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Engineering and technology
- Wireless communication and positioning systems
- Antennas and propagation
- Microwave and millimetre wave technology
Since the fifth-generation wireless communication system, frequency bands beyond 6GHz are being exploited to further increase data rates. Yet, radiowave propagation conditions at such frequencies are very challenging due to larger path and penetration losses, and more severe shadowing. Distributed antenna systems, with a large number of remote antenna units (RAUs) integrated in fixed infrastructure and connected to a central office, may counter these issues by improving the reliability and quality of the wireless channel. This project pushes this concept a step further by proposing a conformal distributed antenna system (DAS) that is integrated in mobile users and that is optimized for joint communication and sensing. I will perform fundamental research enabling the realization of such systems and achieve breakthroughs in four key areas: their system architecture, implementation, signal processing required for joint communication and sensing, and power efficiency. First, I will study conformal DAS implementations in rigid structures, such as vehicle frames and wind turbine blades. In a later stage, I will conceive stretchable and breathable wearable realizations for on-body deployment. I will compare architectures ranging from many single-antenna-element to a limited number of massive MIMO RAUs. Signal processing techniques may implement simple diversity to counter self-blocking up to MIMO algorithms that increase data throughput.