Cooperative Mesh Networks for Municipal Wireless Access. Robust mobile broadband data communication is vital for public safety and emergency services applications. This project will improve the performance and cost-effectiveness of mesh networks, enabling new network architectures. Immediate benefits to Australia will be: Contribution to a growing knowledge base and fundamental capabilities wireless broadband communications; Education of future leading academic and industrial innovators; Raising ....Cooperative Mesh Networks for Municipal Wireless Access. Robust mobile broadband data communication is vital for public safety and emergency services applications. This project will improve the performance and cost-effectiveness of mesh networks, enabling new network architectures. Immediate benefits to Australia will be: Contribution to a growing knowledge base and fundamental capabilities wireless broadband communications; Education of future leading academic and industrial innovators; Raising the international profile of Australian research in information technology. The contribution of Information and Communications Technology to the National economy is widely recognized. ICT contributes to wealth creation, employment and exports, underpinning many innovation processes.Read moreRead less
Satellite Data Communications for Remote Sensing and Broadband Connectivity. The remote, distributed location of many of Australia's primary industries preclude the use of consumer-oriented terrestrial wireless broadband services. In many instances, satellite communications provides the only feasible means of connectivity for telemetry, supervisory control and data acquisition, tracking and fleet management. Meteorology, remote sensing, irrigation, mining, oil and gas exploration, and fisheries ....Satellite Data Communications for Remote Sensing and Broadband Connectivity. The remote, distributed location of many of Australia's primary industries preclude the use of consumer-oriented terrestrial wireless broadband services. In many instances, satellite communications provides the only feasible means of connectivity for telemetry, supervisory control and data acquisition, tracking and fleet management. Meteorology, remote sensing, irrigation, mining, oil and gas exploration, and fisheries are just a few examples of high-value applications of particular significance to Australia. This project will develop bandwidth efficient satellite communications technologies that greatly reduce cost and pave the way toward new market opportunities for broadband access and telemetry applications. Read moreRead less
Adaptive Modulation For OFDM Signals. The sub band Signal To Noise Ratio in an OFDM communications channel varies by as much as 30 dB. In order to optimise the bandwidth efficiency of OFDM signalling it is desirable to adapt the chosen modulation technique such as M-ary QAM to the SNR available in sub bands. In this way high quality channels transmit the highest bit rates, whilst low quality channels accommodate the lowest bit rates. The net result is that the capacity of the communications link ....Adaptive Modulation For OFDM Signals. The sub band Signal To Noise Ratio in an OFDM communications channel varies by as much as 30 dB. In order to optimise the bandwidth efficiency of OFDM signalling it is desirable to adapt the chosen modulation technique such as M-ary QAM to the SNR available in sub bands. In this way high quality channels transmit the highest bit rates, whilst low quality channels accommodate the lowest bit rates. The net result is that the capacity of the communications link does not have to be limited by designing for worst case conditions.Read moreRead less
Optimal Waveform Design and Compensation Techniques for Non Linear Communication Channels. Distortion effects in satellite amplifiers have a serious impact upon communication system performance, for example, by increasing the error rates.
The research study we are proposing involves analysing these distortion causing non linear effects and designing techniques to compensate for them. Although we are initially interested in the nonlinear satellite channel, we intend the results to be extended t ....Optimal Waveform Design and Compensation Techniques for Non Linear Communication Channels. Distortion effects in satellite amplifiers have a serious impact upon communication system performance, for example, by increasing the error rates.
The research study we are proposing involves analysing these distortion causing non linear effects and designing techniques to compensate for them. Although we are initially interested in the nonlinear satellite channel, we intend the results to be extended to other difficult nonlinear channels such as will be present in future 3G and 4G mobile communication systems.
The proposed research will place Australia at the forefront of cutting edge Information Technology and Communications research.
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Advanced Signal Processing Techniques for Very High Rate Satellite Demodulators. The purpose of the project is to develop new approaches to the design and implementation of very high-rate modems for satellite communication links. In this context data rates between 500 Mbit/s and 1 Gbit/s are targeted. The project aims to bring together two organisations which combined have the technical expertise, track record, market knowledge and motivation to create a significant new capability in satellite ....Advanced Signal Processing Techniques for Very High Rate Satellite Demodulators. The purpose of the project is to develop new approaches to the design and implementation of very high-rate modems for satellite communication links. In this context data rates between 500 Mbit/s and 1 Gbit/s are targeted. The project aims to bring together two organisations which combined have the technical expertise, track record, market knowledge and motivation to create a significant new capability in satellite communications. The project will result in new techniques for the reception and processing of high bandwidth signals to achieve better performance with flexible and cost-efficient designs such as high end earth-resource and surveillance satellite data reception.Read moreRead less
High Bandwidth Efficient Schemes for Portable Multimedia Communications. The introduction of multimedia services for mobile users has resulted in a shortage of satellite spectrum. Spot beam technology is used to provide service in areas of high user density. Adjacent overlapping beams are allocated different frequency bands, however interference from neighbouring beams limits capacity. Multi-User Detection is a technology capable of significantly increasing capacity by frequency re-use in adj ....High Bandwidth Efficient Schemes for Portable Multimedia Communications. The introduction of multimedia services for mobile users has resulted in a shortage of satellite spectrum. Spot beam technology is used to provide service in areas of high user density. Adjacent overlapping beams are allocated different frequency bands, however interference from neighbouring beams limits capacity. Multi-User Detection is a technology capable of significantly increasing capacity by frequency re-use in adjacent spot beams. The aim of this project is to investigate receiver design for multi-user spot-beam channels and develop associated synchronisation and channel estimation methods. The outcome will be efficient communications systems supporting higher user populations, without increasing the bandwidth required.Read moreRead less
Downlinks for Future Earth Observation Satellites: Breaking the Bottlenecks. Future earth-observation satellites require gigabit transmission rates in higher frequency bands. Limitations in the radio frequency spectrum call for spectrally-efficient modulation schemes, which make gigabit data rates particularly challenging. This project aims to design a next-generation transmission scheme for future Ka-Band gigabit satellite downlinks, including novel approaches for dealing with channel effects s ....Downlinks for Future Earth Observation Satellites: Breaking the Bottlenecks. Future earth-observation satellites require gigabit transmission rates in higher frequency bands. Limitations in the radio frequency spectrum call for spectrally-efficient modulation schemes, which make gigabit data rates particularly challenging. This project aims to design a next-generation transmission scheme for future Ka-Band gigabit satellite downlinks, including novel approaches for dealing with channel effects such as group delay, ripple and non-linear satellite power amplifiers. The design intends to include high-speed signal processing and coding architectures, plus real-time signal synthesis and acquisition to allow realistic performance testing and optimisation with satellite hardware from Thales Alenia Space.Read moreRead less
Development of modal control systems for adaptive optics. This project will develop a simple, robust and low-cost modal servo system for dynamic control and correction of the propagation and focussing properties of light beams. This new system will incorporate a novel optical sensor, which will be developed in this project, and a new optical corrector being developed at the University of Durham. Currently available astronomical adaptive-optics systems have produced excellent results but are expe ....Development of modal control systems for adaptive optics. This project will develop a simple, robust and low-cost modal servo system for dynamic control and correction of the propagation and focussing properties of light beams. This new system will incorporate a novel optical sensor, which will be developed in this project, and a new optical corrector being developed at the University of Durham. Currently available astronomical adaptive-optics systems have produced excellent results but are expensive and complicated. A low-cost alternative will dramatically increase the use of adaptive optics in industrial, environmental and medical applications. The compensation of distortions in low-cost optical atmospheric sensors will be demonstrated.Read moreRead less
Broadband to the bush: Polarization as a new resource in wireless cross-layer design. 'Broadband to the Bush' is a national priority - more than 1.6 million homes, small businesses and not-for-profit organizations in rural, regional, and remote Australia are set to benefit from broadband access to phone networks and the internet. The immediate challenges lie in overcoming poor download speeds and area coverage, as well as expensive access. This research will deliver cost and power-efficient re ....Broadband to the bush: Polarization as a new resource in wireless cross-layer design. 'Broadband to the Bush' is a national priority - more than 1.6 million homes, small businesses and not-for-profit organizations in rural, regional, and remote Australia are set to benefit from broadband access to phone networks and the internet. The immediate challenges lie in overcoming poor download speeds and area coverage, as well as expensive access. This research will deliver cost and power-efficient receiver architectures to provide end-user utility, and will train postgraduate researchers across traditional discipline boundaries in mathematics and engineering. The project represents an important contribution to frontier technologies in information and communications technology for building and transforming Australian industries.Read moreRead less
Engineering improved technology for nanoparticle-based adjuvant manufacture. Over the next decade nanotechnology will redefine vaccines for animal and human health. Nanoparticle adjuvants will boost engineered vaccines that use minimal antigens such as recombinant proteins and synthetic peptides. This project aims to develop a platform technology for making and controlling the properties of inulin nanoparticles by optimising the engineering and manufacturing aspects of inulin nanoparticles to fu ....Engineering improved technology for nanoparticle-based adjuvant manufacture. Over the next decade nanotechnology will redefine vaccines for animal and human health. Nanoparticle adjuvants will boost engineered vaccines that use minimal antigens such as recombinant proteins and synthetic peptides. This project aims to develop a platform technology for making and controlling the properties of inulin nanoparticles by optimising the engineering and manufacturing aspects of inulin nanoparticles to fundamentally understand the relationship between physical-chemical properties and efficacy. Completion of this project aims to produce potent nanoparticle-based adjuvants underpinned by novel manufacturing technology, to ultimately facilitate the development of more effective and protective vaccines for animals and humans.Read moreRead less