Grant: Industrial Research Chairs

Wireless communications are not only a fundamental part of modern society, they are key to modern publicsafety and humanitarian missions. Whether it is a video feed monitoring a collapsing infrastructure, a satelliteimage for up-coming local weather conditions or thousands of voice links to coordinate interventions,communications improves situational awareness and permits to save more lives. In many emergency situations,the communication infrastructure is overloaded, or completely out of order. Ultra Electronics TCS and ÉTShave developed, over more than 18 years, a best in class wireless technology enabling the efficient deploymentof a reliable broadband infrastructure. The first worldwide software defined radio as a product, introduced byUltra Electronics in 1999, became the market leader, a leadership maintained by continuous improvements andresearch.Such systems are required in disaster response, which, by nature, involves deployment in unpredictedsituations. Since the ÉTS-Ultra Electronics collaboration's inception, Ultra's wireless systems evolved byhundred-fold factors in data rate and flexibility, but also in terms of functionality. They are highly adaptable,cognitive schemes enabled, MIMO, OFDMA and, in their latest incarnation, capable of Ad-Hoc HetNets forterrestrial, overwater or airborne broadband communications. In the chair program, students are involved in thecreation of leading edge knowledge as a foundation to next generation wireless systems. The research programaddresses 4 strategic objectives: 1) Stability and convergence analysis of heterogeneous networks in mostlyunpredictable situations, 2) Wireless signal analysis for spectrum awareness, 3) Development of performanceimprovement strategies for unconventional scenarios, and 4) Development of security and link availabilityenhancement mechanisms under harsh conditions. This new proposed research program capitalizes on theprevious Chair program to maximize full reach of the results' potential.