Wireless connectivity is playing a major role in the delivery of 'broadband for all', with significant presence in the home, workplace and tether free access points, as well as 'last mile' delivery of high speed internet services.

Given the shortage and cost of suitable radio spectrum for such applications, wireless designers are employing techniques using multiple antenna elements in order to greatly enhance spectrum efficiency. The antenna array facilitates the exploitation of the spatial component of the volume between the transmitter and receiver, alongside the frequency, time and code domains, thus enhancing the information capacity of the channel.

Mark Beach was one of the early proponents of this technology in the mid 1990s, and a key player in the EU TSUNAMI project giving the first practical validation of this concept. Initially, only single antenna arrays were deployed at basestations or access points of these so called Smart antenna systems, whereas today dual antenna array architectures, or Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems, are at the heart of wireless research across the globe.

In his lecture, Professor Beach will give an account of Bristol's role and novel contributions to the exploitation of the spatial domain through the use of smart antennas. Examples will be drawn from research conducted by the Centre for Communications Research over the last 10 years, as well as illustrating the potential role of MIMO based wireless solutions in future commercial and leisure applications.