The Radio and Optical Communications Laboratory in Dublin City University was established in 1998 and is one of the main research laboratories within the School of Electronic Engineering. The main goal of the Radio and Optical Communications Group is to focus on the design, simulation and demonstration of new technologies for future broadband photonic communication systems, and the laboratory is equipped with all the necessary test and measurement equipment needed for this research.
The group has raised over €14 million in direct funding from Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, European Union, The Irish Higher Education Authority, European Space Agency, and industrial contracts to undertake research, and 35 graduate research students have completed their research projects within the Radio and Optical Communications Laboratory (30 at PhD level and 5 at Masters level). Students graduating from the group have moved to post-doc positions at leading international research centres such as Tyndall National Institute, University of Sydney, University College London, University of Western Australia, and Eindhoven University, in addition to positions with SME and multinational companies in Ireland and abroad (e.g. Intel, IBM, Intune Networks, Eblana Photonics, Huawei, Hibernia Atlantic, Arran Healthcare, Odenberg Technologies, Ericsson).
The research within the Radio and Optical Communications Laboratory has always been undertaken with significant interaction with industrial partners and this has resulted in the work having substantial potential for commercialisation, with 12 patents granted or filed based on research carried out in the group.
The group has also carried out a large number of research contracts directly funded by industry (e.g. ESAT Telecom, Corvis Corporation, Intune Networks, Lucent Technologies, and IBM), and there is one spin-off company Pilot Photonics, based on technologies developed in the Radio and Optical Communications Group.
The research carried in the Laboratory involves significant collaboration both with national and international academic partners through both national and EU funding mechanisms and the Laboratory has made significant research developments in the areas of: High capacity communication systems, Optical pulse generation and characterization, Nonlinear Optics for ultra fast all-optical processing, Hybrid radio/fibre systems, Wavelength tuneable lasers for optical packet switching, Generation of Optical Frequency Combs, Data Centre Interconnects.