MERL - Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories

Communications

Wireless and optical communications.

We conduct advanced research in wireless and optical communications from the network layer down to the physical layer, including highly reliable machine-to-machine wireless networks, routing and scheduling for IoT networks, massive MIMO for 5G systems, flexible wideband RF front-end architectures, advanced error correction coding, and novel modulation and transmission techniques with adaptive signal processing for coherent fiber-optic and free-space optical communications.

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  • Awards

    •  AWARD    MERL receives 33rd ARIB Radio Achievement Award
      Date: June 28, 2022
      Awarded to: Yukimasa Nagai, Jianlin Guo, Shoichi Kitazawa, Kazuto Yano.
      MERL Contacts: Jianlin Guo; Philip V. Orlik
      Research Areas: Communications, Electric Systems
      Brief
      • Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (Yukimasa Nagai), MERL (Jianlin Guo), Muroran Institute of Technology (Shoichi Kitazawa) and Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (Kazuto Yano) jointly won the 33rd ARIB Radio Achievement Award with "IEEE 802.19.3 Standardization and Development for Sub-1 GHz Wireless Frequency Coexistence". The ARIB is an organization similar to the FCC in the U.S. It is responsible for setting standards for all radio communications in Japan at the request of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC). In order to promote the effective use of radio waves, the "Radio Achievement Award" is given annually to an individual or organization that has made a special achievement in the effective use of radio waves. This award is the most prestigious award in the field of wireless communications in Japan.
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    •  AWARD    Japan Telecommunications Advancement Foundation Award
      Date: March 15, 2022
      Awarded to: Yukimasa Nagai, Jianlin Guo, Philip Orlik, Takenori Sumi, Benjamin A. Rolfe and Hiroshi Mineno
      MERL Contacts: Jianlin Guo; Philip V. Orlik
      Research Areas: Communications, Machine Learning
      Brief
      • MELCO/MERL research paper “Sub-1 GHz Frequency Band Wireless Coexistence for the Internet of Things” has won the 37th Telecommunications Advancement Foundation Award (Telecom System Technology Award) in Japan. This award started in 1984, and is given to research papers and works related to information and telecommunications that have made significant contributions and achievements to the advancement, development, and standardization of information and telecommunications from technical and engineering perspectives. The award recognizes both the IEEE 802.19.3 standardization efforts and the technological advancements using reinforcement learning and robust access methodologies for wireless communication system. This year, there were 43 entries with 5 winning awards and 3 winning encouragement awards. This is the first time MELCO/MERL has received this award. Our paper has been published by IEEE Access in 2021 and authors are Yukimasa Nagai, Jianlin Guo, Philip Orlik, Takenori Sumi, Benjamin A. Rolfe and Hiroshi Mineno.
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    •  AWARD    Toshiaki Koike-Akino elected Fellow of Optica
      Date: November 18, 2021
      Awarded to: Toshiaki Koike-Akino
      MERL Contact: Toshiaki Koike-Akino
      Research Areas: Communications, Electronic and Photonic Devices, Signal Processing
      Brief
      • Toshiaki Koike-Akino's research activities in communications, error control coding and optical technologies at MERL have earned him election as a Fellow Member of Optica (formerly OSA), the foremost professional association in optics and photonics worldwide. Fellow membership in Optica is limited to no more than ten percent of the membership and is reserved for members who have served with distinction in the advancement of optics and photonics. Koike-Akino is one of 106 members from 24 countries in Optica’s 2022 Fellows Class, elected during the Board of Directors of Optica meeting held on 2nd of November, 2021.

        “Congratulations to the 2022 Optica Fellows,” said 2021 President Connie Chang-Hasnain, University of California, Berkeley, USA. “These members exemplify what it means to be a leader in optics and photonics. Your election, by your peers, confirms the important contributions made within our field. Thank you for your dedication to Optica, and for advancing the science of light.”

        Koike-Akino's elevation to Fellow is specifically “for outstanding and innovative contributions to R&D in enabling technologies for optical communications, including nonlinear equalizers, high-dimensional modulations, and FEC (Forward Error Correction),” said Meredith Smith, Director, Optica Awards and Honors Office. "Again, congratulations on joining this esteemed group of Optica members."

        About Optica

        Optica (formerly OSA) is dedicated to promoting the generation, application, archiving and dissemination of knowledge in optics and photonics worldwide. Founded in 1916, it is the leading organization for scientists, engineers, business professionals, students and others interested in the science of light. Optica’s renowned publications, meetings, online resources and in-person activities fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate scientific, technical and educational achievement.
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  • News & Events

    •  NEWS    MERL work on 3D Printing in Orbit featured in IEEE Spectrum
      Date: June 3, 2022
      Where: IEEE Spectrum
      MERL Contacts: Avishai Weiss; William S. Yerazunis
      Research Areas: Applied Physics, Communications, Robotics
      Brief
      • MERL's research on on-orbit manufacturing was recently featured in an IEEE Spectrum article. The article, titled How Satellites Will 3D Print Their Own Antennas in Space gives an overview of MERL's efforts towards developing a system that construct spacecraft parts in their natural environment-- that is, in space. The technology, called OOM for On-Orbit Manufacturing, provides a way to manufacture not just antenna dishes, but general freeform sturctures on orbit and in a vacuum, using an solar-hardened resin based approach. This technology includes both a special high performance liquid resin, as well as a 3D freeform printer capable of building objects far larger than the as-launched satellite.

        An important aspect of the special resin is that all components have extremely low vapor pressures and do not boil away even in a vacuum. When exposed to solar ultraviolet, the resin hardens by polymerization crosslinking, forming a tough, rigid solid in a few seconds of exposure. No separate UV source is needed, making the entire process very energy efficient. Additionally, the crosslinking resin is heat resistant, and is unaffected to at least 400 degrees C. The 3D printer needed to print the resin is unlike common liquid-resin SLA printers- there is no vat of liquid resin, instead a shielded nozzle delivers the liquid resin directly to where the resin is needed. The result is the ability to construct large and very large structures, not just parabolic dishes, but also solar panel supports and structural trusswork, while in orbit. The system could even construct parts that were unanticipated during mission design and launch.

        MERL's On-Orbit Manufacturing Technology had previously been featured in a Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Press Release and was recently on display at a recent press exhibition in Tokyo, Japan.

        IEEE Spectrum is the flagship magazine and website of the IEEE, the world’s largest professional organization devoted to engineering and the applied sciences. IEEE Spectrum has a circulation of over 400,000 engineers worldwide, making it one of the leading science and engineering magazines.
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    •  NEWS    MERL Scientists Presenting 5 Papers at IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) 2022
      Date: May 16, 2022 - May 20, 2022
      Where: Seoul, Korea
      MERL Contacts: Jianlin Guo; Kyeong Jin (K.J.) Kim; Toshiaki Koike-Akino; Philip V. Orlik; Kieran Parsons; Pu (Perry) Wang; Ye Wang
      Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Communications, Computational Sensing, Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Signal Processing
      Brief
      • MERL Connectivity & Information Processing Team scientists remotely presented 5 papers at the IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) 2022, held in Seoul Korea on May 16-20, 2022. Topics presented include recent advancements in communications technologies, deep learning methods, and quantum machine learning (QML). Presentation videos are also found on our YouTube channel. In addition, K. J. Kim organized "Industrial Private 5G-and-beyond Wireless Networks Workshop" at the conference.

        IEEE ICC is one of two IEEE Communications Society’s flagship conferences (ICC and Globecom). Each year, close to 2,000 attendees from over 70 countries attend IEEE ICC to take advantage of a program which consists of exciting keynote session, robust technical paper sessions, innovative tutorials and workshops, and engaging industry sessions. This 5-day event is known for bringing together audiences from both industry and academia to learn about the latest research and innovations in communications and networking technology, share ideas and best practices, and collaborate on future projects.
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  • Research Highlights

  • Internships

    • CI1711: Advanced Network Design

      MERL is seeking a highly motivated and qualified intern to join the Signal Processing Group for a three month internship program. The ideal candidate will be expected to carry out research on network design and optimization methods including AI assisted networking. The candidate is expected to develop innovative network configuration technologies to support emerging IoT applications. The candidates should have knowledge of network technologies such as network slicing, software defined networking and/or semantic networking. Knowledge of the communication technologies such as 3GPP-5G or IEEE 802 WLAN/WPAN standards is a plus. Candidates in their junior or senior years of a Ph.D. program are encouraged to apply.

    • CI1733: ML for GNSS-based Applications

      MERL is seeking a highly motivated, qualified intern to work on machine learning for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) applications. The ideal candidate is working towards a PhD and is expected to develop innovative machine learning technologies to increase accuracy and integrity of GNSS-based positioning systems. Candidates should have strong knowledge about as many as possible of GNSS signal processing for multipath mitigation, handling RINEX data, neural network and learning techniques, such as feature extraction, deep machine learning, reinforcement learning, domain adaptation, and distributed learning. Proficient programming skills with PyTorch, Matlab, and C++, and strong mathematical analysis will be additional assets to this position. Candidates in their junior or senior years of a Ph.D. program are encouraged to apply.

    • MD1696: Advanced RF Technologies

      Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories (Cambridge, MA) is seeking a highly motivated, qualified individual to join our 3 month internship program of research on advanced RF technologies. The ideal candidate should be a senior Ph.D. student with good experience in microwave power amplifier/RF active circuit design and experiment, RF front end systems. Familiarity with ADS and Matlab is required. Knowledge of radio system architecture and FPGA (signal processing) would be an asset.


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  • Recent Publications

    •  Kodama, T., Koike-Akino, T., Millar, D.S., Kojima, K., Parsons, K., "DNN-assisted phase distance tuned PSK modulation for PAM4-to-QPSK format conversion gateway node", Optics Express, DOI: 10.1364/​OE.449812, Vol. 30, No. 7, pp. 10866-10876, June 2022.
      BibTeX TR2022-091 PDF
      • @article{Kodama2022jun,
      • author = {Kodama, Takahiro and Koike-Akino, Toshiaki and Millar, David S. and Kojima, Keisuke and Parsons, Kieran},
      • title = {DNN-assisted phase distance tuned PSK modulation for PAM4-to-QPSK format conversion gateway node},
      • journal = {Optics Express},
      • year = 2022,
      • volume = 30,
      • number = 7,
      • pages = {10866--10876},
      • month = jun,
      • doi = {10.1364/OE.449812},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2022-091}
      • }
    •  Dzieciol, H., Koike-Akino, T., Wang, Y., Parsons, K., "Inverse Regular Perturbation with ML-Assisted Phasor Correction for Fiber Nonlinearity Compensation", Optics Letters, DOI: 10.1364/​OL.460929, Vol. 47, No. 14, pp. 3471-3474, June 2022.
      BibTeX TR2022-070 PDF
      • @article{Dzieciol2022jun,
      • author = {Dzieciol, Hubert and Koike-Akino, Toshiaki and Wang, Ye and Parsons, Kieran},
      • title = {Inverse Regular Perturbation with ML-Assisted Phasor Correction for Fiber Nonlinearity Compensation},
      • journal = {Optics Letters},
      • year = 2022,
      • volume = 47,
      • number = 14,
      • pages = {3471--3474},
      • month = jun,
      • doi = {10.1364/OL.460929},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2022-070}
      • }
    •  Jin, S., Pu, W., Boufounos, P.T., Orlik, P.V., Takahashi, R., Roy, S., "Spatial-Domain Mutual Interference Mitigation for Slow-Time MIMO-FMCW Automotive Radar", IEEE Sensor Array and Multichannel Signal Processing Workshop (SAM), June 2022.
      BibTeX TR2022-067 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Jin2022jun,
      • author = {Jin, Sian and Pu, Wang and Boufounos, Petros T. and Orlik, Philip V. and Takahashi, Ryuhei and Roy, Sumit},
      • title = {Spatial-Domain Mutual Interference Mitigation for Slow-Time MIMO-FMCW Automotive Radar},
      • booktitle = {IEEE Sensor Array and Multichannel Signal Processing Workshop (SAM)},
      • year = 2022,
      • month = jun,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2022-067}
      • }
    •  Koike-Akino, T., Wang, P., Wang, Y., "AutoQML: Automated Quantum Machine Learning for Wi-Fi Integrated Sensing and Communications", IEEE Sensor Array and Multichannel Signal Processing Workshop (SAM), June 2022.
      BibTeX TR2022-068 PDF Video Presentation
      • @inproceedings{Koike-Akino2022jun,
      • author = {Koike-Akino, Toshiaki and Wang, Pu and Wang, Ye},
      • title = {AutoQML: Automated Quantum Machine Learning for Wi-Fi Integrated Sensing and Communications},
      • booktitle = {IEEE Sensor Array and Multichannel Signal Processing Workshop (SAM)},
      • year = 2022,
      • month = jun,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2022-068}
      • }
    •  Li, P., Pu, W., Berntorp, K., Liu, H., "Exploiting Temporal Relations on Radar Perception for Autonomous Driving", IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), June 2022.
      BibTeX TR2022-069 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Li2022jun,
      • author = {Li, Peizhao and Pu, Wang and Berntorp, Karl and Liu, Hongwu},
      • title = {Exploiting Temporal Relations on Radar Perception for Autonomous Driving},
      • booktitle = {IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR)},
      • year = 2022,
      • month = jun,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2022-069}
      • }
    •  Sun, Y., Benosman, M., Ma, R., "GaN Distributed RF Power Amplifer Automation Design with Deep Reinforcement Learning", International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Circuits and Systems (AICAS), June 2022.
      BibTeX TR2022-074 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Sun2022jun,
      • author = {Sun, Yuxiang and Benosman, Mouhacine and Ma, Rui},
      • title = {GaN Distributed RF Power Amplifer Automation Design with Deep Reinforcement Learning},
      • booktitle = {International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Circuits and Systems (AICAS)},
      • year = 2022,
      • month = jun,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2022-074}
      • }
    •  Pervej, M.F., Guo, J., Kim, K.J., Parsons, K., Orlik, P.V., Di Cairano, S., Menner, M., Berntorp, K., Nagai, Y., Dai, H., "Mobility, Communication and Computation Aware Federated Learning for Internet of Vehicles", IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), June 2022.
      BibTeX TR2022-079 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Pervej2022jun,
      • author = {Pervej, Md Ferdous and Guo, Jianlin and Kim, Kyeong Jin and Parsons, Kieran and Orlik, Philip V. and Di Cairano, Stefano and Menner, Marcel and Berntorp, Karl and Nagai, Yukimasa and Dai, Huaiyu},
      • title = {Mobility, Communication and Computation Aware Federated Learning for Internet of Vehicles},
      • booktitle = {IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV)},
      • year = 2022,
      • month = jun,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2022-079}
      • }
    •  Liu, B., Koike-Akino, T., Wang, Y., Parsons, K., "Variational Quantum Compressed Sensing for Joint User and Channel State Acquisition in Grant-Free Device Access Systems", IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), May 2022.
      BibTeX TR2022-052 PDF Video Presentation
      • @inproceedings{Liu2022may3,
      • author = {Liu, Bryan and Koike-Akino, Toshiaki and Wang, Ye and Parsons, Kieran},
      • title = {Variational Quantum Compressed Sensing for Joint User and Channel State Acquisition in Grant-Free Device Access Systems},
      • booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC)},
      • year = 2022,
      • month = may,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2022-052}
      • }
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