Dublin trials wireless technologies

16 April 2007

Ireland’s Centre for Telecommunications Value Chain Research is leading a team from government, industry and academia in trials of advanced new wireless communication technologies in Dublin.

The world’s first trials of advanced new wireless communication technologies have started in Dublin. An international team of industry leaders and researchers led by Ireland’s Centre for Telecommunications Value Chain Research (CTVR) is conducting the trials. CTVR is headquartered at Trinity College Dublin.

Ireland’s Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has granted CTVR and a number of firms a special trial license for the research which aims to identify how increasingly scarce space in the world’s radio wavebands can best be used in the interests of society and the economy.

The trials involve technology placed at fixed locations and the use of a mobile test centre, which will travel around the Greater Dublin Area throughout April.

US, UK and European companies including Motorola Research Labs and the Shared Spectrum Company, in addition to government contractors and academic research groups working on these innovative technologies will be participating in the trials.

The Dublin trials involve the use of intelligent technologies that can adapt their own operation to maximise performance. Typical applications might include new national communication systems for emergency services or mobile phones that intelligently scan their networks for less crowded frequencies. Apart from these capabilities, the challenges involve the development of new software and the creation of miniature circuitry in the microchips powering electronic devices.

The move coincides with a gathering of 1,000 of the world’s leading telecommunications industry experts in Dublin in the next two weeks for major conferences to explore the future of wireless communications. Raw data from the trials will be fed directly into the conferences by CTVR.

‘ComReg has an innovative wireless test and trial scheme, making Ireland one of the very few places in the world where activity of this kind can take place,’ said Prof. Donal O’Mahony, Director of CTVR who are staging the trials. ‘The trials will showcase cognitive or smart radio, innovative networks and emerging frequency technologies with a unique opportunity for companies worldwide to trial innovative wireless communications technologies.’