PhD on Signal Processing for Non-Terrestrial Wireless Networks (ANTERRA)

The European Doctoral Network 'ANTERRA' offers 15 fully funded industrial PhD student positions in the area of antennas, integrated circuits and signal processing, starting in the autumn of 2022. ANTERRA is focussed on Antenna Systems for 6G Non-Terrestrial Networks. The consortium consists of 14 leading European R&D laboratories from universities, industries, and technology institutes in the domain of satellite communication and wireless infrastructure which are located in The Netherlands, France, Sweden, Italy and Belgium.

Research
Our society is on the brink of a new age with the development of new visionary concepts such as internet of things, smart cities, autonomous driving, smart mobility, and coverage everywhere. This stimulates the use of new deployment concepts, such as extreme densification or Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN), to support the wireless communication evolution. For 6G, a key use case which stands unaddressed by prior telecommunication generations, is that of coverage everywhere. One of the major reasons for not addressing this use case thus far is the lack of expertise about non-terrestrial communication in the classical (terrestrial) telecommunication industry. The European research project ANTERRA addresses this issue by training 15 PhD students on antenna systems for NTN, one of the key aspects to successfully implement coverage everywhere.

In ANTERRA, the research fellows will investigate particular aspects of the system concept.  For this, they will take a system view by investigating architectural needs and constraints from which they will develop novel multi-functional high-gain antenna architectures that exhibit a large coverage. Moreover, innovations in energy efficient highly integrated radio front-ends is a key enabler towards more efficient, high performance radio-access hardware for satellite nodes. Research in novel synchronization and beam-finding techniques will lead to stable integration of all network nodes into one global 6G NTN. All concepts will be optimized to meet the requirements of NTN antenna systems.

This vacancy concerns the PhD position on Beam prediction for fast moving LEO. Both downlink and uplink beamforming will be necessary to overcome channel path loss. In the downlink, handovers between beams will occur frequently, while in the uplink the beams (which are narrow due to the link budget from power-limited ground terminals) must track the fast satellite accurately. We will utilize that satellite orbits are highly predictable, and design beam prediction algorithms to overcome the high speeds and rapid beam changes. The project aims at developing a novel beam prediction algorithm for non-terrestrial 6G communication. 

Training programme

ANTERRA will provide the PhD students with a comprehensive set of theoretical and practical skills relevant for innovation and long-term employability in a rapidly growing sector. This highly innovative training will cover several inter-disciplinary areas as shown in the figure below. Each PhD student will be enrolled in a doctoral programme and will have two official employers, one from academia and one from industry. Highly qualified personnel from both employers will jointly coach the PhD student.

Applicants should have, or expect to receive, a Master of Science degree or equivalent in a relevant electrical engineering or applied physics discipline and should not have more than four years of research experience. In addition to the formal Research Fellow qualifications, selection is also based on the performance of the candidates in other works (e.g. thesis and advanced level courses), as well as through interviews and assignments. Besides good subject knowledge, emphasis will be on creative thinking, motivation, ability to cooperate, initiative to work independently and personal suitability for research training. Previous experience in the areas of wireless communications, statistical signal processing and antennas, as well as proficiency in using scientific and engineering software packages such as MATLAB are required.

For the PhD positions the EU 'Mobility rules' apply. For this vacancy this means that candidate students cannot have resided for more than 12 months during the period of 3 years immediately before the start of the PhD in the Netherlands.