Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • Videos
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Library
    • Research
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

Beyond Today’s Radio Spectrum: Transmitting Wireless Data on Higher Frequencies

Friday, January 23, 2015, By Matt Wheeler
Share
College of Engineering and Computer Scienceresearch

Everything we do that requires a wireless connection uses the radio spectrum. We’re able to harness radio waves to listen to music in the car or stream Netflix from the 4G network on our smartphones. Each application is assigned its own frequency within the spectrum. The problem is that space is limited and our demand is only increasing. But what if we weren’t bound by this crowded spectrum?

Cenk Gursoy

Cenk Gursoy

The radio spectrum exists on the lower end of the larger electromagnetic spectrum. As you move up the spectrum into microwaves, infrared, visible and ultraviolet light, x-rays and gamma rays, the wavelengths get shorter and their frequency gets higher and higher. Associate Professor Cenk Gursoy of the  College of Engineering and Computer Science sees potential in using higher frequencies for wireless services in something called the “millimeter wave frequency band,” for the primary purpose of allocating more bandwidth to deliver faster, higher-quality video and multimedia content.

Gursoy explains, “The millimeter band is a much broader spectrum and, given the spectrum crunch we are experiencing, we should have already moved there. But there are certain challenges. We intend to look at the challenges and develop solutions to deal with them to move into these higher frequencies.”

The challenges he mentions will not be easily overcome. Substantial research is needed to make this a reality. To start, we don’t have the right equipment for this. New, smaller, adaptive antennas need to be designed for our mobile devices to receive these higher frequency waves. Additionally, while radio waves propagate in a way that can be received over great distances and through weather and structures, millimeter waves require a line-of-sight connection between the transmitting and receiving antennas to work well. Buildings, rain and even the position of a user’s hand on their device can block these shorter wavelengths or have significant impact on the quality of their reception. Attenuation is also a concern. Millimeter waves simply don’t travel the same distances as radio waves.

Research funded by the National Science Foundation will help overcome challenges of harnessing radio waves at the upper end of the spectrum.

Research funded by the National Science Foundation will help overcome challenges of harnessing radio waves at the upper end of the spectrum.

Gursoy and principle investigators at Ohio State University received an award from the National Science Foundation to address these challenges as part of the foundation’s Enhancing Access to the Radio Spectrum (EARS) collaborative research program. Their work will take place over the next three years. The work that Gursoy will be completing at Syracuse University will explore ways to address the line-of-sight and attenuation issues to integrate the use of millimeter waves through modeling.

“By the end of the third year, we will have a good understanding of the limits and what can be done to make this a reality. It’s something that the wireless industry clearly has a vested interest in, so we should see millimeter waves incorporated into things like the upcoming 5G network very soon. If it’s really as promising as it looks, then we should see many products using this by 2020 or earlier,” says Gursoy. “Everyone connected to the project is learning more and it’s exciting because it’s something that very few people are working on and it’s happening here at SU.”

 

  • Author

Matt Wheeler

  • Recent
  • Drama Department to Virtually Present New Theatrical Work Inspired by University’s 150th Anniversary
    Saturday, January 23, 2021, By Erica Blust
  • Professor Rahman Awarded Google Grant to Engage Underrepresented Students in Computing Research
    Saturday, January 23, 2021, By Alex Dunbar
  • Special Collections Research Center Launches Latin American 45s Digital Collection
    Saturday, January 23, 2021, By Cristina Hatem
  • VPA Faculty to Present World Premieres at Society for New Music Concert Jan. 31
    Saturday, January 23, 2021, By News Staff
  • ‘Democracy on Trial: Can We Save It?’
    Friday, January 22, 2021, By News Staff

More In STEM

Professor Rahman Awarded Google Grant to Engage Underrepresented Students in Computing Research

Electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) Professor Farzana Rahman received a 2020 Google exploreCSR award to fund the development of an undergraduate student engagement workshop program, Research Exposure in Socially Relevant Computing (RESORC). The RESORC program will provide research opportunities…

Arts and Sciences Welcomes New Director of Forensics Kathleen Corrado

After 25 years working in the field of forensic science and over two decades of executive experience as a laboratory director, Kathleen Corrado has been named director of the Forensic and National Security Science Institute (FNSSI) in the College of…

Hehnly Lab Awarded $1.2M NIH Grant to Research Critical Tissue Formation

A key process during the development of an embryo is tissue morphogenesis, where the number of cells in an organism increase through cell division and tissues begins to take shape. Heidi Hehnly, assistant professor of biology, has been awarded a…

The Role of Digital Forensics and Tracking Down US Capitol Riot Criminals

With just under a week left before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony, investigators and law enforcement agencies across the country are working speedily to identify as many of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot offenders as they can. Knowing exactly…

A&S Researchers Awarded $2.1M Grant to Study Causes of Congenital Heart Defects

Congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect, affecting nearly 1 percent of births in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Doctors have been unable to lower that number…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2021 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.