Abstract : In this talk, the view and vision of the key drivers that will significantly change the landscape of future wireless networks is presented. The digital TV dividend whitespace and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruling on the whitespace spectrum usage, opens a new avenue for emerging cognitive radio. The technical challenges for the cognitive wireless networks are discussed in detail. Another powerful driving factor for the evolution of wireless networks is the GREEN Telecom/IT initiative. It is envisioned that green radio will be on the agenda of the wireless networks evolution. Several key areas and enabling technologies that can drastically reduce network power consumption and CO2 footprint will also be presented.

Biography : Dr. Wen Tong is the Nortel Fellow and Head of the Wireless Technology Labs at Nortel. He received his M.Sc and Ph.D degrees in Electrical Engineering in 1986 and 1993. In 1995, he joined the Wireless Technology Labs at Bell Northern Research. Dr. Tong has pioneered fundamental technologies in wireless and has been awarded 70 U.S. patents, having filed for more than 200 patents. He has made significant contributions to enable Nortel to be a global leader in this market.

Dr. Tong has conducted advanced research work spanning from 1G to 4G wireless at Nortel. From 1997 to 1999, he was responsible for the prototyping of advanced CDMA technology which led to the industry’s first 3G wireless packet data sessions using CDMA2000 1xRTT technology in this field. He was one of the critical inventors of turbo coding interleaver, a key enabler that boosts speed and efficiency of 3G networks, which has been adopted for all 3G/4G standards.

From 1999 to 2006, Dr. Tong had been a driving force in developing foundational technologies for all the 4G wireless networks–OFDM-MIMO. He has been a key initiator and contributor to 3GPP (UMTS/HSPA and LTE), 3GPP2 (CDMA 1xRTT 1xEV-DO and UMB), and IEEE802.16e (WiMAX), IEEE802.16j (Mobile Multi-Hop Relay) standards.

In 2006, Dr. Tong won the Nortel Technology Excellent Award (the highest level R&D award). Since 2007, Dr. Tong has been the director of Nortel’s Wireless Technology Labs, leading advanced research on next generation broadband wireless mobile systems in the Gigabit RAN area, and unwired enterprise networks. His labs were winners of the Nortel Innovation award on LTE RAN1 and WiMAX BTS design. In 2008, Dr. Tong became the head of Nortel’s Network Technology Labs, and is responsible for Nortel’s global strategic technologies in research and development.

In 2007, Dr. Tong was inducted as a Nortel Fellow - a lifetime honor bestowed to selected individuals in Nortel’s R&D community. Dr. Tong is Nortel’s most prolific inventor and a member of the Executive Edge team.