Hungry for the latest within wireless communications technology

Saltanat Khamit from Kazakhstan took her first Master degree in 1998. After about ten years in the industry she came to KTH as a PhD student in Communications Systems. Now she has defended her licentiate thesis “Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks”.

Where are you from and where did you study before coming to School of ICT?

– I am from Almaty, Kazakhstan. Prior to Sweden, I have worked at different local and international companies within the telecom industry for about 10 years. I graduated with Master of Science in Radio Engineering from Almaty Institute of Power Engineering and Telecommunications (AIPET), Kazakhstan, with honors, from 2000-2001. Also I graduated with Engineering Diploma (equivalent to Master degree) in Radio Communication, Broadcasting and Television from Almaty Institute of Power Engineering and Telecommunications (AIPET), Kazakhstan, 1993-1998.

What is your topic and why did you choose it?

– Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) in Heterogeneous Wireless Networks. Professor Jens Zander introduced the choice of my topic and I was eager to learn about the latest advances in wireless communications technology. My Licentiate thesis is available in electronic format here.

Describe your topic in short

– Wireless communications is a resource-based industry. The resources in wireless communications contain two components, such are: radio spectrum and network infrastructure (i.e., mainly radio base stations). Therefore their efficient resource management is essential in order to maximize the benefits that can be achieved by customers and mobile operators. Some of the possible solutions are given in my research work. I have devised the engineering ways on how to efficiently use all these resources by the exploring benefits of adoption a new paradigm in radio resource management is a dynamic spectrum access technology. This technology is expected to have a sufficient impact on the expansion of next generation wireless systems. Particular emphasis in my thesis was given to competitive pricing and deployment strategies for dynamic spectrum access systems.

Tell us something about your results

– During all my studies, I have been working on various theoretical models in wireless communications, and verifying them using different computer simulators (mainly MATLAB). I have participated in several international conferences and workshops where I presented my work. It had been a great experience to take part in the discussions, talks and seminars, which have been held at KTH and in particular at the Communication Systems Department. The results of my work are a number of peer-reviewed conference papers in which we investigated different aspects of main scientific topic.

What will the future bring for your research, how will you continue and what focus will you have on your PhD thesis?

– Basically, in my further research work I would like to:
  • Explore more about real-time spectrum access technology and its applications.
  • Expand understanding on heterogeneous architectures for future generation wireless networks.
  • Develop new methods of analysis for evaluating such systems.
  • Devise engineering rules, techniques and tradeoffs for performance improvement and system deployment.
In my PhD thesis I would like to focus on the same topic by conducting research towards more complex system models and exploiting different types of interactions and applying more complicated methods and new pricing and deployment strategies.