The growth of our economy depends on a well connected workforce.

Broadband for Australia

CSIRO is developing technologies to connect people and machines with high speed broadband and enable them to access the wireless internet anytime, anywhere.

• 22 September 2009 | Updated 14 October 2011

• Our research
• Science focus
• Outcomes
• Partners
• Track record

The growth of our economy depends on a well connected workforce and networked infrastructure. There is also increasing demand for these connections to be made anytime, anywhere: that is, wirelessly.

Wireless technologies are also a hot topic in the research world due to the emergence of the wireless internet.

Problems with current wireless networks and internet technologies include:

• unreliability
• incompatibility
• lack of spectrum
• low data rates.

Our research

CSIRO’s information and communication technologies (ICT) researchers are developing the fundamental technologies of future broadband wireless and fibre backbone networks.

Our research aims to:

• facilitate integration of different networks
• increase network reliability
• deliver higher speed wireless data transfer
• improve quality of wireless network and internet access services.

Science focus

Much of our work revolves around developing cognitive networks. These are made of intelligent nodes that are smart, aware and adaptable. They are not centrally managed, but negotiate among themselves to deliver information with improved link reliability, coverage and capacity.

For example, for end-users holding a Blackberry, PDA or iPhone, a cognitive wireless network would mean their device would adapt to available network coverage to give them the best access to services.

To create these cognitive networks, we are developing:

• antennas that reconfigure themselves to make the most efficient and flexible use of the radio spectrum. Also, wideband, low cost microwave and millimetre subsystems (the wider bandwidth at millimetre frequencies means data-rich information such as video can be transmitted wirelessly at up to 20 gigabits per second).

• signal processing algorithms and protocols so devices can sense the radio environment and decide on the optimum use of the spectrum. We are looking at microwave systems and networks (900 MHz to 10 GHz).

• signal processing and coding algorithms for wireless networks. We are looking at using adaptive multi-input and multi-output (MIMO) techniques to increase efficiency and coverage of wireless networks.

• scalable rate management protocols (RMP) at the internet protocol (IP) network layer. The aim is to enable multi-service internet applications such as browsing, collaborative application, distant learning, peer-to-peer, voice and video streaming to run concurrently with guaranteed quality of service.

Our current work builds on the major intellectual property and know-how we've built up in:

• antennas
• orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)
• multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) wireless communications
• adaptive digital beamforming
• monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC).

Outcomes

Broadband communications networks are a critical enabling technology and a major contributor to national productivity and growth.

We are developing advanced solutions to connect people over wired and wireless networks with higher bandwidth and reliability – even those in rural and remote areas.

Our research has impact in the following areas:

• ICT
• mineral resources
• security
• manufacturing 
• understanding the Universe.

Partners

We have established partnerships with organisations including:

• NEC
• Rockwell Collins
• Boeing
• CETC (China)
• Defence Science and Technology Organisation (Australia).

And tertiary institutions such as:

• Peking University
• Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications
• University of NSW
• The University of Sydney
• Macquarie University.

Track record

CSIRO generated one of the most important patents in wireless history: high speed wireless local area networks (WLAN), which underpins the international standard (IEEE 802.11).

Our recent breakthroughs in gigabit wireless and adaptive wireless led to three awards:

• Engineering Excellence Award, Engineers Australia, 2007
• CSIRO Chairman’s Medal, 2007
• CSIRO Strategic Excellence Award, 2007.

CSIRO is developing wireless technologies to bring Broadband to the bush.