5G Wireless Research Wins Chinese Government Honour
NEWS
His research might just be part of the solution of the next-generation wireless communication technology, known as 5G: Jinfeng Du has received the Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad for his research efforts. He believes that it’s because he’s a bit more inquisitive than the average person.
“This award is an acknowledgment of my research efforts and performance so far, a recognition that I’m on the right track and that I can confidently continue on this road,” says Du, a PhD student in communication theory at the KTH School of Electrical Engineering.
Together with the significant honour of receiving the award, Du also receives a grant of USD 6,000. Out of the 495 award winners selected this year (2011, awarded in 2012), only 12 awards went to students in Sweden, and only two of these are researchers in electrical engineering.
“The award usually goes to students in biology and such broader fields that involve many researchers and recognised journals,” Du says. “So, for a narrow field like cooperative communication to win the hearts of the experts, it’s an honour to be one of the few in electrical engineering.”
He believes he has received the award for his interest in a relatively broad area within electrical engineering and because he looks at problems from many perspectives. Du says he thoroughly enjoys finding bugs in his own research, as well as in those of his colleagues.
“I’m just a little bit more inquisitive than the average person, I guess,” he says. “If I notice something isn’t logical to me, I have to know why. Why does it behave like this? If I don’t understand something, I keep on looking.”
Du works in the field of network information theory and network coding. His research promises to deepen our understanding of basic research on cooperative communication – the foundation for next-generation wireless communication, also known as 5G. His job is to find out the best way to allow large numbers of users and services to cooperate efficiently when they share large media content.
“5G will change the way we communicate,” he says. “Instead of each user downloading large chunks of media content directly from the server, many users who are interested in the same content could download parts of it and then share them off-line. This will greatly improve the quality and efficiency of information exchange in the future.”
Du’s research will enable users and services to help each other relay information via units that are closer to the user. These units will be able to help other units whenever they’re not busy with their designated job. However, in the end, the business model will depend to a large extent on telecom operators, who will decide the size of the compensation for helping out.
“A possible model could be that if you are willing to help someone when you’re not busy, then you could benefit from a discount for your regular subscription,” he says.
Since the beginning of 2009, Du has been working on network information theory and network coding at the Department of Communication Theory at KTH. He has been published in three journals and had three conference papers published. Du did his licentiate on multi-carrier communications at KTH ICT from 2006 to 2008, publishing five widely cited articles. This part of his research focuses on an alternative technical solutions for wireless communication systems.
Between 400 and 500 students have received the award annually since 2004, when it was first granted by the Chinese government. Applicants for the award are ranked and selected by distinguished professors linked to the Education Sections at Chinese embassies around the world. Final selection is based on the number of publications and where the students’ papers have been published during their PhD studies. In this process, Du proved to be one of the best of the nominees in communication theory.
By Marie Androv. Edited by Kevin Billinghurst