At the ICASSP conference held virtually last week SnT Director Björn Ottersten received the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine Best Column Award, with co-authors Prof Emil Björnson (Linköping University) and Prof Mats Bengtsson (KTH Stockholm).
The paper that won the award, titled Optimal Multiuser Transmit Beamforming: A Difficult Problem with a Simple Solution Structure was published in the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, Volume. 31, No. 4, on July 2014. The authors presented a new method to pre-code wireless communications systems, which has since proved essential to 4G and 5G systems. Most recently, Björn Ottersten and his team at SnT have been working to apply the same techniques to satellite communications technology.“”
The paper is unique because it delivers insights into signal precoding with an elegant mathematical formulation. Signal precoding is a significant challenge in wireless communications technology as it impacts the way signals are differentiated between different users on the network. Distinguishing users’ communication signals is key in wireless systems since spectral resources are limited and any interference impacts the service quality for the end-user.
“I am honoured to receive this recognition from my peers. It serves as another validation of the direction our research in signal processing and wireless communications is going at SnT,” said the centre director. “I am also proud to have been awarded this prize with my co-authors, who were once my doctoral researchers and have since become professors at their respective institutions.”
The award was presented as part of the virtual ICASSP conference, during which Ottersten also presented a plenary on multiantenna precoding in wireless communication systems.