Arogyaswami Paulraj: The Professor Who Made 5G Possible
5G has been the big enabler of Industry 4.0 in manufacturing, providing the enhanced connectivity and operability that unlocks the true potential and impact of automation, robotics, data, digital twins and AI.
It’s dramatically changing how manufacturers approach design, engineering and the broader supply chain in industries spanning aerospace to food to automotive to fashion.
But do you know the story behind it?
The existence of the 5G we know today is owed to the incredible work of one man: Arogyaswami Paulraj, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.
A groundbreaking inventor and celebrated scientist, his work paved the way for the rapid advancement of wireless communication.
From the Navy to the net
Arogyaswami was born into a large family in Pollachi, India, with his father serving in the Indian Navy. Arogyaswami followed in his footsteps, serving from 1965 to 1991.
During this period he was a technological trailblazer, establishing three key R&D labs for the Indian government and leading the development of the APSOH anti-submarine sonar system.
For these contributions, he was awarded India’s third-highest civilian honour: the prestigious Padma Bhushan Award.
Arogyaswami then left the Indian seas to travel to America, joining Stanford University as a postdoctoral researcher. He grew fascinated by wireless communication, making it the centre of his research, leading to his groundbreaking invention of Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO) wireless technology.
Why MIMO matters for manufacturing
MIMO uses a wireless propagation phenomenon called multipath to boost coverage performance. This phenomenon occurs when wireless signals bounce off objects including cars, trees and buildings, leading the signals to arrive at the receiver at varying times.
In a conventional SISO or non-MIMO system, when a signal and reflected signal arrive at the receiver at different times they become destructive, taking out small pieces of each other and making it difficult for the receiver to decode.
In a MIMO system, these multiple signals instead enhance the desired components and reject interfering ones. The multipath energy is used constructively to enhance the signal rather than degrade it.
In a nutshell, without MIMO there is no 5G or high-speed Wi-Fi. And without that, with so many moving parts and different integrated technologies, manufacturers would not be able to utilise technology at the scale they do currently.
Setting up communication between devices and sophisticated digital twins of factory machines or systems, for example, would be impossible.
So, in summary, modern-day manufacturers owe a lot to Professor Arogyaswami.
Arogyaswami: Driving India’s digital growth
Since the dawn of his career on the high seas, Arogyaswami has always helped enrich the technological future of India.
The widespread availability of mobile wireless networks over the past two decades thanks to his invention has dramatically transformed the nation.
In the early 2000s, the network was 2G, evolving to 3G in the late 2000s, to 4G in the past five years. Now, 5G is on the horizon and, once rolled out en masse, it will help bridge the country’s rural digital divide, create new employment opportunities and foster manufacturing innovation.
5G will help make India’s growth into a manufacturing superpower possible, cementing Arogyaswami as one of the most influential inventors and academics of the digital age.
He is undoubtedly worth celebrating as Manufacturing Digital’s latest Lifetime of Achievement.
To read the full article in the magazine, click HERE.
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