The Department of Communication Engineering was based on disciplines of signal and information processing and communication and information system in the former Department of Electronics Science and Engineering of Nanjing University and was established in cooperation with the 14th Research Institute of China Electronic Technology Group Corporation. The department has been supported by the 211 and 985 Projects and is an important strategic move in developing applied disciplines and new engineering education of the university.
The department covers the first-level discipline of information and communication engineering and offers masters’ and Ph.D. programs on signal and information processing and bachelors’ and masters’ programs on communication engineering. It has laboratories of radar signal processing, multimedia communication, signal processing systems and integrated circuits, broadband network and intelligent transportation, space information network, wireless communication and network, photon information technology, and intelligent information processing. Taking advantage of the university’s strengths in science disciplines and models of applied sciences from the world’s first-class engineering universities, the department integrates science education with engineering education, gradually develops its own models of discipline construction and talents education and turns out graduates highly regarded by their employers.
Currently, the department has a faculty from specialties of communication, signal processing, computer science, electronics technology and information technology, including 5 professors, 17 associate professors and 8 full-time researchers. For years, the faculty works hard in teaching, research and engineering application. It has developed distinct characters in teaching. For example, Modern Data Communication Textbook it compiled is awarded the national university excellent teaching material of the 11th Five-year Plan, and 3D Video Processing and Communication is selected into the national key publication plan of the 12th Five-Year Plan. The students the department has cultivated are equipped with solid foundational knowledge and strong practical and innovative ability. Many times, they won the first prizes in the National Undergraduate Electronic Competition and China Graduate Electronics Contest.
The department has undertaken many national and provincial research projects including national major projects, the 863 Program, 973 Program, National Natural Science Foundation Program and National Defense Industry Program. The faculty has not only won many awards but also generated remarkable social and economic values.
Radar Signal Processing
The research directions of this specialty include synthetic aperture radar imaging, inverse synthetic aperture radar imaging, ultra-wide band phased array signal processing, target recognition, MIMO radar signal fusion, radar receiver automatic test, integrated system design of radar communication, and information and energy simultaneous transmission method. Proved by the field data, the quality of radar target image is greatly improved by the arbitrary group delay compensation method which is used in achieving the focusing processing and replacing the range alignment and phase compensation. The ultra-wide-band passive phased array technology solves the dispersion problem of the ultra-wide-band phased array. The radar target recognition rate is promoted by the feature quality assessment technology, the feature space transformation technology and the artificial intelligence technology. The spatial spectrum estimation method under low signal noise ratio and the target detection and parameter estimation methods in complex environments are studied to improve the detection probability of small targets. The radar receiver automatic test system has been widely applied to the development, manufacture process and maintenance of radar systems. In addition, the research content contains the machine learning-based resource allocation and optimization schemes in wireless networks, the new radar communication integrated system and network, including integrated waveform design, integrated transmitter and receiver design and network protocol design, the wireless energy transmission as well as the information and energy simultaneous transmission method and system design. The research results have been successfully transformed and applied.
Multimedia Communication
This lab studies key theories and technologies in multimedia communication systems. Its research directions cover the multimedia acquisition, compression, transmission and presentation, and they involve the disciplines of signal processing, computer science, applied mathematics and human visual perception. Specifically, the research includes multi (mixed) camera acquisition management and planning, standardization of coding technology, media transmission network scheduling and optimization, and modeling and application of content subjective experience quality.
Signal Processing Systems and Integrated Circuits
This lab focuses on the digital signal processing (DSP) technology for communication, storage systems and the next-generation artificial intelligence. In communication technology, it studies the design and implementation of the modern error-correcting code, the high-speed wired and wireless communication systems, post-quantum encryption and blockchain algorithm acceleration and high-speed (400G+) optical communication circuit and system design. In intelligent information processing, the research includes deep learning algorithm optimization and accelerator design, automatic instruction-set processor design, robot vision, navigation and control chips as well as other algorithm acceleration and systematic security chip design. In analog signal processing, it studies the high-speed, high-precision ADC/DAC design, high-sensitivity sensor design, neural mimicry analog chips and devices, and nonvolatile memory design. In recent years, the lab has undertaken a number of research projects funded by the state and relevant ministries, cooperated with large international enterprises in design and hardware implementation of high-speed communication systems and signed agreements on many joint research projects. A series of technical breakthroughs have been made in hardware implementation and optimization of deep learning. The lab has been on the forefront of making important research achievements, compared with those made during the same period time by labs from other parts of the world.
Broadband Network and Intelligent Transportation
In addition to the broadband private network and the Internet of Things foundation, the lab concentrates on network video image processing algorithms and their application in intelligent transportation systems. Its research includes deep learning, artificial intelligence, target detection and tracking, traffic parameter detection, environmental and meteorological parameter detection, traffic network condition prediction, comprehensive information mining, intelligent transportation system, traffic Internet of Things, and intelligent transportation system standard compilation. It has undertaken a number of demonstration projects such as “the cloud service platform of provincial intelligent transportation information” and “smart highway emergency command application based on cloud computing Internet of Things” in Jiangsu Province. Among them, the collaborative project “Smart Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway Information System” won the Jiangsu Science and Technology Award. The lab also designed Nantong-Qidong Expressway, the first digital expressway in China and developed the DMDU private network equipment of distributed [L1] multimedia data unit with independent intellectual property rights, laying the special network structure of expressways in China.
Spatial Information Network
The lab carries out research in deep space, near-Earth intelligent network protocol design and performance optimization, satellite-to-ground reliable high-speed laser network, semi-physical simulation evaluation of spatial information network, space network topology planning, space software defined network, mainly for the national major needs of Beidou navigation satellite system, low-orbit communication constellation, and deep space exploration. Furthermore, it actively standardizes the international and domestic space network technologies. In recent years, the lab has taken on more than ten important projects, such as sub-projects of the National Science and Technology Major Project, major projects of pre-research in civil aviation “13th Five-Year Plan” technologies, National Natural Science Foundation projects, Science and Technology Department of Jiangsu Province's future network forward-looking research projects and research projects supported by enterprises. It also helped formulate one project on CCSDS international standards and one on national aerospace industry standards. The semi-physical simulation system of space network with independent intellectual property rights has been used to develop plenty of aerospace mission research.
Wireless Communication and Network
This lab conducts research on key theories and techniques in wireless mobile communication systems with directions of telecommunication operations and optimization, machine learning which cross disciplines of communication, computer science and applied mathematics. Specifically, the research includes mobile communication network planning and optimization, mobile network resource management, cognitive and tactical communication, telecommunication traffic analysis and prediction
Photon Information Technology
The research includes integrated photonic device, photon chip technology and photon information network construction. The lab has made the first active photon integrated chip and fulfilled the mobile photon communication based on the drone platform. Developing the integrated quantum light sources, photon information processing, communication and detection technology can improve the performance of photonic devices, reduce the system’s volume, achieve the application of photon communication, sensing and imaging technologies, facilitate the loading of mobile platforms, and lay the experimental foundation for basic theory research of quantum mechanics.
Intelligent Information Processing
The lab studies the intelligent methods of information processing and its application technology. The work is not only closely related to signal processing, artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, computer hardware and software, sensing, measurement and control, and network communication, but is also integrated with mathematics, nonlinear science, fractal geometry, complexity science, brain science, and various applied disciplines. In recent years, the country attaches great importance to the application-driven research and the university and the department also support the basic research on theoretical algorithms, focuses on the research and development of advanced intelligent devices and application systems and achieved a series of innovative results.
