For Immediate Release 1 June 1995
HKUST ENGINEERS WORK TO IMPROVE MOBILE PHONE RECEPTION In a city with the world’s highest per capita use of mobile phones, good reception is good business.
Engineers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology recently concluded a $1 -million, two-year research project on ways to improve wireless communication.
Hutchison Telephone Co. Ltd approached the University’s Electrical & Electronic Engineering (EEE) Department in early 1993 for advice on two aspects of mobile phone use that are somewhat particular to Hong Kong -- radio transmission inside buildings and the measurement of audio quality of Cantonese.
Hutchison had been placing radio transmitters in shopping malls, but as little was known about the transmission of radio waves within a building, the company had no model to follow about the optimum location for indoor transmitters.
“It is easy to put up transmitters as a mobile phone service expands, but it costs money, particularly if you are guessing. If you can predict beforehand how radio signals will propagate within a building, you can save money by knowing exactly how many transmitters you need and where they should be placed,” says Dr Ross David Murch, an assistant professor in the EEE Department and one of the three faculty members involved in the research.
Dr Murch and his colleagues Dr Justin C. Chuang and Dr Oscar C. Au have developed computer software that can easily tell a phone company where to set up transmitters within a building.
Dr Au led the effort to develop a mathematical formula that can be used to objectively monitor audio quality.
Before, user complaints were the only indication of phone sound quality.
“As the number of users and their use of the phones are constantly changing, it is important to continually reassess the quality of reception,” Dr Au says. “This gives the company a competitive edge.”
“Hutchison was a good, cooperative partner,” Dr Chuang says. “They provided the equipment, proprietory information and feedback we needed to do the research properly.”
Shortly after this project began, the Hong Kong Government funded the Co-operative Research Centre scheme, which brings together the research expertise of Hong Kong’s tertiary institutes and the needs of Hong Kong businesses to improve products and services or create new ones. This project became one of series of studies on wireless communication.
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