Broadband Wireless Communications
Hawaii Center for Advanced Communications
Anthony Kuh
Chairman, Electrical Engineering
Background
and Overview
Broadband Communications
Proposed Organization and Development
Mission Statement
The University of Hawaii Center for Advanced Communications is a
multidisciplinary research center bringing together researchers from
diverse areas to work together on advanced communication systems
(wireless).

Joint collaborative basic and applied research
 Members of the Center
 External researchers from industry and academia
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Provide students with a rich and diversified education to
prepare them for careers in the telecommunications
industry and academia.
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Encourage industrial interactions, promotion of
entrepreneurial activities, and providing technical
leadership and expertise to the University and State of
Hawaii.
Background: Personnel
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Telecommunications (established tradition)
• Networks (ALOHA: wireless packet radio
networks)
• Communications and coding (Protocols for NASA
and GSM wireless standard)
• Signal Processing
Solid State electronics and devices (outstanding
young talent)
• Microwave/Millimeter-wave research lab (MMRL)
• Physical Electronics lab (PEL)
• Integrated Circuits and Design lab
Background: Activities
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Federal Government (NSF, NASA, DOD)
• Seeking broad multidisciplinary initiatives that
will have a profound effect on information
technology.
• Encourage partnerships between academia,
industry, and government .
HCAC
• Bring together telecommunications and solid
state electronics and devices groups
• External collaboration and joint funding with
other Universities and industry.
Center Overview
•
Personnel
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Members: 11 faculty members
Students: 40 graduate students (11 Ph.D. candidates), undergraduate
students
Activities
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Research Areas: Solid-state devices and circuits, telecommunications
Funding:
• Group funding: NSF Wireless Information Technology and Networks
(Millimeter-Wave Systems for Wireless Communications).
• Government: NSF, NASA, DARPA (15 funded grants, $4.7 million).
• Industry: Boeing, Hitachi, LSI Logic, Microsoft, TRW (11 funded
grants, $570,000).
Education:
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Multidisciplinary graduate education.
Undergraduate education and research opportunities.
Broadband Communications
``Within a decade, most people in developed countries will have access
to Internet connections that are tens if not hundreds of times faster than
the ones in common use today.’’ Scientific American, Oct. 99.

Cable: Consumer, coaxial cable to home.

Copper: Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), use existing phone
network.
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Fiber: Expensive to home, highest available bandwidth.
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Satellites: Low earth orbit systems, satellite deployment
costs high.

Wireless: Wide range of services ranging from Local Multipoint Distributed Systems (LMDS) to mobile broadband
access.
Digital Divide (Two tiered economic society)

Silicon Valley (economic center of new information
technology society)
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Strong engineering programs at Stanford University and
University of California, Berkeley.
State of California support in 50s and 60s.
Other communities around nation want to participate in
new economy.Examples: Silicon Forest (Seattle), Silicon Hills
(Austin), Route 128 (Boston). All have strong Universities nearby
with excellent engineering programs.

With increase in computational power of computers
there has been a shift to communications. 90s have
seen development of many University wireless communications
centers . Example UCSD Wireless Communication Center.
 Brought in top researchers from academia and industry.
 Developed partnerships with industry (examples: Qualcomm,
Nokia)
Proposed Development and Organization
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Infrastructure
Research
Education
Industry
Benefits to Hawaii
Infrastructure (Partnership)

Center Personnel
 Director (need to hire leader in telecommunications with
academic, industrial and administrative experience)
 Members
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Existing members (support and retention)
New members (augment expertise and bridge technologies)
UH Administration (positions, infrastructure, budget)
State Government (financial support)
Industrial Partners (annual fees)
 Each partner to have members as focal contacts.
 Joint work with focal contacts on research projects.
Federal Government (Joint collaborative research with
members, other institutions, and industry)
Funding for Center (Partnership)

State Government
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$5M funding over 5 years to startup Center.
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Industry
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1st year; $1M ($410K personnel, $300K startup, $90K
retention, $200K equipment).
Unrestricted funds through partners program.
Restricted funds.
Federal Government
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Center and group grants from NSF, DOD, NASA.
Individual grants.
Research Overview
Major focus is on high-performance wireless networks. Transmission
technology for networks are millimeter-wave frequencies (30-300 GHz)
which provides broadband rates up to 5 gigabits per second.
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Millimeter-wave networks
 Ideal for indoor wireless LANs, line of sight (LOS).
 Shorter wavelengths imply smaller antenna and circuit
dimensions.
 Broadband applications (interactive multimedia).
Mobile Wireless Networks
 Network control and management
 Channel and source coding for wireless communications
 Signal processing algorithms
Applications (broadband access everywhere): commercial
and military
Education
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Attract quality students and researchers (reverse brain
drain).
Provide multidisciplinary education to prepare students
for careers in telecommunications.
• Fundamental and cutting edge classes.
• Research instruction and experience.
Information Technology Alliance (Engineering, Computer
Science, Business, Education)
Work to establish educational programs with industry
(life-long learning).
• Coop programs (undergraduate and graduate
students).
• Distance learning programs.
Industrial Relationships
A key to Center development and growth is close working relationships
with industry. (Industrial Partners)
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Startup companies
 Adtech started by UH EE Professors.
 Verifone started by UH EE graduate.
 EE Professors starting high tech companies.
Attracting companies to Hawaii (Uniden).
Relationships with local companies: Adtech, GTE
Hawaiian Tel, Oceanic Cable, military.
Special relationships with TRW and Boeing.
Other industrial ties: AT&T, Fujitsu, HewlettPackard, Hughes, LSI Logic, Microsoft, Motorola,
Sony, Sun Microsystems, Texas Instruments, Xilinx
Center Benefits to the State of Hawaii
A well funded Center with quality personnel will provide:
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a significant boost in federal and industry funding to the
University of Hawaii.
a large increase in students who will be well prepared for
careers in telecommunications.
technical knowledge to the State for development of a
telecommunications industry.
an increase in skilled technical people and high technology
industry that will come to Hawaii.
an increase in the number of high technology conferences
and workshops held in Hawaii.
Why develop the Hawaii Center for Advanced
Communications?
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Personnel: diversified members with expertise in a
broad range of communications technology.
Existing backbone infrastructure: Optical fiber
backbone in place can work well with local wireless
system for broadband access for consumers and
business.
Geographic location: Pacific Rim location can bring
wireless technologies from Asia (Japan) and North
America (USA) together.
State and industry interest: Diversification of Hawaiian
economy.
Timing: Industry time-scale is short (need to act now).