National Science Foundation awards $99,335 grant to ISU’s Mousavinezhad to study algorithms for efficient use of electromagnetic spectrum

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $99,335 grant to Idaho State University Professor Hossein Mousavinezhad for the study of advanced algorithms for efficient use of electromagnetic spectrum, which ultimately could help relieve congestion on the World Wide Web and other "information superhighways."

This research work is a collaboration of ISU engineering faculty and scientists at the Idaho National Laboratory.

"This is really a seed grant for bringing together researchers in these rapidly growing fields and to organize a research symposium to be held in Idaho Falls in spring of 2014," Mousavinezhad said.

As more and more people use wireless and smart devices the information super highways become congested, he noted. According to accepted scientific theory (the Shannon's channel capacity theorem), the upper limit of information transmission in a communication channel such as the World Wide Web is limited by mainly two factors:  the signal to noise ratio and the bandwidth.

"From green computing point of view, one does not want to increase transmission power without limits," Mousavinezhad said. "On the other hand, bandwidth is also limited and regulated for different applications (in the United States it is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission). Therefore it is very important for researchers to come up with innovative algorithms to conserve the bandwidth for high speed applications and those needing wider bands of frequencies for proper operation of industrial, commercial, military and other uses."

Mousavinezhad, a professor of electrical engineering in the ISU College of Science and Engineering, will direct the project as principal investigator. Co-principal investigators on the project are Steve Chiu, ISU electrical engineering associate professor, Dawid Zydek, ISU electrical engineering assistant professor, and Thad Welch, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Boise State University.

Collaborators from Idaho National Laboratory are Rangam Subraminian and Hussein Moradi, INL Wireless Technology Strategy, National and Homeland Security. INL has facilities for testing and evaluations of wireless communications components and subsystems.

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