UPDATING THE WIRELESS

With a strong technology research base in Ireland, there is huge potential to build tomorrow's high-speed networks and profit on consumer demand for the increasing availability of information

THE ACID test of any new technology is, of course, its acceptance into the mainstream.

Nowadays, it is hard to believe that people were once scared of the television, or that they cried foul when silent movies were replaced by "talkies".

Similarly, for many young Irish people, it is difficult to recall a time when everybody didn't have a mobile phone (or two) in their pocket. Telecommunication is now as vital a part of modern society as transport. At the Centre for Value Chain Research (CTVR) at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), researchers from a wide array of disciplines are working to redefine key elements of telecommunications systems, architectures and networks and the value chains used to design, build, market and service them.

Prof Donal O'Mahony is the director of the Ireland-funded Centre for Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET). The professor of computer science explains that the CTVR is involved in developing the core technology that will build tomorrow's high-speed networks.

"The internet is built up of an optical core network and it being increasingly wireless at the edges is becoming more important. What we are doing is building bigger, better, faster wireless devices that will underlie the internet," he says.

This type of research has far-reaching implications for our increasingly multi-functional mobile phone handsets, he adds. "Your mobile phone is carried on a wireless link, and a huge amount of research goes into making sure that that link operates efficiently over long distances and gives you a clear signal. A lot of change is happening on the wireless link at the moment.

"An indicator of the economic success of a country is the number of mobile phones it has and a long time ago, we went over two per head of population here in Ireland," he says.

The only way to ensure that new technology will be accepted is to "drive down costs", admits O'Mahony. While CTVR is headquartered at TCD, its work is spread across eight of Ireland's third-level institutions.

The centre currently focuses on five interlinked strands of telecommunications research: emerging networks, photonics, radio-frequency, test and reliability and optimisation and management.

"There are five individuals involved at the management level of the different strands. One of them is strong on the hardware for wireless, another one is strong on network architecture and so on."

While O'Mahony is an engineer, working in computer science, the CTVR represents a diverse range of disciplines.

"There are physicists from UCC, electronic engineers from Maynooth, statisticians from TCD and even economists working with us.

"That's one of our strengths - we pull the best talent from different departments and different universities to work on solutions to our problems."

As with other examples of cutting-edge research, industrial collaboration is a key aspect of CTVR. Bell Labs was the initial sole industrial partner in the multi-university research centre, but more companies have since pledged their commitment to the CTVR, including TDK and Xidex.

"We intend to add to this as time goes on and we are constantly talking to companies. We are now applying for renewal of our CSET status and we expect to have about seven partners eventually, although Bell Labs will remain our main partner," he explains.

"As we get good at things, we go looking for matches and then try and spin off collaborative efforts," he adds. A hallmark of all the CSETs is their potential to make an economic, as well as scientific impact, says O'Mahony.

"What we are trying to do is build up competence in a set of key areas and that competence should then attract inward investment and bring the top companies to Ireland, or else if they are already here, anchor them. They will want access to that skillbase."

The CTVR also have an active programme with the aim of developing spin-off companies from innovative developments, adds O'Mahony.

"We have a number of things that we have patented and a number of technologies that we are actively trying to license. For example, we have an antennas group working in DIT Kevin Street and they have produced a number of antenna designs, and we are in discussions with about three companies that really admire the designs and are interested in incorporating them into their own portfolio," he explains.

New technologies tend to "creep in", says O'Mahony. "Five years later you find yourself completely dependent on them. We have miles to go with mobile phone technology and soon every decision we make will be guided by the constant availability of information."