Dr. Kia Wiklundh, Robust Wireless Communications Specialist, Qamcom Research and Technology AB

Interference challenges for industry communication

In the last decades, wireless communication has gained an increasingly vital role in industry processes. There are a variety of applications, often used to deliver critical services in a highly demanding environment with stringent requirements on reliability, delays and fault-tolerance. The industrial environment is characterized by very challenging wave propagation properties, and a harsh interference environment. The later can cause serious degradation on radio communication performance, which can lead to disruptions and delays that are not acceptable in industrial processes.

In the future, there are several factors that will lead to even more sever interference challenges. One is the Internet of Things (IoT) and its introduction into the industry. The full vision of the IoT is expected to reach its full potential by the coming 5G wireless technologies. This will open for massive IoT characterized by very large co-location densities and highly dynamic interference situations. The development will require new EMC requirements, methods for interference management and interference detection systems.

CV

Dr. Wiklundh has 23 years’ experience from research and development in the defence domain within the area of wireless communication systems and electromagnetic interference. She has worked against the Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV), the Swedish Defence (Försvarsmakten, FM), Swedish Civil Contingences Agency (MSB), Volvo Cars, Saab Aeronautics, Polismyndigheten/NOA.

She received her PhD degree from Chalmers University of Technology 2007, in the area of interference impact on radio communication systems. Her special fields are intersystem interference and robust communication systems for the military domain. Other topics of interests are electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), modulation and coding techniques especially for non-Gaussian noise, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and communication theory. She has long worked at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), but is now at the consultancy company Qamcom Research & Technology.

She has received three awards for her scientific work and is a co-author of several scientific conference papers and journal papers. She is a member of IEEE, currently chair of Section E (The Electromagnetic Environment and Interference Commission) of the Swedish National Committee of URSI, vice chair of the Swedish National Committee of URSI and vice chair of the EMC Chapter of the IEEE Sweden.