Postdoctoral Research Associate in Radio Propagation Studies

The Role

The Centre for Communication Systems has world class radio propagation measurements capabilities with state-of-the-art radio channel sounders with multiple RF heads covering several frequency bands from 0.6 GHz to 330 GHz for mobile radio measurements, a large anechoic chamber, and a high end disdrometer weather station with multiple mm wave RF heads to study the impact of precipitation on fixed links in the built environment. Its research is supported by electronics and mechanical workshops.

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Experimental Radio Propagation Studies for both indoor and outdoor mobile environments for potential spectrum sharing and modelling of the impact of precipitation on mm wave fixed radio links from the high-end weather station installed at Durham University and measurement data.

The successful candidate will be working in the Communications and THz node in the department of Engineering led by Professor Salous who is the lead academic at Durham University for the recently awarded DSIT Sandbox on spectrum sharing and the EPSRC project Transmission Channels Measurements and Communication System Design for Future mmWave Communications (mmWave TRACCS), which is a collaborative project with Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and University College London (UCL). The projects bring the complementary expertise of leading industry and UK research groups, to research, design and experimentally demonstrate systems working in typical deployment scenarios, in an integrative and holistic f ashion. For such work, there are key challenges relating to the radio channel and system design.

Challenge 1: to design wireless communication systems, it is paramount to have a verifiable model of the physical propagation channel by collecting measurement data from a specialist and bespoke designed equipment termed "channel sounder", which sends signals over the air and the receiver measures these signals after propagation. Such a model depends on several physical factors, but mainly the transmission signal parameters e.g. the frequency of transmission, the bandwidth of the signal, and the propagation channel physical parameters, such as the channel size and environment and whether it is indoors or outdoors, environmental factors, presence of obstacles, water moisture, pollution and other factors. Professor Salous and her group at Durham has been building channel sounders for over thirty years and the models she has developed are considered amongst the best in the world, used by regulators, industry and the United Nations through the International Telecommunications Union, (ITU). In this project Professor Salous and the successful candidate will conduct measurements and develop unique models for future generation wireless systems using the new channel sounding.

Challenge 2: Different method for spectrum sharing need to be identified for potential deployment in networks and in network planning tools and modelling of the impact of weather conditions on radio links.

This post is fixed term until 31st April 2026. It is expected that the successful applicant, ideally, will be in post by the 1st of July 2024 at the latest.

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