Date: Friday, November 7, 2025
Time: 2:00 pm
Location: EXP-610A Seminar Room

Speaker: Robert Calderbank (Professor at Duke University, Charles S. Sydnor Distinguished Professor)


Title:  Does 6G Wireless Need a New Waveform

Abstract:   Every new generation is an opportunity to reflect on fundamentals of wireless communication, and when we adopt new technology we calculate that the benefits of switching justify pain of transition. We introduced multiple antennas in 3G to satisfy demand for high speed data, and we introduced OFDMA in 4G to make a direct wireless connection to the internet. In 6G we anticipate that engineering focus will shift from the downlink to the uplink as users become significant sources of data. We anticipate new applications that integrate sensing and communication, also that AI/ML will start to transform transceiver processing.

In this talk we describe how to enable 6G applications using a carrier waveform that is a pulse in the delay-Doppler domain.

Brief Biography:  Dr. Calderbank  is known for contributions to voiceband modem technology, to quantum information theory, and for co-invention of space-time codes for wireless communication. His research papers have been cited more than 60,000 times, and his inventions are found in billions of consumer devices. Dr. Calderbank was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2005, to the National Academy of Inventors in 2015, and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2022. He has received a number of awards, including the 2013 IEEE Hamming Medal for contributions to information transmission, and the 2015 Claude E. Shannon Award.