Description of the Action

The design of future wireless communication networks that cope with the ever-growing mobile data traffic as well as support varied and sophisticated services and applications in vertical sectors with a low environmental impact is recognized as a major technical challenge that European engineers face today. The COST Action NEWFOCUS will propose truly radical solutions with the potential to impact the design of future wireless networks. Particularly, NEWFOCUS aims to establish optical wireless communications (OWC) as an efficient technology that can satisfy the demanding requirements of backhaul and access network levels in beyond 5G networks. This also includes the use of hybrid links that associate OWC with radiofrequency or wired/fiber-based technologies.

Towards this vision, NEWFOCUS will carry out a comprehensive research programme under two major pillars. The first pillar is on the development of OWC-based solutions capable of delivering ubiquitous, ultra-high-speed, low-power consumption, highly secure, and low-cost wireless access in diverse application scenarios. The developed solutions will in particular support Internet-of-Things (IoT) for smart environments with applications in vertical sectors. The second pillar concerns the development of flexible and efficient backhaul/fronthaul OWC links with low latency and compatible with access traffic growth.

In addition to scientific and technological advances, NEWFOCUS will serve as a global networking platform through capacity building of all relevant stakeholders including universities, research institutions, major industry players, small medium enterprises, governmental bodies and non-governmental organisations. Within this rich consortium, NEWFOCUS will train experts to accompany related European industries for the standardisation and commercialisation of the OWC technology.


Our Action

Working Groups

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WG1 - Picture

WG1 - Ultra-Short-Range Links

Chair: Dr Luis Alves (PT)

Vice-Chair: Dr Pranciskus Vitta (LT)

WG1 focuses on the usage of optical wireless for device communication for ultra-high-speed links and sub-meter applications. These entail inter and intra-chip communications, high performance computing systems, as well as device to device communications in hyper dense IoT scenarios, such as wireless body-area networks with medical application.

WG2 - Short-Range Links

Chair: Prof Nobby Stevens (BE)

Vice-Chairs: Dr Xiaodan Pang (SE) and Dr Giulio Cossu (IT)

WG2 aims at the design of OWC-based solutions for indoor wireless access and massive IoT applications. The deployment of intensity modulated artificial optical sources, such as LEDs, enables infrastructures and sensors to communicate with mobile entities, resulting in ubiquitous indoor location-based services, together with wireless communication capacity.

WG2 - Picture
WG3 - Picture

WG3 - Medium-Range Links

Chair: Prof Stanislav Zvanovec (CZ)

Vice-Chair: Prof Beatriz Ortega (ES)

WG3 aims to develop practical high-reliability Visible Light Communications (VLC)-based solutions for smart-cities and intelligent transportation systems, first- and last-mile access and backhaul/fronthaul wireless networks, hybrid free-space optics/radiofrequency adaptive wireless connections, as well as underwater communications for sensor networks.

WG4 - Long-Range Links

Chair: Ms Amita Shrestha (DE)

Vice-Chair: Dr Milica Petkovic (RS)

WG4 aims to develop airborne and satellite FSO links for deployment in the backhaul/fronthaul wireless networks infrastructure and long-range non-LoS ultra violet links. It will also deal with space-to-ground optical data links, inter-satellite communication links, ground-to-air and air-to-air links, and long-range ultraviolet transmissions.

WG4 - Picture

Action Details

CSO Approval date: 24/03/2020

Start of Action: 08/09/2020

End of Action: 07/09/2024

Duration: 4 years

35 COST Members

Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA), Bulgaria (BG), Croatia (HR), Cyprus (CY), Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Estonia (EE), Finland (FI), France (FR), Germany (DE), Greece (EL), Hungary (HU), Ireland (IE), Italy (IT), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Malta (MT), Montenegro (ME), Netherlands (NL), North Macedonia (MK), Norway (NO), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Serbia (RS), Slovakia (SK), Slovenia (SI), Spain (ES), Sweden (SE), Switzerland (CH), Turkey (TR), United Kingdom (UK).

1 COST Cooperating Member:

Israel (IL)

Steering Committee

Action Chair

Dr Ali Khalighi

Ecole Centrale Marseille, Institut Fresnel

France (FR)

ali.khalighi@fresnel.fr

Action Vice-Chair

Prof Zabih (Fary) Ghassemlooy

Northumbria University

United Kingdom (UK)

fary.ghassemlooy@unn.ac.uk

WG1 Chair

Dr Luis Alves

Instituto de Telecomunicações

Portugal (PT)

nero@ua.pt

WG2 Chair

Prof Nobby Stevens

KU Leuven

Belgium (BE)

nobby.stevens@kuleuven.be

WG3 Chair

Prof Stanislav Zvanovec

Czech Technical University in Prague

Czech Republic (CZ)

xzvanove@fel.cvut.cz

WG4 Chair

Ms Amita Shrestha

German Aerospace Center

Germany (DE)

amita.shrestha@dlr.de

Grant Awarding Coordinator

Dr Alexis Dowhuszko
Aalto University (FI)

alexis.dowhuszko@aalto.fi

Training Coordinator

Dr Qi Zhang

Aarhus University

Denmark (DK)

qz@ece.au.dk

Science Communication Manager

Dr Anna Maria Vegni

Università degli Studi Roma Tre

Italy (IT)

annamaria.vegni@uniroma3.it

Science Dissemination Coordinator

Prof Rafael Perez-Jiminez

Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Spain (ES)

rafael.perez@ulpgc.es

Grant Holder Manager

Dr Sarah Habibi

Ecole Centrale Méditerranée

France (FR)

sarah.habibi@centrale-med.fr

Action Science Officer

Dr Ralph Stuebner

COST Association

Belgium (BE)

ralph.stuebner@cost.eu

Action Administrative Officer

Ms Rose Cruz Santos

COST Association

Belgium (BE)

rose.cruzsantos@cost.eu

How to join

New participants from the 36 COST countries currently participating in the NEWFOCUS Action, as well as new participants from other countries within and outside the COST Network are welcome and strongly encouraged to join NEWFOCUS during the entire duration of the Action.

The ideal procedure to join the Action is through a recommendation from a current member of the Action. This member should inform the Action Chair Ali Khalighi (ali.khalighi@fresnel.fr) about the interested new member and justify in a clear way the relevance of the expertise of the candidate and the benefit of the network regarding the main objectives and tasks of the Action, specified in the MoU. In case the candidate is from a country that does not take part in this Action yet, the COST National Coordinator of that country should first sign the MoU in order to make possible this membership.

For more information on participation in COST Actions: