Institute of Modern Communication

  The Institute of Modern Communication was established in 1994. With the goal of serving modern railways, it conducts research on new generation railway wireless communication, communication-based train control and safety. The team keeps up with the development of the times and focuses on the research of railway broadband mobile communications (LTE-R, 5G-R), the theory and key technology of new generation mobile communication systems (5G, B5G), and 6G-oriented smart communications and terahertz communications, etc. The team has made great development in faculty, talent training, platform construction, scientific research, and international academic exchange.

  In December 2002, the Ministry of Railways, Northern Jiaotong University, and Siemens jointly established the only domestic GSM-R research and application simulation system laboratory in China, which later developed into the GSM-R laboratory of the Ministry of Railways. It has played an important role in GSM-R basic theory research, key technology research and development, engineering construction, standard formulation, interconnection testing, new business development and testing, product certification, talent training, academic exchanges, application and promotion, etc. In 2006, in accordance with the needs of the national medium and long-term science and technology and transportation development planning, Beijing Jiaotong University established the State Key Lab of Rail Traffic Control and Safety, and the members of the team engaged in basic theories and key technology research became permanent members of the laboratory. The National Engineering Research Center for Rail Traffic Operation Control System was established in early 2008, and members engaged in common technology and engineering research became permanent staff of the center. In 2012, Beijing Jiaotong University took the lead in declaring for the "National Research Center for Rail Traffic Safety Assessment", and some members of the team became permanent staff of the research center. In 2013, Beijing Jiaotong University took the lead in declaring for the "Collaborative Innovation Center for Rail Traffic Safety" and became the first batch of "2011 Collaborative Innovation Centers" recognized by the state. The team is one of the teams in the collaborative innovation center. On July 22, 2013, the laboratory was awarded the CMA metrology certification by the China National Certification and Accreditation Administration Commission. On December 15, 2020, the "Broadband Mobile Information and Communication Railway Industry Key Laboratory" led by the Institute of Modern Communication was recognized by the National Railway Administration and became the first and only key laboratory for the information and communication railway industry in China. Relying on the national key discipline "Information and Communication Engineering" of Beijing Jiaotong University, the laboratory focuses on scientific research, innovation leadership, equipment research and development, social services to promote the deep integration of new generation information technology and railways, and serve the national new infrastructure construction and development of smart railways.

  The first-level discipline of the Institute of Modern Communication is Information and Communication Engineering (a key discipline at the national level), the second-level discipline is Communication and Information Systems, and the majors are broadband mobile communication systems and dedicated mobile communications. The research directions include broadband mobile communications and dedicated mobile communications for rail traffic, millimeter wave and terahertz communications, green energy and green communications, information security, internet of things and smart traffic, automotive electronics and vehicle networking, big data and cloud computing, artificial intelligence. The institute is mainly responsible for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in wireless communication fundamentals, engineering economics and project management, 5G engineering frontier technology and innovation, mobile communication system for rail traffic, wireless communication system modeling, wireless communication theory fundamentals, digital communication theory, and information theory. It mainly undertakes the National Key Research and Development Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National High Technology Research and Development Program, the Beijing Science and Technology Commission project and the horizontal projects such as Huawei and ZTE. The Institute of Modern Communications has won one special prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, two second prizes of the National Technical Invention Award, and nine other provincial and ministerial awards including the Special Award of the Railway Society. Representative awards include: 2008 National Science and Technology Progress Award for "Qinghai-Tibet Railway Project", 2020 "High-speed Mobile Complex Scene Channel Characteristics and Transmission Theory" First Prize of Science and Technology Award of Chinese Institute of Electronics, 2018 first prize of Railway Science and Technology Award, "CTCS-3 Level Train Control Wireless Channel Detection System", the second prize of Natural Science Award of Ministry of Education in 2016 for "Research on Wireless Channel Theory and Method in High-speed Moving Complex Scenes", 2007 special prize of Science and Technology Award of China Railway Society, "System Integration Innovation of 20,000-ton Heavy-Duty Combined Train of Daqin", 2007 first prize of Science and Technology Award of China Railway Society of "Daqin Line GSM-R Realization of Locomotive Synchronous Operation Control System", 2011 second prize of Railway Science and Technology Award for "Research on Key Technologies and Test Methods of GSM-R Network Interconnection". The team has published 19 academic monographs, 714 SCI-retrieved papers, 25 ESI highly cited papers, 2 ESI hot papers, and 93 authorized invention patents.

  The Institute of Modern Communication has created a low-frequency and millimeter-wave frequency channel model library for high-speed rail scenarios, which has been successfully applied to high-speed rail network planning and intelligent high-speed rail communication systems, significantly improving planning accuracy and communication speed. The model was adopted by the IEEE standard group 802.15 TG3d (Terahertz Communications) and IG HRRC (Millimeter Wave High Speed Mobile Communications), and the team became the world’s first terahertz communications standard IEEE 802.15.3d-2017 (the only one in China) and the creator of ITU-R's first hybrid channel standard model for 5G. In addition, the team first proposed the concept of Doppler compression internationally, and carried out the construction of a prototype system of Doppler compression technology; the research on low-latency and high-reliability massive machine-like communication for high-speed rail smart networking with Heriot-Watt University in UK was also supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Royal Society Cooperative Exchange Program.

  The Institute of Modern Communications has solved important practical problems for the development of high-speed rail communications and the application of 5G in high-speed rail scenarios, published more than 200 papers (more than 10 ESI highly cited papers) in domestic and foreign authoritative academic journals and well-known international conferences, granted more than 20 patents, and won the IEEE VTS 2019 Neil Sheffield Best Communication Paper Award, the IEEE ICC International Conference Best Paper Award, IEEE WCSP International Conference Best Paper Award, IEEE COMCOMAP Best Paper Award, IEEE VTC Best Student Paper Award, and many other international academic paper awards.

  The "5G key technology for intelligent high-speed railroads" of the Institute of Modern Communications was selected as one of the 56 "World Internet Leading Scientific and Technological Achievements" in 2018; the team also became the only non-EU member of the European Railway Research Consortium (EURNEX) (the only one in China) and a member unit of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology Program COST and 3GPP. The team has one IEEE Communications Society Asia Pacific Distinguished Young Scholar, one Royal Society Newton Senior Scholar, two German Humboldt Foundation Research Fund recipients, three International Union of Radio Science URSI Young Scientist Award recipients, one ACES Young Scientist Award recipient, and team members serving as IEEE Trans. on Wireless Communications, IEEE Trans. on Communications, IEEE JSAC and other top journals as editorial board members or chief editorial board members of special issues.

  The high-performance ray-tracing platform (CloudRT), independently developed by the team, is based on cloud computing, ray-tracing and 3D scene reconstruction technologies to realize the simulation and modeling of the propagation characteristics of various real scenes of electric waves, and to support the network regulation and network optimization of high-speed railway scenes as well as the design, development and evaluation of various communication systems. Since its launch in June 2018, the platform has attracted the use of more than 3,000 independent IP users from 30 provincial administrative units across the country, as well as more than 2,000 independent IP users from 60 countries in the world. The users include: Nokia, ZTE, Huawei, Ericsson, Korea Electronics and Communications Research Institute, German Aerospace Center, France IFSTTAR Research Institute and other world top communication companies and research institutions.

  The Institute of Modern Communication currently has 26 teachers, including 8 professors, 12 associate professors, 6 lecturers and engineers, and 16 teachers with doctoral degrees. The institute currently has 147 graduate students, including 42 doctoral students. The Institute of Modern Communication welcomes teachers and students from universities at home and abroad to contact us and join our team.