Enhancing Networks and Wireless Research at Loughborough University's Communications Research Group - A Case for Platform Grant Support

Loughborough University's Communications Research Group has developed an international reputation in the fields of networks and wireless technologies. To enhance our operations, three of the group's senior members are seeking a Platform Grant to fund four leading researchers in advanced research at particular boundaries of our current activities. The aim of this Platform Grant is to underpin and enhance the long term strategic development of the Communications Research Group through:* retention of key researchers in the group to help sustain our critical mass of expertise.* deployment of resources to undertake opportunistic feasibility studies that will generate future cross-disciplinary research.* establishment of a number of international strategic alliances developed from study tours by key academic staff.* strengthening of collaboration activity and awareness between staff within the Communications Research Group.Our group undertakes research programmes across a broad agenda within the larger context of analogue and digital electronic communications research. We believe an amalgamation and extension of key areas will produce significantly beneficial synergies for both the wider communications community and the Communications Research Group itself. One example may be perceived in opportunities with our activities in microwave antenna design and in communication network performance measurement. These two internationally recognised activities are not currently integrated in a research sense and each is supported by its own specialist research staff. By linking and relating our experimental measurement technology for microwaves and communication networks, we could resolve invaluable questions on minimising the microwave radiation exposure to an individual when, for example, watching a video at a given quality. This submission will support three specific areas for exploratory investigation. In addition to measurement research, our activities in the areas of network abuse detection and signal processing offer significant prospects for collaborative exploration. We are also uniquely placed to further our metamaterials research by applying it to efficient mobile antennas in order to limit human interaction impact on broadband wireless service quality.By strengthening collaboration internally and externally to the group, we see a timely opportunity to challenge and stimulate our leading research staff in support of the next generation of communications research. We view the establishment of these new research activities as extremely valuable to the emerging high performance mobile computing community. We therefore propose to investigate these new ideas to maximise the effectiveness of our research portfolio, which in turn will lead to technology transfers direct to regulatory bodies, equipment developers and the network security industry.