What is enabling technologies?  

An enabling technology is defined as “Equipment and/or methodology that, alone or in combination with associated technologies, provides the means to generate giant leaps in performance and capabilities of the user.”

Our vision, at the Smart Internet Lab is to enable future smart internet by developing physical layer technologies that underpin future demands for capacity and performance. 

We are currently developing: 

• Radio frequency (RF) antennae arrays, backed up by highly efficient transceiver technology for wireless and mobile networks. This is underpinned by novel photonic integration technologies which are aimed at multiplying fibre capacity by orders of magnitude over current single mode fibre technology.
• New optical communications technologies which exploit new degrees of freedom in the spatial or modal domains for long-haul transmission, short-reach interconnects, and free-space optical links.
• Photonic technologies with the aim of making significant savings in cost and energy consumption by enabling direct routing of optical signals in programmable optical networks, optical subsystem white boxes and intra- and inter-DCN solutions.
• High bandwidth radio technologies exploiting novel RF and signal processing approaches to enable GHz bandwidth transceivers 

The fusion between technologies across RF, mmwave, THz and optical are investigated to enable smart manipulation of signals as well as network optimisation across the boundaries of different domains.

In the quest for high bandwidth and mobility, smart use and fusion between enabling technologies across various EM spectrum bands, e.g., RF and optical, is essential. Optical fibres provide the future-proof core infrastructure for smart Internet. Driven by the bandwidth-hungry Ethernet applications and the emerging interconnection demands from IoT (internet of things), 5G and 6G, optical networks need to be further evolved in network architecture and transmission technologies, to provide more effective bandwidths and network functions.

By working on these technologies, we aim to enable faster, higher quality, lower cost, lower energy delivery of contents between the end users and ‘The Cloud’ in future smart Internet.