Demand for fast wireless networks has significantly increased in the last years. Joint research of Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) and technology company Thales Netherlands BV. shows that using multiple networks at once can increase the speed of wireless communication with a factor ten. Friday 8 March, researcher Gerard Hoekstra will defend his PhD thesis on this subject at the VU University Amsterdam.
More and more users demand fast and reliable wireless communication. Following the rise of mobile internet on smart phones and tablet computers, mobile data exchange is expected to be 26 times as large in 2015 as it was in 2010*. To meet this enormous increase in demand, CWI and Thales are working on new methods to make more efficient use of existing networks.
In his research, Gerard Hoekstra developed several mathematical methods for distributing traffic over multiple wireless networks. The results are promising. ‘The most efficient distribution methods show a very noticeable speed gain,’ Hoekstra says. ‘Distributing data over two networks does not just increase speed with a factor two: in cases of varying network capacity, the experienced network speed can be five or ten times higher.’
According to Hoekstra, these experimental results can be realized in practice the near future. ‘Test with actual networks show the same speed gain. The communication networks are already available: in most places more than one network is active. The technology just needs to be adapted to simultaneous use.’ Apart from faster and more robust wireless communication, the results are also applicable to other ends, such as improving the accessibility of organizations in need of very reliable communication channels, and making efficient use of various technologies in a single wireless network.
This research is part of the Caisimir program of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). This program stimulates the exchange of researchers between companies and public research institutions. This particular project is supported by Thales Netherlands B.V., Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica and Alcatel-Lucent Netherlands B.V.
* Source: TNO Monitor draadloze technologieën 2011, TNO, August 2011
More information:
PhD thesis Gerard Hoekstra: Concurrent Access and Traffic Control Methods in Wireless Communication Networks.
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