François Rottenberg, UCLouvain ICTEAM researcher and 2018 Ma thèse en 180 secondes (MT180, ‘My thesis in 180 seconds’) finalist, received the ICTEAM Best Thesis Award for his work on 5G.
Today, surgeons can remotely operate on a patient located on the other side of the world, cars communicate with each other to avoid accidents, home thermostats increase heat in anticipation of the children's return from school. These few examples illustrate the technological revolution that is currently underway and that requires developing the fifth generation of communication systems (5G). This new type of application will result in extreme requirements in terms of throughput, reliability and user density, which will only be met by introducing new technologies that are radically different from those currently in use.
To shape ideas, humans uses voice and language. It gives a concrete form to information of an abstract nature. In telecommunications, ‘modulation’ is the process of formatting the zeroes and ones that we want to transmit. In other words, the purpose of modulation is to transform abstract zeroes and ones into small physical waves that will travel through the air to the receiver. Just as there are different languages, there are different modulations, i.e. different ways of encoding information.
The aim of François Rottenberg's thesis was to study and develop the most promising modulation possible to satisfy the technological requirements of 5G. On 23 May the excellence of his work was recognised by his institute’s senior researchers who awarded him the 2019 ICTEAM Best Thesis Award.
(Dessin : ©Emilie Gobbo)