WIRELESS FLEXIBLE PERSONALIZED COMMUNICATIONS           COST 259
Annual Report - Year 2
 
  
COST-Telecommunication Action 259
Wireless Flexible Personalised Communications
Annual Progress Report
 
 

Period: from Apr. 98 to Apr. 99
 
 
1. Overview: Action Identification Data
 
 
TCT Recommendation 06 Mar. 1996 First MC meeting 03 Apr. 1997
CSO Approval 17 Oct. 1996 Last MC meeting  
Start date:  10 Dec. 1996 Final Report  
Duration:  36 months Evaluation Report  
Extension:    TCT Evaluation  
End date: 09 Dec. 1999    
 













Number of signatories: 18



Signatories and date of signature
 
Austria 
10 Dec. 1996
 Belgium 
04 Dec. 1996
 Croatie   
Czech Rep.   Denmark 
27 Nov. 1996
 Estonia   
Finland 
09 Jan. 1997
 France
10 Dec. 1996
 Germany
10 Apr. 1997
Greece 
29 Nov. 1996
 Hungary Iceland
Ireland
30 Jan. 1997
 Italy
03 Feb. 1997
 Luxembourg
Malta   Netherlands
06 Feb. 1997
 Norway
28 Feb. 1997
Poland 
12 June 1997
 Portugal 
22 Jan. 1997
 Romania  
Slovakia    Slovenia 
28 May 1997
 Spain
10 Apr. 1997
Sweden
10 Apr. 1997
 Switzerland
06 May 1997
 Turkey  
UK
27 Nov. 1996
 ESA      
 
















Institutes of non-COST countries:
Area: Telecommunications
Web site: http://www.lx.it.pt/cost259

Chairperson: Prof. Luis M. Correia

Full Address:
Instituto Superior Tecnico
IT/DEEC - Torre Norte
Av. Rovisco Pais
P - 1049-001 Lisboa
Portugal
Telephone: +351-1-8418478
Fax: +351-1-8418472
Email: luis.correia@lx.it.pt

Commission Advisor: B. Arroyo
TCT Evaluator: K. Fazekas
External Evaluator:
External Evaluator:
 

2. OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the Action is to increase the knowledge of radio system aspects for flexible personalised communications, capable of delivering different services, exploiting different bandwidths, and to develop new modelling techniques and related planning tools, in order to guarantee the continuity (and quality) of services, delivered by networks of widely different capabilities and structures, across a number of different environments.  Furthermore, in the perspective of a fast evolving demand for interfacing the photonic (glass fibre) network with the wireless network, investigations on the mutual interactions could be carried out, as well.  In fact, in the medium/long term scenario envisaged for Telecommunications by the European Commission, the time period 2000 - 2005 would be characterised by the emergence of PCS, with a full integration of user mobility, the Integrated Broadband Communications (IBC) network and the Intelligent Network(s), followed by the Photonic Network implementation at all levels (regional, national and international).  In such an environment, this Action intends to play, in connection with the progressive deployment of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and the Mobile Broadband System (MBS), the role performed in the past by: COST Action 207, in connection with the development of GSM; COST Action 231, in connection with the deployment of GSM1800 and the development of UMTS.
The activities are having a significant impact in terms of basic Research & Development and degree of innovation for the Signatories and the whole mobile communications community, with particular reference to the specification bodies.  In addition, the typical benefits of a multi-disciplinary work are being experienced, involving a number of expected participating countries and institutions (including Central and Eastern Europe), at least equal to those active in COST Action 231.  As a secondary but not negligible effect, the support to standardisation bodies from a large community of researchers is providing further stimulation of the personal communication market growth, taking into account the impact of technologies on the life of citizens of the member states, as well as their needs and the economical effects of such technologies.
 

3. TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION AND IMPLEMENTATION
The above objectives are being reached by co-ordinating the Signatories research in several areas, which cover the following:
(i) Radio System aspects, including study on advanced access schemes, bandwidth on demand, equalisation, interference limitation.
(ii)  Network aspects, in terms of investigations on spectrum efficiency, identification of channel allocation strategies, study of efficient protocols for high data rates and distributed networks.
(iii) Propagation studies and simulations, using novel promising approaches and the development of models for a sound characterisation of the short range communications radio channel (micro- and pico-cellular environments), together with concurrent validation measurements campaigns.
(iv) Research on intelligent/adaptive antennas, with particular attention on the possible diversity countermeasures they are able to offer and their influence on network planning activities.
(v) Advanced planning tools for a variety of environments, including strategies for optimised frequency assignments.
Work is being be carried out grouped into the 3 initially foreseen Working Groups, as follows:

As far as Sub-Working Groups are concerned, some changes were done from the initial plan, to make the Action more functional and to address specific topics that were not foreseen on the proposal but that were found to be of interest to a group of participants.  They are listed below, where one should note that SWG 2.2 has been established last January: An organisation flow is shown below, where the interaction among the various Working Groups and Sub-Working Groups can be seen.
 
 


 

Liaisons with other bodies were established, not only with other COST Actions in the area of Telecommunications, but also with projects in the European ACTS and SMT frameworks, as well as with ETSI, ITU and URSI.
The Secretariat of the Action is being done externally, at Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon , Portugal, the functions of Secretary being cumulated by the Chairman.
 

4. PARTICIPATION AND COORDINATION

4.1 Management Committee

Chairman: Prof. Luis M. Correia
Instituto Superior Tecnico - Tech. Univ. Lisbon
IT/DEEC - Torre Norte
Av. Rovisco Pais
P - 1049-001 Lisboa
Portugal
Tel.: +351-1-8418478
Fax: +351-1-8418472
Email: luis.correia@lx.it.pt

Vice-Chairman: Dr. Jean-Frederic Wagen
Swisscom
CIT-CT-ATS
CH - 3000 Bern 29
Switzerland
Tel.: +41-31-3423207
Fax: +41-31-3420744
Email: jean-frederic.wagen@swisscon.com

Secretary: Prof. Luis M. Correia
Instituto Superior Tecnico - Tech. Univ. Lisbon
IT/DEEC - Torre Norte
Av. Rovisco Pais
P - 1049-001 Lisboa
Portugal
Tel.: +351-1-8418478
Fax: +351-1-8418472
Email: luis.correia@lx.it.pt

WGs and SWGs Chairmen:

4.3 Meetings of the Management Committee
The meetings of the MC during the period of this report were:

 

4.4 Meetings of the Working Groups
The meetings of the WGs and SWGs took place within the MC meetings mentioned above, except for SWG 2.1, which had an extra meeting in 24-26 Mar. 1999.
 

5. RESULTS
Although some tasks were due to be finished by the end of Year 2, work has continued to be presented in all of them, and a decision was taken to keep them open until the end of the Action.  Thus, still, no final model or algorithm has been achieved. However, some results have been obtained in some of the areas addressed in the Action, as for example: OFDM transmission techniques, enhancement of TDMA systems, and near-far resistant techniques in CDMA, within WG 1; propagation characteristics for broadband radio access at mm waves, test scenarios for systems with adaptive antennas, characterisation of directional radio channels, and evaluation of adaptive antennas for GSM and wideband CDMA, within WG 2; traffic modelling and its influence in planning optimisation, planning algorithms for interference reduction in cellular networks, comparison of frequency assignment algorithms, and spectral compatibility of DECT and UMTS services, within WG 3.
A new SWG was set up at the MC meeting in Jan. 1999, on “Test Methods for Handset Antennas”, with the goal to establish reference methods that can be used by everyone to characterise antennas on mobile phones.
A total of 114 technical documents were presented to the MC in 1998, while during the first two meetings of 1999 a total of 69 documents have already been presented.  These numbers, together with the fact that meetings are usually attended by 80 to 100 people, show that the Action is very much alive, and the work being done within it is of interest to many people and institutions, besides the official members of the MC.
Continuing the COST 231 policy of having the yearly Workshop in conjunction with other Actions that have common areas of interest, COST 259 organised its 1st Workshop together with COST 252 (Apr. 1998, Bradford, UK), and the 2nd with COST 260 (Apr. 1999, Vienna, Austria).  Both were a success, the latter having been attended by more than 150 people; this number of attendees shows that there is great interest in the work being done in the Action (together with the companion ones).
It is the belief of the MC that the work being carried out within the Action is of top quality at the international level, which can be measured by the following. According to a suggestion of the MC to the Chairman of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference 99 - Fall, papers from the Action were submitted to the conference, and were evaluated by the usual rules of refereeing.  From a total of 20 papers, 19 were accepted for presentation (i.e., only 5% rejection), and 2 specific sessions devoted to COST 259 Indoor and Outdoor Propagation will be set up in the conference.
In preparation of the Final Report, which is desired to be structured as a book, as it was the case of the previous COST 207 and COST 231, a preliminary Table of Contents was already established at the last meeting in Vienna, and chapter and section editors have already been appointed.
 

6. DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS

6.1 Publications and Reports
During 1998, 114 technical documents were presented to the MC, while in 1999 that number is of 69 (up to now).  The complete list of documents (title, authors and its affiliation, and abstract) is available at the Action web site, and can be sent upon request.

6.2 Conferences and Workshops
Two Workshops were organised:

 

6.3 Web site
The Action web site address is: http://www.lx.it.pt/cost259.
From a front page, one can have access to several pages, described below with the respective contents:

 

6.4 Scientific and Technical Cooperation
There are formal liaisons with other projects within European frameworks, COST 252, COST 255, COST 260, ACTS/MEDIAN, ACTS/SUNBEAM, ACTS/FRAMES and SMT/METAMORP, besides other less regular contacts.
 

6.5 Transfer of results
There are formal liaisons with standardisation bodies, not only at the European level, i.e., ETSI/BRAN, ITU/SG3, URSI/C, besides other less regular contacts.
The main European operators in the area of mobile/wireless communications are present in the Action: Mobilkom Austria, Telecom Denmark Mobile France Telecom / CNET, CEGETEL / SFR, TDF-C2R, Deutsche Telekom, E-plus Mobilfunk, Mannesmann Mobilfunk, CSELT, Italtel, OMNITEL, KPN, Telenor R&D, PTK Centertel, Telecel, Telefonica I & D, Telia Research, Swisscom, Vodafone.
Also main European manufacturers in the area of mobile/wireless communications are present: Nokia, Alcatel, Siemens, Allgon, Ericsson, Motorola.
 

7. ECONOMIC DIMENSION
The estimated effort for the entire Action is 50 person/year.
The funds granted by the Commission since the beginning of the Action are as follows: 1997 - 50 kEuro; 1998 - 115 kEuro, to which an amount of 11.5 kEuro was added specifically for Short-Term Missions; 1999 - 114 kEuro.
 

8. SELF EVALUATION
COST 259 is devoted to an area of huge expansion in Telecommunications, the wireless/mobile one, which allows very close contacts between universities and research labs on one hand and operators and manufacturers on the other, thus enabling conditions for a successful cooperation and very fruitful development of research.  However, it also imposes an increased responsibility to the participants, due to the expectations that are created to the results of the Action, as it happened with the previous ones, COST 207 and COST 231.  The work being carried out up to now constitutes a guarantee that the same level of quality in the final results will be maintained: the large attendance of both the workshops (over 120) and the MC meetings (over 80), the number of technical documents being discussed at each MC meeting (around 40), and the recognition by international referees of the quality of the work (only 1 out of 20 papers coming specifically from COST 259 was rejected for presentation at IEEE VTC’99-Fall), among other things.  Besides this, the work on the Final Report has already started, a draft of the Table of Contents has been established, and editors have been appointed for the various chapters and sections.
As a consequence of what was stated above, the Action is not facing serious difficulties.  The fact that a large group of people participates poses some additional management problems, as well as increased difficulties in organising the meetings, not only from the logistic point of view (in finding rooms for the plenary and for the parallel sessions of the WGs and SWGs meetings) but from financial one as well (since the Commission is not funding the meetings organisation, external sponsoring has to be found, and although the sponsoring for the MC meetings has always been successful, it is not as easy as for a small group of people).  Nevertheless, all these problems have been dealt with in a satisfactory manner.
However, the Action is facing a problem since it started, for reasons that go beyond anyone’s fault.  The former Chairman of the Action, Mr. Eraldo Damosso (CSELT, Italy), was ill for quite some time, during the early days of the kick-off of the Action, which caused a huge delay in the real start of the work: although the official date of start is 10 Dec. 1996, the first meeting of the MC was held only on 3 Apr. 1997, i.e., with a 4 month delay (on a 36 month project), which is too much.  As a consequence there is in fact a delay of the work from the initial timetable, and it will be very difficult to finish the work until the 9 Dec. 1999, as initial planned, in order to maintain the same quality of the final report as the previous projects.  Hence, a “Technical Extension” of 4 month (exactly the delay of the start of the work), i.e., up to Apr. 2000, is being requested to the TCT, so that the calendar of 36 month of work is really fulfilled.  Provisional dates for meetings in Jan. 2000 and Apr. 2000 are already set up, and organisations have already volunteered for hosting the meetings, which, once more, shows the real commitment of the group to achieve the goals that were established at the beginning of the project.