Seminar Announcement: Communication Theory
This seminar is sponsored by the IEEE Upper Mon subsectionn

Abstract: Macroscopic space-time coding, where transmission to mobile users is accomplished by each single-antenna base station acting as one of the antennas in a space-time coding scheme, is an attractive method to improve the performance of wireless systems, particularly for applications requiring partial broadcast. However, because the mobile users to whom the signals are broadcast can be spread across a wide geographical region, the time of arrival of a signal from one base station relative to that of a signal arriving from another base station varies greatly, thus complicating system design. In this talk, the macroscopic space-time coding problem is clearly motivated, and then a performance criterion, optimal receiver, and family of code designs are presented. A matched filter bound analysis with associated numerical and simulation results demonstrates the robustness of the proposed code designs to the relative arrival times of the signals from different base stations. Finally, the matched filter bound analysis is extended to demonstrate significant improvements in coverage for such a system over currently employed systems and standard space-time coding approaches applied across the same set of base stations.

Speaker Bio: Dennis L. Goeckel eeceived the B.S.E.E. degree from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, in 1992, and the M.S.E.E. and Ph.D. degrees, both in electrical engineering, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1993 and 1996, respectively. From 1987 to 1992, he worked at Sundstrand Corporation. From 1992 to 1996, he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow at the University of Michigan. In September 1996, he joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he is currently an Associate Professor. His research interests are in the design of digital communication systems, particularly for wireless communications applications. Dr. Goeckel is the recipient of a 1999 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. He is an Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS.