Harnessing Static to Improve Radio Communications?

Julie Kalista
Online Editor

Well, University of Illinois professor of electrical and computer engineering Daniela Tuninetti has been awarded a $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to find out.

This concept, known as collaborative communications is not so far-fetched if you take a closer look at what is going on. "Interference caused by other communications devices is not just noise," Tuninetti says, "It's a structure - communication between devices."

Tuninetti believes the message of interference can be decoded to enhance communication. The idea is to pool communication resource and help mobile devices receive operating signals in places and times signals would normally cut out, essentially expanding the signal's bandwidth in a limited zone to provide clear voice communication or faster data flow.

Tuninetti's research will focus on developing coding and signaling techniques to increase capacity in communication systems. It will also work to design efficient and distributed multi-access and routing protocols.