Information Processing and Transmission

 

This research line is characterized by teaching and research activities related with the transformation, transmission, and processing in both continuous and discrete domains of physical values and numerical variables, usually involving low energy concentration

The current active research projects are:

1) Modeling, Design, and Optimization of Photonic and Microwave Devices: Faculty leader: Prof. Vitaly Félix Rodriguez Esquerre

The project consists in the development of numerical methods based on the finite elements method, for the efficient analysis of photonic structures that may be defined over periodic mediums, with size configurations smaller than the wave length. These structures, recently proposed in the literature, belong to new research areas called Nanophotonics and Plasmonics and present an intense confinement of the optical signals in certain frequency bands, allowing a virtually lossless guiding. This favors significantly the miniaturization of circuits and consequently the integration of photonic devices in large scale.

In the modeling of the devices, the influence of the temperature and the dispersive properties of the materials are considered. With accurate studies, it is prossible to notice what are the temperatures under which certain materials suffer higher influences, and this information may be used to determine in which activity this material may be employed presenting a good performance. On the other hand, there is the intention of designing devices whose performance is independent of the temperature. Several techniques of evolutionary computation are used together with the numerical methods with the purpose of optimizing the performance of the analyzed and designed devices. Among these techniques, genetic algorithms and artificial neural networks may be mentioned.

 

2) Research, Analysis, and Management of Information Processing and Transmission: Faculty Leaders: Karcius Day Rosário Assis and Marcela Silva Novo

The evolution of wireless services, optical networks, as well as optical devices has been presenting new challenges to engineers and researchers that work in the area of telecommunication. Currently, in smart cities, as well as in the industrial environment (Industry 4.0), different types of networks are present, which employ devices/sensors that communicate among themselves using different communication standards/protocols. Several type of networks may be cited, among them: vehicular networks, metropolitan networks (WiMAX, WiFi), mobile networks, mesh networks, DTN networks, Bluetooth, sensor networks, and RFID (Identification through Radio Frequency).

To make the communication and supply of different types of service efficient in a smart city or in an industrial environment, it is necessary to integrate the multiple wireless technologies and also be capable of processing and transmitting, in a reliable way, data with rates superior than Tbps (terabits per second). This requires, for example, the design of new devices and an optical infrastructure that may process information in the optical domain with reduced sizes that allow high integration and low consumption of energy as well as reconfigured communication networks that are capable of using the available bandwidth efficiently.

The planning of these networks with an adequate multiplexing technology is of fundamental importance for the support of data transfer. The purpose of this project is the development of research, analysis, and management methodologies for the processing and transmission of information under different scenarios, especially research related to: (i) modeling and characterization of photonic devices and wideband antennas; (ii) planning and management of optical and sensor networks; (iii) electromagnetic compatibility and wireless transfer of energy; (iv) wireless communication; and (v) computational electromagnetics.