About the Project
The PhD project forms part of the Intensive Industrial Innovation Programme (IIIP) funded by the European Regional Development Fund. Northumbria University is collaborating in the IIIP, with Durham, Newcastle and Teesside Universities. The IIIP Programme aims to encourage a culture of innovation that benefits business, leading to greater export opportunities and increased graduate employment, particularly in science and engineering. The Programme will enable small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop new products and services.
Each Northumbria University PhD funded with the IIIP will exclusively support the research and development needs of an SME partner located in the Northumberland and Tyne & Wear Area, working in regionally important sectors. To meet the requirements of the ERDF funding, the PhD students will need to keep timesheets and at least 51% of their time must be on-site at Northumbria University. The remainder is likely to be spent with the SME.
For more on:
• Research activities of Optical Communications Research Group, etc.: http://soe.northumbria.ac.uk/ocr/
• ISOCOM Lts: www.isocom.uk.com
Free-space optical (FSO) communications has seen a growing attention in the last decade because of the demand for high-bandwidth transmission capabilities in outdoor environments, which can be adopted in a number of applications including the last mile access networks as part of the 5G solution, big data centres, ground to space and space communications, etc. Furthermore, the concept of radio (millimetre wave) over FSO (RoFSO), offers flexibility of wireless communications and the comparable speed of optical fibre. However, availability, reliability and quality of transmission can be affected by the atmospheric conditions (turbulence, fog, rain, etc.), which can limit the link performance. Under hazy weather conditions (i.e.,visibility > 2 km), 1550 nm FSO links experience lower atmospheric attenuation. However, under fog, snow, rain (visibility of 40 Gbps) over a range of transmission spans. Northumbria University in partnership with ISOCOM Ltd (SME) will develop a RoFSO link employing directly modulated high-power vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) at 850 nm and a high-speed pohotodetector over a transmission span of a few km. The work will involves analysis, simulation, design, implementation and experimental verification of the propose work. To achieve the high bandwidth the project will investigate multi-level and multi-carrier modulations.
Constant interaction with the ISOCOM team will be needed to understand characterisation of RoFSO using their VCSEL devices and meeting their requirements in outdoor environments. Cost, production and manufacturing constraints must be taken into account and prototype demonstrations should be made available at suitable milestones in the development and manufacturing phases of the host system so that upgrade options can be assessed and evaluated. The components, sub-systems, system test and measurements, as well as comprehensive environmental evaluation of the proposed system link will be conducted within the Optical Communications Research Group’s Laboratory at Northumbria University.
The principal supervisor of this project is Professor Zabih (Fary) Ghassemlooy.
Please note eligibility requirement:
• Academic excellence of the proposed student i.e. 2:1 (or equivalent GPA from non-UK universities [preference for 1st class honours]); or a Masters (preference for Merit or above); or APEL evidence of substantial practitioner achievement.
• Appropriate IELTS score, if required.
• Applicants cannot apply for this funding if currently engaged in Doctoral study at Northumbria or elsewhere.
For further details of how to apply, entry requirements and the application form, see
https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/research/postgraduate-research-degrees/how-to-apply/
Please note: Applications that do not include a research proposal of approximately 1,000 words (not a copy of the advert), or that do not include the advert reference (e.g. ERDF19/EE/MPEE/GHASSEMLOOY) will not be considered.
Deadline for applications: 18 July 2019
Start Date: 1 October 2019
Northumbria University takes pride in, and values, the quality and diversity of our staff. We welcome applications from all members of the community. The University holds an Athena SWAN Bronze award in recognition of our commitment to improving employment practices for the advancement of gender equality and is a member of the Euraxess network, which delivers information and support to professional researchers
References
1. Ghassemlooy, Z., Popoola, W. O., and Rajbhandari, S.: Optical Wireless Communications – System and Channel Modelling with Matlab, 2nd Ed. CRC publisher, USA, 2019
2. Ghassemlooy, Z., Alves, L. N., Zvanovec, S., and Khalighi, M-A.: Visible Light Communications: Theory and Applications, CRC June 2017, ISBN 9781498767538 - CAT# K29196
3. Uysal, M., Capsoni, C., Ghassemlooy, Z., Boucouvalas, A. C., and Udvary E. G. (Eds.): Optical Wireless Communications – An Emerging Technology, Springer, 2016. ISBN: 978-3-319-30200-3 - August 26, 2016, there has been a total of 11,581 chapter downloads eBook on SpringerLink.
4. Ghassemlooy, Z., Popoola, W. O., and Rajbhandari, S.: Optical Wireless Communications – System and Channel Modelling with Matlab, CRC publisher, USA, August 2012, ISBN: 978-4398-5188-3.
5. Z. Vali, A. Gholami, Z. Ghassemlooy, M. Omoomi, and D. G. Michelson, "Experimental study of the turbulence effect on underwater optical wireless communications," Appl. Opt. 57, pp. 8314-8319, 2018.
6. W Song, J Lai, Z Ghassemlooy, S Li, P Zhang, W Yan, C Wang, Z Li, “Influence of fog on the signal to interference plus noise ratio of the imaging laser radar using a 16-element APD array,” Optics Express, 26 (17), 22030-22045, 2018.
7. Nazhan, S., and Ghassemlooy, Z.: “Polarization output power stabilization of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser”, JOSA B 35 (7), 1615-1619.
8. Abadi, M. M., Ghassemlooy, Z., Bhatnagar, M. R., Zvanovec, S., Khalighi, M. A., and Lavery, M. P. J.: “Differential signalling in free-space optical communication systems,” Applied Sciences 8 (6), pp. 872., 2018.
9. Bohata, J., Komanec, M., Spáčil, I, Ghassemlooy, Z., Zvánovec, S., and Slavík, R.: “24–26 GHz radio-over-fiber and free-space optics for fifth-generation systems,” Optics Letters, 2018.
10. Song, W., Lai, J. C., Ghassemlooy, Z., Gu, Z., Yan, W., Wang, C., and Li, Z.: “The effect of fog on the probability density distribution of the ranging data of imaging laser radar,” AIP Advances ,8 (2), pp. 025022, 2018.
11. Han, L., Jiang, H., You, Y/, and Ghassemlooy, Z.: “On the performance of a mixed RF/MIMO FSO variable gain dual-hop transmission system,” Optics Communications 420, pp. 59-64, 2018 .
12. Ismail, Tawfik; Leitgeb, E., Ghassemlooy, Z; Al-Nahal, M.:: 'Performance improvement of FSO system using multi-pulse PPM and SIMO under atmospheric turbulence conditions and with pointing errors', IET Networks, 2018, DOI: 10.1049/iet-net.2017.0203.
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