Andreas F. Molisch
Biography
The individual and joint efforts of Jack H. Winters and Andreas F. Molisch have shaped multiple-antenna technology from the first smart antenna algorithms to recent contributions to 3G and 4G wireless standards. Multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology has increased the reliability and spectral efficiency in practically all modern cellular communications systems. Dr. Molisch is one the world’s leading experts on properties of MIMO channels. His work on double-directional propagation channels in 2001 forms the basis for practically every standardized channel model used for MIMO systems. Much of Dr. Molisch’s work has found its way into popular international standards such as IEEE 802.11n and 3GPP-LTE Advanced. Working together at AT&T Laboratories-Research, in 2001 the duo developed the cooperative multipoint concept for MIMO systems to address adjacent-cell interference problems. This approach allows base stations to share information and act as a larger MIMO system that is able to suppress adjacent-cell interference, resulting in dramatically increased capacity. It has become an important research area in wireless communications and is impacting the next generation of cellular phone technology.
His collaborative paper, “Propagation Issues for Cognitive Radio,” written with Larry J. Greenstein and Mansoor Shafi, provides valuable information critical to the success of cognitive radio (CR), an important developing area of wireless communications. The paper, which appeared in the May 2009 issue of the Proceedings of the IEEE (vol. 97, no. 5, pp. 787-804), covers the essentials of wireless propagation issues in a format suitable for CR researchers, providing access to information limited previously to propagation researchers. CR aims to improve spectral efficiency of licensed communications frequencies by using unlicensed radios that can recognize usage or nonusage at a given frequency and be allowed to transmit at that frequency during intervals of nonusage. The paper gains its accessibility through extensive use of intuitive descriptions and analogies, using equations sparingly but maintaining a rigorous presentation. Its importance lies in its ability to enable CR researchers to choose good channel models, which is key to demonstrating low interference of the radios to primary spectrum users.
An IEEE Fellow, Dr. Molisch is currently a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, where he heads the Wireless Devices and Systems (WiDeS) group.
