This project targets the development and integration of an accurate, low-cost and robust LTE-compliant estimation solution for a key wireless channel parameter, the Doppler spread, on one of the newest model-based hardware development platforms of our partner, Nutaq. The first deliverable of this project will first allow the upgrade of Nutaq's basic OFDM reference design available on their platform to the new LTE-Advanced standard specifications. Most importantly, in the second deliverable, the parallel development and subsequent integration of the new Doppler spread estimation module on their LTE-configured platform will allow smart and versatile operation of LTE-Advanced Heterogeneous Networks (NetNets) by:
1. enabling optimized, versatile and swift cognitive transceiver adaptation of it software-defined-radio (SDR) processing structures with very strong robustness to different channel propagation environments;
2. significantly improving mobility and handover management from cell to cell;
3. properly assisting the mitigation of the well-known and challenging interference issue that arises in an exacerbated fashion between differently-powered macro and small cells in HetNet; and
4. significantly improving localization-based services (LBS) through kinematics in HetNet small cells typically deployed in GPS signal-deprived indoor environments where, precisely, LBS are mostly needed.
As such, Nutaq will benefit from the applicant's expertise in the development of innovative and enabling radio-access technologies for smart and pervasive applications of wireless to further increase the added value of their new line of model-based hardware development platform products, owing to the outcome of this first collaborative project and future ones.

The applicant has been recently able to mount a new laboratory, the Wireless Lab , with a prime objective to provide a showcase and demos for the new wireless transceiver technologies developed by the applicant's group. From early exposure to major industry-university projects, the applicant has been a strong advocate of the adoption of a challenging "system-integration-oriented approach" in research on signal processing for wireless communications that jointly tackles most of physical-layer issues, takes into account interaction between subsystem components, any source of imperfection such as estimation and modeling errors, implementation feasibility and costs, etc..., and that integrates prototyping and real-world evaluation in the assessment methodology, thereby providing tremendous added values in terms of scientific impact and potential technological transfers. The Wireless Lab has been already able to gain the strong support of many industrial partners among manufacturers, service providers, SMEs, start-ups or governmental regulation agencies, through major and successful partnership projects on the development of multi-modal antenna-array wireless transceivers, advanced flexible antenna structures, and universal multi-carrier transceivers for future beyond-4G (B4G or 4G+) wireless technologies. In the very short term, this RTI application will punctually provide timely support and essential leverage to new upcoming initiatives under the CRD and I2I programs of NSERC on the development of new major paradigm-shifting wireless access virtualization schemes and cognitive transceiver structures at critical design and testing phases to be scheduled in 2013. In the longer term, it will endow the Wireless Lab with a new essential "over-the-air -in-lab" testing and validation tool for improved hardware implementation of advanced wireless transceiver technologies, increased potential of technology transfers and further enhanced quality of HQP training.

Sofiène Affes (professor, INRS-EMT), Charles Despins, Paul Fortier, Chahé Nerguizian

The increasing level of automation in underground mining operations in order to improve their efficiency will bring a myriad of electronic devices (e.g. for data or video) into the mine shafts. In other confined environment situations, e.g. military operations in caverns, electronic devices can yield a significant tactical advantage. In order to maximize such benefits, networked communications between these electronic devices are required to share the huge amount of data processed by the individual units, for which fast and wireless connection is also a necessity. Many such technical needs are expected to be addressed by the emerging Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) and the future generations of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), for which unlicensed bands near 60 GHz worldwide are favorably considered. The unlicensed ample bandwidth available in this band (up to 7 GHz) will enable multi-gigabit rate data transfer between such devices. This three-year project proposal targets the design of multi-gigabit, millimeter-wave WLAN/WPAN wireless systems for underground and confined environments. The project will deal in great part with the propagation characteristics at these high frequencies in such peculiar environments. The investigators will build upon their previous LRTCS underground environment propagation work at 2 GHz and 5 GHz which demonstrated propagation behavior differing significantly from that observed in more conventional environments with smooth surfaces, notably as a result of the very rough surfaces of the mine shafts. Narrowband and broadband measurement campaigns are planned at 60 GHz as well as statistical modeling work based on the results of the measurements. These propagation study results, e.g. in terms of the millimeter-wave waveguide effect in the underground environment, will help determine whether millimeter-wave WLAN/WPANs can offer cost-effective, reliable and very high throughput solutions for such environments as compared with competing systems such as ultra-wideband (UWB) systems. As such, the project work will also involve millimeter-wave WLAN/WPANs system design and trials in the underground mining environment.

Fourth-generation (4G) wireless communications are expected to deliver very high transmission rates to or from mobile terminals over different multi-carrier and multi-antenna air-interfaces in a seamless and versatile fashion, no matter what the surrounding environment, link conditions and network topologies are. This stringent requirement calls for developing new "cognitive" transceivers that swiftly and optimally adapt to variable operating conditions such as changes in multi-carrier and/or multi-antenna air-interface configuration, mobility, traffic location and/or load, propagation characteristics, and/or topology in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) in particular. This research project is directed at developing enhanced signal processing techniques as powerful tools for the efficient design of such new "cognitive" transceivers. These transceivers would not only provide the self-adaptation capability required by future wireless technologies to optimally operate in variable transmission conditions, but will also offer transparent migration between different radio interfaces and network topologies, all available form then on at low hardware cost on a unique wireless terminal. They would bring extremely efficient solutions to the tremendous challenges posed by future deployment of 4G such as designing multi-mode terminals and allowing transceiver software radio reconfiguration by software downloads over the air. From this perspective, they could have a major impact on future deployment of 4G by simplifying both the design of the terminals and the discovery/selection of the wireless system among the many that will be offered simultaneously to the user.

The applicant has been recently able to mount a new laboratory, the Wireless Lab , with a prime objective to provide a showcase and demos for the new wireless transceiver technologies developed by the applicant's group. From early exposure to major industry-university projects, the applicant has been a strong advocate of the adoption of a challenging "system-integration-oriented approach" in research on signal processing for wireless communications that jointly tackles most of physical-layer issues, takes into account interaction between subsystem components, any source of imperfection such as estimation and modeling errors, implementation feasibility and costs, etc..., and that integrates prototyping and real-world evaluation in the assessment methodology, thereby providing tremendous added values in terms of scientific impact and potential technological transfers. From this perspective, the Wireless Lab is currently paving the way to become unique in Canada. It has been already able to gain the strong support of many industrial partners among manufacturers, service providers, SMEs, start-ups or governmental regulation agencies, through major and successful partnership projects on the development of multi-modal antenna-array wireless transceivers, advanced flexible antenna structures, and universal multi-carrier transceivers for future beyond-4G (B4G or 4G+) wireless technologies. This RTI application will punctually provide timely support and essential leverage to all these projects at critical design, testing or trial phases scheduled in 2011. And in the longer term, it will endow the Wireless Lab with new essential prototyping design and verification tools for improved hardware implementation of advanced wireless transceiver technologies, increased potential of technology transfers and further enhanced quality of HQP training.

One of the strongest driving forces for wireless technology evolution today is 4G (4th Generation), also known as IMT-Advanced (International Mobile Telecommunications), which promises to encompass two main legacy technologies among others, namely cellular (i.e., 3GPP LTE-Advanced) and WLAN (i.e., IEEE 802.16m). 4G promises to deliver by 2015 high-speed wireless data transmission services at much lower costs and latencies while providing much higher rates, spectrum efficiencies and coverage. In order to ensure the most cost/spectrum-efficient deployment of these new-generation wireless technologies in a few years from now, their performance has to be reliably assessed by simulations in the more realistic way in order to identify i) areas where enhancements can be made, ii) introduce these enhancements and evaluate them, iii) support equipment manufacturers in their standardization effort to integrate these enhancements if deemed valuable, iv) compare the two most important 4G technologies (cf. above) due for deployment on a fair basis, using a common simulation platform, and assess the impact of their co-existence and the migration from one technology to another on operators. It is from this perspective, precisely, that Huawei Canada mandates the applicant's team to develop in the framework of this proposal, a novel common simulation platform design for the TDD (time division duplex) versions of next-generation 4G wireless technologies.

Sébastien Roy (professor, Université Laval), Alex Stéphenne (researcher, Ericsson Canada, adjunct professor, INRS-EMT), Quoc-Thai Ho (engineer, INRS-EMT), Isabelle Laroche (engineer, Université Laval), François Levesque (engineer, INRS-EMT), Léonard Pelletier (senior technician, INRS-EMT).

Nahi Kandil (professor, UQAT), Sofiène Affes (professor, INRS-EMT), Sonia Aïssa (professor, INRS-EMT), Tayeb Denidni (professor, INRS-EMT), Charles Despins (adjunct professor, INRS-EMT, président, PROMPT-Québec), Gilles Delisle (adjunct professor, Université Laval, director, IIT-R), Paul Fortier (professor, Université Laval), Chahé Nerguizian (professor, École Polytechnique), Larbi Talbi (professor, UQO)

This project is gathering five universities (UQAT, UQO, INRS-EMT, U. Laval, École Polytechnique) in order to carry on research on wireless communications in underground mines. We will explore the ultra-wideband model in chaotic confined environments, an interface between the under and on ground environments, and test the continuous control and positioning of mobile machines and humans by means of this wireless tool. The first component of this project “Network: architecture and integration” will process aspects related to connectivity to wireless services, including cellular functionalities emulation over WLAN, cellular relay to the surface, and a new spontaneous network model based on autonomous units. The second component of this project “radio-frequency: propagation and smart millimetric antenna” will analyse the behaviour of the channel in underground mines for ultra-short pulses leading to data for smart antenna and localization processes thanks to the ultra-wideband products. The third component of this project “applications: localization and other wireless processes” will be focused on development aspects, in particular, remote control of a mobile machine using the WLAN interface from a very long distance, development of a telemetric sensor network, and implementation of a localization system of multiple mobiles. These works will guide the mining industries on the choice of the potential communication technologies that will guarantee safety and high quality of service at low costs and in full compliance with underground wireless communication standards.

The applicant has been recently able to mount a new laboratory, the Wireless Lab , with a prime objective to provide a showcase and demos for the new wireless transceiver technologies developed by the applicant's group. From early exposure to major industry-university projects, the applicant has been a strong advocate for the adoption of a challenging "system-integration-oriented approach" in research on signal processing for wireless communications that jointly tackles most of physical-layer issues, takes into account interaction between subsystem components, any source of imperfection such as estimation and modeling errors, implementation feasibility and costs, etc..., and that integrates prototyping and real-world evaluation in the assessment methodology, thereby providing tremendous added values in terms of scientific impact and potential technological transfers. From this perspective, the Wireless Lab is currently paving the way to become unique in Canada owing already to some outstanding achievements. Among its numerous university and industry partners, the Wireless Lab has been able to gain the strong support of Ericsson, a major wireless equipment manufacturer worldwide as well as that of Intelligent Software Radio (ISR) Technologies, a very dynamic Canadian start-up company, through major and successful partnership projects with both on the development of i) multi-modal antenna-array wireless transceivers for super 3G (S3G or LTE for long-term evolution of 3G) and ii) universal multi-carrier transceivers for IEEE 802.xx and 3G+/4G wireless technologies, respectively. This RTI application will punctually provide timely support and essential leverage to these projects at critical design, testing and trial phases scheduled in 2008. And in the longer term, it will endow the Wireless Lab with new essential prototyping design and analysis tools for improved hardware implementation of advanced wireless transceiver technologies, increased potential of technology transfers and further enhanced quality of HQP training.

Sonia Aïssa (professor, INRS-EMT), Jacob Benesty (professor, INRS-EMT), Paul Mermelstein (honorary professor, INRS-EMT), Claude Royer (director, Nortel Networks), Jianming Wu (system engineer, Nortel Networks), Karim Cheikhrouhou (postdoctoral fellow, INRS-EMT).

The scope of this research proposal, in partnership with Nortel Networks, is to develop new cost-effective MIMO transceivers with significantly increased peak data-rate and spectrum efficiency that allow for a technological leap beyond the current target specifications of packet-access-based standards such as HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access), to enable 4G-class high-speed wireless Internet access over 3G networks. To achieve this goal, we divide our approach in three consecutive steps, each with a major objective:

The major 3G market for W-CDMA is being delayed with initial deployments being put back to 2004-2005 and beyond due to financial pressures, technical issues and handset availability. By the end of this project in 2007, urgency for a major technological leap beyond HSDPA will put the new high-speed spectrum-efficient MIMO transceivers developed in this project in a leading position for providing cost-efficient 4G-class high-speed wireless Internet access over 3G networks. Major technical and industrial impacts are expected by significant contribution to knowledge based on 3G+ system design and by allowing future deployment of more cost-effective high-speed spectrum-efficient transceivers. Furthermore, this project will contribute to training a relatively large number of students, 4 PhD students, 8 MSc students, 3 under-graduate summer students and a research associate, an objective that responds well to the needs of the wireless industry in Canada for highly qualified personnel.

Charles Despins (adjunct professor, INRS-EMT, president, PROMPT-Québec), Chahé Nerguizian (professor, École Polytechnique).

For more than two years, an important R&D project has been taking place in Val d'Or (in Abitibi in the north-west of Québec) in order to develop wireless multimedia access technologies for underground mines. This project, supported by a grant from the CRD program of NSERC (1,026,200 $ over three years granted in June 2002), is gathering researchers from five universities, the Bell Nordiq Inc. group, the Bell University Labs (BUL), a group of mining companies from northern Québec and specialists from Natural Resources Canada. This project has led to the development of new highly accurate radio-localization techniques for security applications, management, and control of mining operations and to the submission of patents due to the enormous commercial potential of this new technology and its socio-economic benefits to the north-western region of Québec at both national and international levels. Indeed, the proposed radio-localization process seems to be very advantageous because of its high accuracy, robustness in the absence of direct line of sight, its utilization of a single access point (cost-effective in terms of number of WLAN access points), and commercial potential in confined environments in general. The objective of this project is to develop a new operating prototype of this new localization process. Indeed, we aim at implementing over an IEEE 802.11 platform of WLAN wireless networks, a hardware & software model which identifies the impulse response of the channel with a high temporal resolution in order to apply this procedure to radio localization using neural networks and wideband channel signatures. We intend to recruit two highly skilled design engineers and an expert-consultant to implement this prototype within one year. This task is required in order to validate this concept currently under patent protection process and in order to trigger the subsequent step of commercialization of this technological innovation.

Sofiène Affes (professor, INRS-EMT), Gilles Delisle (adjunct professor, Université Laval, director, IIT-R), Tayeb Denidni (professor, INRS-EMT), Charles Despins (adjunct professor, INRS-EMT, président, PROMPT-Québec), PierreMartin Tardif.

Claude Thibeault (professor, ETS), Jean-Claude Thibault (engineer, ISR Technologies), François Levesque (research assistant, INRS-EMT), Quoc-Thai Ho (research assistant, INRS-EMT), Besma Smida (collaborator, Harvard University).

In the current context where cellular technologies are aiming to catch up or even outperform WLAN technologies (i.e., IEEE 802.xx) in terms of data rates and the latter are trying to overcome their limitations compared to the former ones in terms of mobility and coverage, it is quite reasonable to anticipate the convergence of both types of technologies in the near future. In such an eventuality where moreover both technologies will share in common a multi-carrier radio interface, having universal multi-carrier receivers that operate for multiple transmission types (DS-CDMA, MT-CDMA, MC-DS-CDMA, TFL-CDMA, OFDM, etc…) and that can be easily reconfigured by simply setting the parameters of a programmable radio is quite desirable. This new receiver that we aim at developing and prototyping within this project would allow, since then, a transparent migration between several high-data-rate radio interfaces available at a low hardware cost on a unique wireless terminal. It would provide an extremely efficient solution to the major challenges related to the coexistence of both technologies such as the problem of radio interface detection/selection among all those available in future heterogeneous networks and that of reconfiguration by means of over-the-air downloadable software.

Leszek Szczecinski (professor, INRS-EMT), Jean Belzile (professor, ETS), Daniel Massicotte (professor, UQTR), Jean-Claude Thibault (engineer, ISR Technologies), Hong Xu (engineer, Axiocom), Sébastien Jomphe (research assistant, INRS-EMT), Karim Cheikhrouhou (postdoctoral fellow, INRS-EMT).

This research project, in collaboration between INRS, ÉTS and UQTR (the academic partners) and IS Technologies and Axiocom (the industrial partners), aims the implementation, optimization and validation in real time of the prototypes of two new wireless CDMA receivers, STAR-ISR and AxioCh-AxioMUD, by targeting their proof of concept on the uplink and downlink, respectively. Each receiver will be equipped with a channel identification and synchronization module and a multi-user (interference suppression) module well adapted to the requirements of the corresponding link over which it will be applied. Given the fact that neither module is subject to any standard specification in particular, joint development, optimization and implementation efforts will be focused in the framework of this project on the WCDMA standard (with HSDPA over the downlink). The proofs of concepts that will be reached will allow future extensions to the cdma2000 and IEEE802.11b standards, etc... and will enable perfection of the research results already established about these new technologies. The proofs of concepts and the broadening of knowledge in algorithmic development and in hardware implementation will guarantee successful technology transfers to industry and will increase the scope and impact of our research and training programs in wireless.