Company

COST

European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research

COST Projects

Several European COST (Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research) projects deal with the topics of wave propagation and radio network planning. Among the most important are:

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COST 2100: Pervasive Mobile & Ambient Wireless Communications

Duration: 2007 - 2009

COST2100 is the action on Pervasive Mobile & Ambient Wireless Communications and belongs to the ICT domain. This action basically addresses the various topics that are currently emerging in the area of mobile and wireless communications.

The main objective of this action is to increase knowledge of mobile and wireless network technologies, by exploring and developing new methods, models, techniques, strategies and tools that will facilitate the implementation of next generation mobile radio communication systems and will foster the development of the paradigms of pervasive and ambient wireless communications.

Considering that COST2100 mainly deals with propagation and antenna, physical layer and radio network aspects and according to the structure of the previous COST Actions on mobile communications, COST2100 is organised in three Working Groups (WGs):

WG 1: Transmission Techniques and Signal Processing

WG 1 deals with transmission and signal processing techniques for air-interface technologies, mainly related to the physical layer of systems.
Among the main topics are:

Air-interface techniques for gigabit wireless transmission

Access technologies for pervasive systems

Reduced complexity detection techniques, including equalisation and channel estimation for broadband high mobility channels

Multicarrier based techniques, including OFDM/MC-CDMA and frequency domain equalisation with cyclic prefix

Adaptive air-interface techniques for use in cognitive radio systems, and cognitive radio issues related to the physical layer

WG 2: Radio Channel

WG 2 follows a dual approach in order to contribute to progress of radio communication systems in the area of propagation, channels and antennas. The first is a traditional approach where basic work is continued in order to improve the understanding and the modelling of radio propagation and of single and multiple antenna systems. The outputs of this work will be the definition of simplified but accurate models, intended for radio systems simulation and standardisation. The second approach is more proactive and addresses the new requirements put on the assessment of radio channel properties for the successful development of novel wireless communication systems. This implies to identify the specific scenarios, parameters, and system configurations having a consequence on the radio channel, and to specify accordingly the investigations to be carried out.
The main topics include:

Physical propagation mechanisms, at specific bands of the radio spectrum in the micro- and millimetre-wave bands

Radio propagation modelling techniques, for faster simulations or greater accuracy

Measurements and advanced analysis of the polarised, double directional radio channels, for meaningful parameter extraction

MIMO channel sounding and modelling, including small and electromagnetically coupled antenna arrays representative of terminals

UWB channel sounding and model extraction, taking into account the specificities of the major physical layer schemes making use of these models

Identification of the propagation specificities of multihop and relay networks, and of sensor networks

Frequency dependence of the propagation, and consequences on radio channels for multi standard and cognitive radio systems

Mobile-to-mobile and point-to-multipoint propagation channels

Interactions between antennas and human being, and influence on the radio channel particularly for close sensors

Advanced assessment of antenna handset characteristics

Statistical antenna models and UWB antenna models, taking into account antenna dispersions and antenna environment variability

WG 3: Radio Network Aspects

WG 3 deals with radio networks aspects, oriented to single or hybrid (heterogeneous) networks. The WG expects to strongly contribute in the generation of new conceptual studies, as well as in the design of new algorithms, software platforms, tests and testbeds oriented to improve research in the four categories listed below:

Advanced planning:

advanced planning using operational information
convergence between planned (cellular) and infrastructure-less networks
IEEE802.xx (e.g., WiMax and WiFi) networks: coverage analysis, effect of mobility on performance
Hybrid Networks: radio network architecture and automatic planning methods, for GSM/UMTS, UMTS/802.11, WiFi and WiMax systems, DVB-H
intelligent networks through mobile multi-agent technology
cell site positioning with emphasis on heterogeneous multimedia services
issues related with planning tools (generation/adaptation/improving of existing tools)

Radio Access Optimization techniques and Radio Resource Management:

System and Service Modelling
definition and analysis of network quality concepts (including QoS, user oriented QoS and end to end QoS), and enhancements by using adaptive antennas
capacity and interference modelling of B3G air-interfaces and its effects on network performance
accurate traffic modelling and prediction, packet data for multimedia services, speed and mobility, terminal location for enhanced capacity and value added services

Protocol Design applied to:

Automatic Dynamic Network Reconfigurability

Intelligent networks through mobile multi-agent technology

IEEE802.xx (e.g., WiMax and WiFi) networks

COST 273: Towards Mobile Broadband Multimedia Networks

Duration: 2001 - 2005

In COST 273 AWE Communications offered a tutorial

Wave Propagation Modeling and Network Planning for Cellular Wireless Networks

It was a 4 hours tutorial at the 6^thMCM COST 273 meeting in Barcelona, Spain at Jan, 15, 2003. All participants of the COST 273 meeting were invited to join the tutorial.Further information about the COST project and the slides of the tutorial are available at the COST 273 WWW server.

Further information about the COST 273 project is available from the COST 273 Web Server.

COST 259: Wireless Flexible Personalised Communications

Duration: Dec. 1996 - April 2000

Main activities:

New modeling approaches for UHF and microwave bands at 5.2 GHz, 17.2 GHz, 40 GHz and 60 GHz.
Models are studied for short range communications in the high microwave and millimeter-wave bands.
Microcellular and in-building coverage, penetration losses, tree effects.
Comparisons between the effectiveness in different situations between empirical/statistical and electromagnetic/deterministic models (ray tracing).
Measurements to validate the models using ad-hoc channel sounders, and to get statistics on wideband parameters to be used for system simulations.
Studies on the effects of the surrounding environment on base station antenna radiation pattern (masts, poles, walls).
Investigations about intelligent (smart) and adaptive Base Station antennas (in terms of their capability of suppression of interferences, pattern reconfigurability, dual polarization).

You can find further information on the COST 259 Web Server.

The final report is published by Wiley & Sons

COST 231: Digital Mobile Radio Towards Future Generation Systems

Duration: April 1989 - April 1996

Main activities:

Radio Channel Characterization
Antennas and Antenna Diversity
Propagation Prediction Models
Research into Performance and Enhancements of Second Generation Systems: GSM and DECT
Advanced Radio Interface Techniques and Performance
Potential Radio Interface Subsystems
Broadband Systems

Within COST 231 the well-know Walfisch-Ikegami propagation model for urban scenarios was extended and a comparison between different urban propagation models and measurements was organized. This COST 231 - Benchmark is till today very often used for the analysis of new propagation models. The measurements and the databases for the benchmark were provided by Mannesmann Mobilfunk (German GSM900 Network operator). Information concerning the results can be found in the final report.

Further information can be found on the COST 231 Web Server.

The final report with number EUR 18957 (ISBN 92-828-5416-7) can be obtained from the European Comission (Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, L-2985 Luxemburg).

COST 207: Digital Land Mobile Radio Communications

Duration: March 1984 - September 1988.

Main activities:

Definition of frequency selective fading simulator, characteristics and the choice of parameter setting for GSM test measurements, taking into account the results of propagation measurements carried out in different countries participating in COST 207
Measurements of man-made noise in the 900 MHz band and construction of a noise simulator
Modulation methods originally seen as possible candidates for the GSM system
Adaptive baseband equalization techniques
Forward error-correction codes

Final report with number EUR 12160 can be obtained from the European Comission (Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, L-2985 Luxemburg).