Engineering Student’s Work Could Lead to Clearer Cell Phone Communications
In today’s sea of wireless information and clashing signals, Chris Brinton’s research on signal distortions that can affect cell phone towers is being heard loudly and clearly by technology industry leaders.
In today’s sea of wireless information and clashing signals, certain electronic disturbances have gone without much exploration. Chris Brinton ’11 carried out research on one particularly neglected phenomenon and reported on the subject before an assembly of technology industry leaders.
Last semester, Brinton spoke at The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 24th Annual Symposium in Hanover, NJ. His talk encompassed the one-and-a-half month’s worth of research he completed with supervisors Alan Katz, TCNJ professor of electrical and computer engineering and president of Linearizer Technology, and Dave McGee, a Linearizer employee.
Brinton’s subject, Reverse IMD, is a form of signal distortion caused by the adverse interaction of high-powered transmitters—such as cell phone towers, broadcast facilities, and satellites.
“Reverse IMD is a largely-neglected topic in the field of engineering, but has many real-world implications,” Brinton said. He provided an example: when two cell phone towers are close together, the influence of one tower on another might cloud up nearby conversations.
Brinton began working with Katz in the summer as part of an internship program. Katz, in his role as Linearizer president, hired Brinton and recruited him to work on a contract investigation of a problem that they linked to Reverse IMD.
“At this point, we began performing experiments to obtain more information about the phenomenon and also to develop possible mitigation techniques,” Brinton said.
Brinton experimented with two techniques—“isolation” and “phasing”—designed to alleviate the effects of this frustrating occurrence. His strategies proved successful. When Katz was allowed to take a student presenter to the conference, Brinton received the opportunity to explain his findings before the chairs, vice presidents, and technical managers of several technology companies. Brinton, vice president of TCNJ’s IEEE chapter, was the only student presenter at this year’s symposium.
His talk was well attended and generated a number of questions,” Katz said.
Katz added that while the most recent Reverse IMD project is complete, he would recruit Brinton for any related project in the future. Both are currently working on a paper related to the subject and expect to publish it in an engineering journal.
Posted on February 19, 2010