Aalto University and the Xidian University develop together the next generation of wireless technology

Aalto University’s School of Electrical Engineering and Xidian University in Xian, China have established a joint research laboratory on the next generation of wireless technology (post-5G and 6G), in particular the security technology needed for this. The research laboratory was officially opened on 21 November, 2018. The head of Department of Communications and Networking, Professor Riku Jäntti and Professor Shen Bazhong, Dean of the School of Telecommunications at Xidian University, had the privilege to open the research laboratory officially.

The goals of the joint laboratory are academic in nature, such as jointly producing top-level internationally peer-reviewed publications, carrying out researcher visits, and obtaining and carrying out joint projects. Another goal is to expand the community that is working on the AaltoCore open source programs, which have been developed at Aalto, and to use this open source to support research. Because the AaltoCore is open source, it can be used by anyone who has an appropriate environment for its use. AaltoCore allows to set up a cellular network (4G/5G) for research purposes.

‘Open source code is an important tool for experimental research on future wireless systems because researchers can modify it by adding new network algorithms and interfaces according to research needs. This helps to produce results that are also taken into wider use’, explains Communications and Networking Professor Raimo Kantola. The programme is currently also being utilised by the University of Helsinki, the Technical Research Centre of Finland and the University of Jyväskylä. The research has been funded by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation.

Aalto University’s Department of Communications and Networking and Xidian University’s School of Cyber Engineering have been working together closely for a number of years already. Currently working in the department is Professor Zheng Yan, a Research Fellow funded by the Academy of Finland, who has a research team of around 30 at Xidian University and a smaller group here in Aalto. Professor Yan as specialised in reputation and trust systems and applied cryptosystems and applications.

Xidian University holds 7th place in the telecom engineering category of the Shanghai field-based comparison table. In the data security category, it is China’s leading technical university. For the telecom engineering category, Aalto University is positioned at number 31 in the 2017 Shanghai comparison table.

Further information:

Raimo Kantola
Professor
Aalto University
raimo.kantola@aalto.fi
tel. +358 (0)40 750 1636