Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering - Wireless Communication

University of Waterloo

Wireless communications is a highly technical research area involving all aspects of transmitting and receiving information over the wireless spectrum. Research includes the study of wireless communication channel effects and modeling (e.g., multipath effect, Doppler effect, fading, shadowing, frequency selectivity), the study and design of modulation techniques effective in challenging wireless environments, multi-antenna techniques (i.e., MIMO - Multiple Input Multiple Output) for wireless channels, error control coding techniques suitable for wireless channels, multiple access techniques, and mobility and resource management in wireless networks. Commercial and economic reasons for the area of research are compelling new wireless access technologies and bandwidth intensive applications such as smartphones, are at our doorstep making the need for efficient spectrum usage pressing. Research programs in this area at Waterloo span from, Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks, Cognitive Networks, Error Control, Coding Theory, Information Theory, to Multi Hop Networks, etc. The research is funded federally and provincially, with active involvement of companies such as Ciena and COM DEV. The department has 18 faculty working in the broad area of communications, all of whom are involved (to some extent) in Wireless Communications.