Commission C – Radio-Communication Systems and Signal Processing

By Masami Akaike

[I] Business Meetings

1. Welcome to URSI General Assembly in Maastricht

The Commission held open business meetings on 19th, 21st, and 23rd, August, 2002. The following persons were present at least at one meeting, but mostly at several: Ernst Bonek, Austria (Chair); Masami Akaike, Japan (Vice-Chair); Paul Wittke, Canada; Maurice Bellanger, France; Witold Krzymien, Canada; Guido Tartara, Italy; Eleary Beonard, Denmark; Ernst Zollinger, Switzerland; David Thomson, Canada; Reiner Thoma, Germany; Jean-Claude Bic, France; Joseph Shapera, Israel; Jan-Olof Gustavsson, Sweden; Zhihua Wang, China; Blagovest Shishkov, Bulgaria; Said EL Khamy, Egypt; Mairtin Odroma, Ireland; Mark Cummings, USA; Kensuke Ogawa, Japan; Alfred Hero, USA; Robert Weigel, Germany, Lajos Nagy, Hungary; Andy Molisch, USA; Börje Forsell, Norway.

At the opening of the first business meeting, the Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and attendees introduced themselves. The Chair then reported briefly the activity of Commission C in this triennium and set the scene.

2. Future of Review of Radio Science

The Chair proposed a slight change in the style of the Review of Radio Science (RRS), that is, the future RRS will not be a triennium publication but will be a quarterly publication, merging into the Radio Science Bulletin (RSB). All members of the meeting expressed their agreement.

3. Election of the next Vice-Chair

Two candidates, Peter Farkas (Slovakia) and Andreas F. Molisch (Austria), for the next Vice-Chair were nominated. Andreas F. Molisch was elected as a result of 36 points to Peter Fakas of 24 points.

4. Commission Editor for the new Radio Science Bulletin

A. Molisch was agreed to serve as Commission Editor for RSB (incorporating RRS).

5. Review of the Terms of Reference

The Terms of Reference was discussed on the business meeting on 23rd August. The existing Terms of Reference are considered to be very broad, relating not only to proper radio science technology but also infrastructural technologies to radio communication systems. Among them, Commission C is considered necessary to focus on radio communication systems and signal processing technologies. As Commission C provides enabling technologies for many other commissions’ work, collaboration with other commissions is also essential. Now Commission C has concreted new Terms of Reference.

Radio-Communication Systems and Signal Processing

The Commission promotes Research and Development in:

  1. Radio-Communication and Telecommunication Systems;
  2. Spectrum and Medium Utilization;
  3. Information Theory, Coding, Modulation and Detection;
  4. Signal and Image Processing in the area of radio science.

The design of effective radio-communication systems must include scientific, engineering and economic considerations. This Commission emphasizes research into the scientific aspects, and provides enabling technologies to other areas of radio science.

6. Role of National Representatives of "C"

Further enhancement of the national and international activity of Commission C should strongly be prompted for the next triennium. While National Representatives are desired to have close contact with Commission C, Commission C also is encouraged to try to cooperate with radio scientists in each country in parallel to National Representatives

7. The program for the next General Assembly

The program of the next General Assembly will focus the sessions on mobile radio communications, including wireless access and ultra-wide-band access, and image processing. Since the field of Commission C is very broad, cooperative organization of sessions with other Commissions is necessary.

For organizing the next General Assembly held in New Delhi, a wide contact with Indian scientists in the field of Commission C will be solicited. A list of leading scientists in India based upon the international conferences held in India so far will be helpful.

8. Other business

Further discussions will be made on the following points:
(1) Necessity for the steering committee to assist chair,
(2) Representative of Commission C for SCT,
(3) Future Terms of Reference, as it is or the commission split and renamed,
(4) Competition, cooperation, and/or interaction with other international conferences and organizations.

 

[II] Review of General Assembly

Commission C organized one tutorial, five C sessions (including one poster session), and twelve joint sessions. Among twelve joint sessions, five sessions were led by Commission C. Since the technical field that Commission C deals with is wide and has relating parts with other Commissions, such joint sessions show characteristic feature of Commission C. Close contact/collaboration henceforth with other Commissions will be further encouraged.

Each session room was filled to capacity and the discussions among the presenters and audience were quite active, which reflects a wide interest to technical subjects of Commission C.

The following are the sessions organized by Commission C:

Tutorial: "Modeling of directional wireless propagation channels," presented by A. Molisch,

C1: "Software reconfigurable radio systems," organized by R. Kohno,

C2: "Antenna array signal processing and multiple-input multiple-output," organized by A. Molisch and M. Viberg,

C3: "Blind signal detection," organized by V. Koivnen,

C4: "Recent advances in telecommunication systems," organized by P. Wittke,

CAF: "Broadband access systems in wireless communication," organized by H. Ogawa and T. Tanem,

CFAB: "Subsurface remote sensing and its application," organized by J. Sachs, D. Noon, G. Smith, and P. van den Berg,

CBF: "Wave propagation modeling for mobile communication systems," organized by W. Wiesbeck and H. Bertoni,

CF: "Adaption to changing radio channel," organized by R. Bultitude and Y. Karasawa,

CFA: "Channel sounding in mobile communication systems," organized by R. Thoma and S. Saunders, and Q. Balzano.