Entry Date:
October 11, 2012

MIT Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing (Wireless@MIT)


The goal of the MIT Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing (Wireless@MIT) is to develop next-generation wireless network technologies and mobile computing systems.

Wireless@MIT will involve more than 50 MIT faculty members, research staff and graduate students across different labs and academic departments, and will work with seven founding industry affiliates: Amazon, Cisco, Intel, MediaTek, Microsoft Research, STMicroelectronics and Telefonica.

The features of the Center are:

(1) An interdisciplinary focus that brings together over fifteen MIT professors and their groups, conducting research in networking, communication and information theory, systems, security, hardware, algorithms, and societal applications (transportation, health care, and autonomous systems) .

(2) A strong industrial partnership and an emphasis on influencing and impacting standards and products.

(3) A neutral ground where companies, academics, and government representatives can discuss the future of the wireless industry.

Bringing together researchers and companies from across the wireless ecosystem is a distinctive feature of Wireless@MIT, and will enable a more holistic approach to mobile system design. Currently, companies involved in wireless -- from application vendors and content providers to network operators, equipment manufacturers and radio chipset developers -- operate more or less independently of each other.

One large-scale effort in the planning stages is a prototype wireless network being developed for the MIT campus. This prototype, which is envisioned to provide functional network service to users, will demonstrate cross-layer innovations in spectrum usage, mobile connectivity, reliability and security.