The quality and potential of CITIC’s work in this area is reflected in the transferability of its research into the production sector, and has given rise to numerous R&D partnerships with private sector leaders, especially in the field of Industry 4.0.

RESEARCH AREAS AND PRIORITIES:

5G wireless communications: 5G is the fifth generation of cellular mobile communications, and represents a significant advance in performance compared to the 4G networks operating currently. Increased speed of data transmission will enable mobile phone users to view ultra-high-definition video content, and open up a range of new services and applications for mobile operators. 5G will use a larger number of both low and high frequencies. While frequencies below 30 Ghz bands will continue to be used to provide users with uninterrupted connectivity over a wider area, 5G will also make use of millimetre waves of over 30 Ghz to transmit large volumes of data and to enable access in high-density scenarios.

Research areas:

• • Hybrid digital-analogue transmission and reception methods in mmWave massive MIMO broadband systems
  • Optimization of Time Modulated Array (TMA) MIMO systems using RF switches in place of Variable Phase Shifters (VPS)
  • Channel State Information (CSI) estimation and management in massive MIMO systems
  • Link layer  in 5G systems, especially in relation to mobility scenarios (trains, drones, etc.)

Internet of Things (IoT): The Internet of Things is the term given to the connection of of everyday objects and devices to the internet. This greater connectivity between devices has applications across a range of areas, including home automation, smart cities, precision agriculture, remote patient monitoring, and remote monitoring of industrial machinery. Research at present is focused on shaping the evolution of these technologies: ways to optimize energy efficiency; long-range, low-power communications systems; security for computationally limited devices, and new communications architectures to enable the collection and channelling of large volumes of data produced by thousands and even millions of devices interacting simultaneously within an IoT system.

Research areas:

• • Design and implementation of IoT applications across a range of different fields, including home automation, energy efficiency, precision agriculture, localization systems, and healthcare.
  • High-security, low-consumption communications systems for embedded devices
  • LPWAN communications systems for IoT applications
  • Low-latency IoT architectures (e.g. edge computing, fog computing, mist computing, cloudlets)
  • IoT for critical infrastructures and Industry 4.0
  • High-redundancy DLT-based decentralized IoT architectures (e.g. blockchain)
  • Smart Buildings 
  • Smart Cities
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)
  • Indoor and outdoor identification, localization and monitoring of people, objects, vehicles and facilities in diverse settings, including industry (IIoT)
  • Natural user interfaces based on embedding of sensors in everyday objects
  • Semantic models for abstracting access to heterogeneous IoT devices
  • Fault-tolerant distributed sensor networks

Vehicular communication and intelligent transport systems: Intelligent transport systems are systems in which ICT are applied in the field of road transport, including infrastructure, vehicles and users, traffic and mobility management, and interfaces with other modes of transport.

Research areas:

• • Experimental characterization and vehicle-to-vehicle radio channel modelling.
  • Simulation and validation of vehicular communication networks, particularly in relation to monitoring of railway infrastructure and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
  • Development of Internet of Vehicles (IoV) solutions for the collection and uploading to the cloud of large volumes of data from in-vehicle sensors.
  • Positioning systems for unmanned vehicles in the air (UAVs), on land (robots, ) and at sea (self-docking vessels).
  • Development of visualization technology and techniques for data collected from intelligent transport systems, for use in data flow processing for online decision-making, and in visual analysis of data stored in spatio-temporal databases.