by Debbie Hum

Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Reza Soleymani has been awarded three patents in Canada and the U.S. for advanced techniques he developed for processing information via satellite that make multimedia transmissions more efficient and cost-effective.

Developed in 1997 by Soleymani and a team of researchers at Spar Aerospace (now EMS Technologies), the technology is behind the company’s satellite data terminals, manufactured for commercial applications and used by wireless and Internet service providers, including the European company Astre.

The researchers’ innovations involve a process called “frequency domain demultiplexing,” which deals with the digital filters required for separating signals coming on different frequencies from different terminals globally, and are functional either on board “intelligent” satellites, in the Hub (the central Earth station), or at the user terminal.

Professor Soleymani explained that using the symmetry of the digital filter, the transmission technology reduces the complexity of the filtering task by half, while consuming less power than previously.

“This technology is embedded in systems we use every day, and can be used to provide more reliable and economical access to communication resources, such as for people living in remote areas,” he said.

Over the past two years, Soleymani has been the principal investigator of a federally funded research project on improving satellite transmission schemes and bandwidth over satellite links. The research is funded by $390,000 from the Canadian Space Agency and $210,000 from industrial partner NSI Communications.

Soleymani says researchers have been quite successful in improving performance and over the next year will concentrate on putting the technology they’ve developed into use in specific products.

The project has enabled training for about 20 master’s and PhD students so far.
Soleymani joined the university in 1997 and was appointed Concordia research chair in wireless multimedia communications in 2001.

He has authored numerous publications in conference and journals, as well as the book Turbo Coding for Satellite and Wireless Communications.