Chairman’s Welcome

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the proceedings of the first international workshop of COST Action 280, Propagation Impairment Mitigation for Millimetre Wave Radio Systems. The proceedings are published on a CD-ROM and on the Action’s web site as a collection of Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files. (http://www.cost280.rl.ac.uk)

The first workshop took place a little bit more than a year since the Action was inaugurated and demonstrated that already a significant progress has been made within all organisational elements of the Action.

The Generic Systems advisory group has published its report which will be used to focus the future collaborative work on the most likely types of systems and services that will need application of PIMTs.

The Channel Modelling working group has produced draft review documents in three areas: channel models, fade dynamics and spatial characteristics of propagation parameters. These will form a starting point for the final report and also serve as a blue print for the current research of the group’s core activities. At the same time, the information will be available to the PIMT working group as the much needed input for the design and simulation of target systems.

The Propagation Impairment Mitigation Techniques working group reported work has included algorithm development activities, systems analysis and optimisation, as well as new systems applications. With the definition of the Action’s generic cases, the group will be able to move to project based mode and undertake simulation and evaluation of systems performance.

The workshop was held in the Nelson Conference Centre at QinetiQ plc, Malvern, UK from 1^st to 3^rd July 2002 and was jointly sponsored by QinetiQ and the Radiocommunications Agency (RA) of the United Kingdom’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The management committee of the Action, all participants, observers and workshop delegates are grateful for the support and hospitality provided by the two organisations and their employees. Without great efforts from the Action Secretary Dr Sue Upton (UF Data Analysis) and the two working group chairmen, Dr Antonio Martellucci (ESTEC) and Dr Mike Willis (RAL) this workshop would not have happened. Additionally, support and services provided by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, UK in hosting the Action’s web site and producing the CD-ROMs is gratefully acknowledged. My personal gratitude is owed to Professors Trevor Clarkson (RA) and Paul Cannon (QinetiQ) and Mr Jon Wakeling (BT) for agreeing to enlighten the workshop with their respective perspectives of millimetre wave research and applications. Finally, a workshop cannot happen without quality contributions and presentations. For that I am grateful to all those of you who took part.

I hope that you will enjoy the proceedings and that you will find inspiration and relevant knowledge in the papers presented here.

Dr M. Filip

Chairman July 2002