Armstrong Memorial Lecture 2017

High-Capacity Optical and Millimeter- Wave Wireless Communications using Multiplexing of Multiple Orbital-Angular- Momentum Beams

Alan Wilner
Chair, University of Southern California
December 8, 2017, 11:00 AM
Davis Auditorium, CEPSR

Abstract: Communications has historically experienced tremendous capacity growth by multiplexing many channels and transmitting them simultaneously. In this regard, space- division-multiplexing (SDM) as an exciting domain to exploit, and multiple spatially overlapping orthogonal modes can achieve a subset called mode-division-multiplexing (MDM). Indeed, the ability to multiplex multiple data-carrying modes over the same physical medium represents the potential for increasing system capacity and spectral efficiency. Generating different amounts of orbital-angular-momentum (OAM) on different optical or millimeter-wave beams has emerged as a technique for such mode multiplexing in wireless communications. A beam can carry OAM if its phase front twists in a helical fashion as it propagates, and the amount of OAM corresponds to the number of 2*pi phase shifts that occur in the azimuthal direction. Each OAM beam is orthogonal to other beams, and such beams can be efficiently multiplexed, transmitted, and demultiplexed with little inherent crosstalk. This presentation will explore the achievements of and challenges to OAM-based optical and millimeter-wave communication systems, including transmission, turbulence compensation, and link design.

Speaker Bio:  Prof. Alan Willner received his B.A. from Yeshiva University and Ph.D. from Columbia University, has worked at AT&T Bell Labs and Bellcore, and is the Steven & Kathryn Sample Chair in Engineering at the Univ. of Southern California. His honors include: Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering; International Fellow of the U.K. Royal Academy of Engineering; Thomas Egleston Medal from Columbia Engineering Alumni Association; EEE Eric Sumner Award; NSF Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the White House; Guggenheim, Packard, Vannevar Bush, and Fulbright Foundation Fellowships; IET JJ Thompson Medal; OSA Forman Engineering Excellence Award; IEEE Photonics Society Engineering Achievement Award; IEEE Globecom Best Paper Award; Eddy Best Technical Paper Award; Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors; SPIE President’s Award, and Edwin Armstrong Foundation Memorial Award for an EE Masters student at Columbia University. Prof. Willner has served as Co-Chair of the U.S. National Academies Study on Optics & Photonics; President of the Optical Society; President of the IEEE Photonics Society; Member of the U.S. Army Science Board; and Editor-in-Chief of OSA Optics Letters, IEEE/OSA J. of Lightwave Technology, and IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics. He is a Fellow of AAAS, IEEE, IET, OSA and SPIE.

The Armstrong Memorial Lecture Series

This series of lectures offered by the Department of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University in New York is named in honor of Edwin Howard Armstrong, 1890-1954, a pre-eminent electrical engineer, who through his extraordinary inventions, FM radio among them, contributed immeasurably to the advancement of wireless communications and broadcasting. He spent his entire career in the department - first as a student and later as a professor.


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