Our projects

Current research projects

See the exciting research projects we are currently undertaking in various areas of communications engineering.

Discover our projects and the research teams behind each one.

Externally funded projects

Airborne base station communication systems

Funded by: ARC Discovery Project

This project is fundamentally characterising and optimising information gathering, dissemination and communication capacities of airborne base stations. This will enable low latency communications in rural and remote areas.

New technologies – such as precision farming, safe remote equipment operation in mining, and wide area surveillance and security – require low latency communications that are an order of magnitude beyond what is currently available from satellite links.

The expected outcome will be radically new:

• base station deployment
• flight path planning
• data transmission technologies.

These will unlock new application technologies by enabling secure wide-spread communications coverage, delivering economic benefits to remote Australia.

Mm-wave communication networks in urban environments

Funded by: ARC Discovery Project

This project is developing new architectures for next-generation mobile network deployments. A critical aspect is the use of the mm-wave spectrum which offers 10–100 times the bandwidth used by current mobile networks, but this comes with many challenges.

We are:

• fundamentally characterising the practical information carrying capacity of these future mm-wave systems
• developing radically new network designs and data transmission technologies.

These would unlock the spectrum by enabling secure outdoor mobile cellular deployments with wide-spread coverage, supporting vastly greater traffic densities and data rates.

On-board processing for advanced tactical satellite communications

Funded by: DST Group, Airbus

The project is identifying and developing technology for advanced tactical satellite communications, as a long-term option to replace or augment current high mobility satellite communications services.

The project proposes the use of Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology and On-Board Processing (OBP) of the communications waveform in space. So-called “regenerative payloads” offer significant performance benefits compared to “bent-pipe” payloads.

Orbital angular momentum sorting using metasurfaces

Funded by: ARC Discovery Project

Orbital angular momentum ‘twisted’ modes of light enable high bandwidth data transmission through multiple mutually-orthogonal channels of light.

We are developing a compact device to simultaneously sort and detect all the orbital angular momentum modes with minimal cross-talk between the channels. The device is based on a metasurface (an array of nano-antennas for light) and offers efficiency and reasonably broad-band operation.

Consilience projects

A Collaborative Network of Smart Devices to Aid Human Communication

Funded by: Future Communications Research Centre

This project develops novel machine-to-machine communications algorithms, system architectures and networks of smart devices to assist individuals with hearing impairments, particularly in noisy environments.

With many smart devices having microphones and other sensors being carried around, the project takes an innovative approach to improving hearing in a noisy location by coordinating a distributed ad hoc network of smart devices.

Privacy Analyses for Financial Data Communications Protocol

Funded by: Future Communications Research Centre

The project aims to provide a comprehensive privacy risk analysis associated with sharing transaction data via Open Banking. It will develop novel communications protocols to share confidential financial data securely.

The protocols that will be developed by the project team are expected to enable higher competition in the market and allow individuals to have a broader control on their finances.

Millimetre-wave dynamic phased arrays using narrow linewidth Brillouin lasers

Funded by: Future Communications Research Centre

This project develops a novel technique utilising Brillouin lasers to synthesise millimetre-wave signals. Using the optical domain to perform the dynamic phase shifting for the phased array, the project will enable efficient signal transmission at higher frequencies, by avoiding the bandwidth limitations of RF phase shifters.

The developed technique is expected to reduce phase noise in phased array antennas significantly and thereby improve broadband connectivity in 6G and non-terrestrial communications networks.