• CRC is developing and demonstrating new broadband applications such as tele-health and tele-education for the benefit of rural and remote communities.
  
• Developed by CRC, the Microwave Light Organized Network (MILTON) Experimental System is the world's first truly cognitive radio technology for broadband delivery. MILTON is now being field tested in Canada and India and should make its way to many other markets.
  
• CRC has used Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition to grow GaAs substrates patterned with an SiO2 mask, a technique that could yield novel optical waveguide and switch structures with improved electrical and optical performance.
  
• The work done by CRC on distance and electronic learning projects has led to many Canadian school boards acquiring broadband connectivity and applications software.
  
• CRC is managing the Canadian Space Agency's Cascade communications technology demonstration program, which is studying the feasibility of space-based transfer of very large data files. CRC is the Co-Principal Investigator for the Enhanced-Polar Outflow Probe (EPOP) payload on the CASSIOPE satellite, and designer of the radio wave propagation and plasma flow instrument.
  
• Specialized CRC software has been licensed to public agencies and private firms, in Canada and around the world. These licenses included CRC-COVLAB, modeling software that performs coverage prediction and analysis for various types of communication systems, as well as CRC-COVLITE, which estimates the path loss during propagation.
  
• CRC is tailoring the CRC-COVLAB software to meet the needs of Radio-Canada, which has called for specialized functions and tools required to prepare technical briefs according to Industry Canada's Broadcast Procedures and Rules (BPR).
  
• The CRC-SEAQ software, a System for the Evaluation of Audio Quality, was licensed to Broadcast Australia, LG Electronics (Korea), Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (Korea), Sumnet Co. Ltd (Korea), Intel Corporation (USA), Dolby Laboratories (USA), the New Mexico State University (USA), and the Technical University of Norway.
  
• CRC has been looking at ways of enhancing the performance of Digital Broadcast Multimedia Receivers, examining approaches such as antenna diversity, Multiple Input-Multiple Output antennas, improved channel estimation, and synchronization and cancellation schemes.
  
• As the co-chair of the Independent Laboratories Group of the Video Quality Expert Group (VQEG), an international organization dedicated to evaluating objective methods for the assessment of video quality in digital video, CRC is working on the planning and organization of testing methods for the assessment of multimedia video applications, as well as participating as a testing facility. The results of this work will allow international standards organizations, such as the International Telecommunications Union, to select the standard objective methods required by industry to monitor and improve the quality of the video delivered to users.
  
• CRC offered formal contributions to the Minister of Industry’s Telecommunications Policy Review Panel, which addressed technology trends such as the future of wireless systems, cognitive radio, software defined radio, wireless sensor networks, Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting, Broadband Access using digital television technologies, and single frequency networks for digital television.
  
• To help small- and medium-sized enterprises bring wireless communications technology to the marketplace, CRC leads the Canada Network of Wireless Centres project (CWCnet). The International Institute of Telecommunications (IIT) of Montreal received $3.3 M in funding from Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions to support work on this project.
  
• CRC participated in the Software Human Resource Council’s conference (SHRC) and presented the future on wireless communications. A not-for-profit organization working with industry, education, associations and government, SHRC has selected this technology as one of the central features of its road map for the future.
  
• Working closely with the Radio Advisory Board of Canada, CRC assists in spectrum planning activities, regulatory activities, and determining the needs of the Canadian broadcasting industry.
  

Kudos

As part of National Public Service Week, five Public Service Awards were presented to CRC individuals and groups in a ceremony held on June 9, 2006. These awards were given in recognition of outstanding R&D accomplishments, and for the positive image these individuals have brought to the public service in the last year. The winners were:

1. The Advanced Radio Systems Group, for their contribution to the development of Software Defined Radio (SDR), including communications architecture and related tools. The winners are Claude Bélisle, Steve Bernier, Hugues Latour, François Lévesque, Sébastien Gauthier and Charles Auger. The Advanced Radio Systems Group received an "Excellence in Technology Transfer" Award from the Federal Partners in Technology Transfer (FPTT).

2. Gilbert Soulodre, Michel Lavoie and Scott Norcross, for their article "Objective Measures of Listener Envelopment in Multichannel Surround Systems," published in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society (Volume 51, Number 9) in September, 2003. These three researchers have been chosen to receive the Audio Engineering Society’s (AES) Publications Award 2006.

3. Dr. Stephen Mihailov, Dr. Dan Grobnic, Mr. Robert Walker and Dr. Ping Lu, for their work on narrowband fiber-optic phase-shifted Fabry-Perot Bragg grating filters for atmospheric water vapor lidar measurements. They were selected by the NASA Inventions and Contributions Board for an award.

4. Dr. Alex Vukovic, recipient of the Outstanding Performance Award for his plenary talk at the Communication Systems and Networks International Conference in 2005.

5. Dr. Xianbin Wang, and Dr. Yiyan Wu, for their paper entitled "Transmitter Identification Using Embedded Pseudo Random Sequences," which appeared in the IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting in September 2004. Dr. Wang and Dr. Wu were recipients of the IEEE Scott Helt Memorial Award in October 2005. This award is given to recognize exceptional publications in the field and to stimulate interest in and encourage contributions to the fields of interest of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society.