Network support

A new wireless communications laboratory at the University of Leeds will support teaching of undergraduate and postgraduate degree courses in broadband wireless networks, RFID and sensor networks.

The lab, located in the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Leeds, will be equipped with technology from Agilent Technologies.

Agilent, a leader in measurement, design, installation and deployment of communications networks, tests more than half of the world’s 1.3 billion mobile phones.

The new laboratory can accommodate up to 64 students at a time. Agilent equipment in the lab includes six digital modulation workstations for generation and analysis of IQ modulated signals up to 3GHz, six radio frequency network analysers and vector signal generation and analysis instruments used to validate conformance to a wide range of modern digital communications standards.

‘The faculty of engineering here at Leeds has a long history of collaboration with Agilent, spanning more than 25 years,’ said Roger Pollard, dean of engineering at Leeds. ‘We are extremely grateful to Agilent for its continued support and in particular, for the generous sponsorship of this exceptionally well-equipped laboratory.’

The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) determined Leeds’ School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering the top electronic and electrical engineering department in the UK in 2008. It also rated 80 per cent of Leeds’ research activity as internationally excellent or world leading.

‘Agilent has a lasting commitment to supporting academic institutions in nurturing the next generation of engineers by equipping their laboratories with state-of-the-art test instruments,’ said Ueli Nussbaumer, Agilent’s European geographic business manager. ‘The University of Leeds has a world-class reputation in RF, microwave and wireless research, and it is a pleasure to be able to assist them in this way.’

Mike Short, vice-president of 02/Telefonica Europe, said the facility will help equip engineers for the future of wireless communications.

‘The University of Leeds has a long-standing reputation for producing some of the industry’s best RF and wireless engineers, and this new laboratory and the EPSRC-funded masters courses it supports will help to consolidate its position among the world’s finest research establishments in wireless technology,’ he added.