Besides acting as a contact point for different organisations within the telecommunications sector in the region, the Centre conducts research into specific projects. The Centre’s is directly involved in the projects below:

1.Photoreceiver Research Project

The demand for cellular and mobile telecommunications is growing rapidly. Among considered solutions for broadband systems, picocellular systems working at millimetre-wave frequencies are very attractive. These systems mainly consist of a control station, which optically feeds information to remote units (one per picocell). In this project, high-speed photodiodes have been developed by IEMN-University of Lille and these are being incorporated into high-speed photoreceivers, including receivers based on optically injection locked oscillators at the University of Kent.

2. Rosette Project

The increasing capacity in the access network can be resolved by integrating wireless and optical networks. Radio-over-Fibre (RoF) increases capacity and reduces cost, transporting information over optical fibre by modulating the light with the radio signal(s) of the wireless domain. This technique can be used in the backbone of a wireless access network while simultaneously providing transport of mobile (cellphone) signals from a central site to lower power distributed antennas. In this project, the partners are examining novel devices and techniques which can use a low-cost infrastructure for indoor systems.