Center for Wireless and Broadband Networking Opens; First Research Review Set for April 25-26

April 25, 2002

CMU's new Center for Wireless and Broadband Networking (CWBN) taps into the current of the $116 billion telecommunications and networking industry through collaborative research combining industrial and university innovations. Directed by Daniel D. Stancil, Professor of ECE, the Center's mission is to create and disseminate knowledge about advanced heterogeneous networks through research, teaching, and technology transfer. CWBN features more than 20 faculty members and more than 50 research projects, with thrusts in:

• Networking: Studying topics ranging from the quality of service to network management and e-commerce issues, work that naturally extends into mobile computing and wireless communications.
• Wireless communications: Developing procedures for designing wireless networks, positioning location technologies, and novel approaches for wireless signal distribution in buildings, as well as strategies for getting the most information through a wireless connection.
• Telecommunications policy: Providing a policy forum for industry partners and policy-makers to learn more about telecommunication issues. "The forum will be designed to help companies stay abreast of new developments and debate concerns on neutral turf," Stancil said in a CMU News Release.
• Optical communications: Investigating how best to configure optical fibers, improve ways to route messages to their destinations, and use optical components such as lasers and switches, the building blocks of networks.

Applications for wireless technology include mobile phones and "Wireless Andrew," CMU's wireless local area network (LAN), that connects to the university Intranet from anywhere on the 100-acre campus. Optical applications are increasing as more voice calls and Internet data are sent over long distances using light signals on optical fibers.

Companies that are interested in learning more about the Center's research and Industrial Partners Program are invited to register for the First Annual CWBN Spring Review on April 25-26.

-Also featured in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Business Brief.

Related People:

Daniel Stancil