and on compression techniques for aerial images

* University of Texas at Dallas, on voice coding

* University of York, on stratospheric platforms for wideband communication services

* Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, on mobile channel models and high-level software synthesis

* University of Chalmers, on microstrip conformal antennas and modeling of power RF devices

* University of Loughborough, on leaky-waves antennas and electromagnetic monitoring

* University of Illinois at Chicago, on concatenated codes for of third generation mobile system

* University of Grenoble, on the evaluation of system reliability through techniques of HW and SW fault injection

* Institute for Research on Telecommunications and Information Technology of the National Research Council, on antennas for cellular communications.



2.4.2 Industries

The university groups presenting this proposal have numerous contacts and cooperations with national and international industries. Quite often, these contacts generate applied research contracts and cooperations within the programs of the European Union. Also in this case, we only list the most significant:

* ST Microelectronics, on algorithms and VLSI chips for TV terrestrial broadcasting and third generation cellular systems

* Motorola, on wireless multiple access protocols

* Qualcomm, on very high gain concatenated channel codes

* Lucent Technologies, for consulting activities during the standardization process of the third generation cellular system, and on the design and development of decoders for the third generation cellular system

* European Space Agency, on the design of concatenated codes and modulation schemes for the new CCSDS coding standard of telemetry signals

* CSELT, on a wide range cooperation on various topics and European Union projects

* Agilent Microwave Division (former Hewlett Packard) of Santa Rosa (CA), on multiport network analyzers, and characterization of RF power devices

* Fujitsu Compound Semiconductor of San Diego (CA), on performance evaluation of microwave power devices up to 19 GHz

* Siemens AG ZT KM GaAs of Munich (GE), on the development of measurement setup for load pulls at 18 GHz

* Ericsson Telecomunicazioni SpA, Roma, on performance evaluation of power devices for mobile communications

* Texas Instruments, on coding and robust transmission of multimedia signals

* Italtel, on adaptive voice coding

* Nokia, for an Esprit project on HW and SW co-design, and for the smart antennas design

* Omnitel, on stratospheric platforms for mobile phone services, and antennas for mobile communications

* Cadence Design Systems, San José, on hardware-software codesign

* Alenia Marconi, on microwave power amplifiers.



Some of the previously mentioned industries and research centers strongly support the proposal for the Center, as proved by the letters that can be enclosed to this document upon request. Industries that sent already letters of support are: Agilent Technologies, Cadence, Carlo Gavazzi Space, Centro Ricerche RAI, CSELT, Ericsson, Infineon Technologies, Institute for Research on Telecommunications and Information Technology of the National Research Council, Mannesmann, Motorola, Nokia, Omnitel, Siemens, ST Microelectronics, Tim, Torino 2006, Unione Europea-Directorate General Information Society. <<<

Research Objectives

The main objectives of the Center are summarized as follows:

* To coordinate and focus a wide range of skills and experiences that can be found at the Electronics and Computer Science Departments of Politecnico di Torino on the themes of wideband wireless communication systems for multimedia applications. This goal can be achieved using as a powerful incentive the financial support to build up a well equipped laboratory for the development, testing and experimentation of system prototypes

* To plan and develop the research activities with a constructive and continuous cooperation with the industries, enriched by the long-term innovative vision of the academy, and by the experience, assessment of relevance, sensibility to cost-effectiveness, and attention to the final product of the industry

* To become an excellence site in Europe and worldwide for the research and teaching activities in the field (with particular attention to continuing education), so as to become a privileged and reliable partner for research and industrial Centers. In particular, the Center will cooperate with industries in the presentation of research proposal within the framework of the European Union programs

* To attract from all over the world outstanding researchers and teachers in the field, to involve them temporarily in the research and teaching activities of the Center. At the same time, to attract Italian and foreign PhD students, by offering a stimulating environment rich of state-of-the-art knowledge and fully equipped laboratories

* To form students of the bachelor and master degrees in Information Engineering, and of the PhD degrees in the field, also with the cooperation of the industries through stages, theses in industrial laboratories, PhD positions supported by the industry, etc.

* To stimulate the entrepreneurship of the students and researchers of the Center and the development of start-up companies in the field, with attention to innovative ideas that can be patented, and in cooperation with the incubator of Politecnico di Torino.



The Center will be directed by one of proponent professors, jointly appointed by the Heads of the two Departments involved. The activities of the Center will be discussed and planned by a scientific Committee sitting one professor as a representative of every main research activity. To gather suggestions and to discuss the annual activity program, the scientific Committee will be opened twice a year to delegates of the industries involved in the activities of the Center.

One of the two Departments will initially administrate the Center keeping a clear visibility of its budget. Afterwards, if deemed useful, the setup of an independent inter-departmental Center will be proposed to the central administration of the Politecnico.

At the beginning, the Center will be physically located within the Electronics and Computer Science Departments. In the near future (2-3 years), thanks to the building plan of Politecnico - in this plan the first Departments to be moved in the new buildings are the two Departments involved in this project - the Center will have its own building with increased spaces.

The Electronics and Computer Science Departments intend from the very beginning to devote a portion of their research funds to the Center activities, in order to further stimulate the development of inter-disciplinary research activities. <<<