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Multi-user delay Doppler communications

This scholarship is part of an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) project (DE260101787) titled “Multi-user Delay-Doppler Communications” led by Dr Swaroop Gopalam.

This PhD project will develop communication systems that are resilient to high Doppler for next generation 6G broadband networks, by leveraging the delay-Doppler domain.

Key details

  • 20268214
  • PhD
  • Applications close on 31 October 2026
  • Domestic
  • Engineering
  • $39,700 p.a.

Prior to 5G, each new generation of mobile communication system has adopted a new modulation scheme driven by the need to support emerging applications. The current orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation scheme (used in 4G and 5G) suffers severe performance degradation at high frequencies and high mobility – the need is for a new modulation scheme, that is fundamentally designed for fast varying channels.

An emerging way forward is the concept of delay-Doppler (DD) communications. The DD domain has long been used in radar for range and velocity estimation. Only recently, it was realised that communication waveforms can also be represented in this domain. This is a paradigm shift.

The DD domain is much better suited for fast varying channels (induced by high frequency and high mobility) because wireless channels represented in this domain exhibit beneficial properties – sparsity, stability (non-fading) and predictability, that do not hold in the time-frequency domain modulation used in 5G.

The successful candidate will contribute to:

  • DD channel modelling
  • waveform design
  • multi-user resource allocation.

The work involves:

  • mathematical modelling
  • signal processing
  • simulations in MATLAB (or Python).

The successful student will be supervised by:

  • Dr Swaroop Gopalam (principal supervisor)
  • Professor Stephen Hanly (associate supervisor).

The student will work in the Future Communications research group in the School of Engineering which consists of other world class researchers including Professor Iain Collings and Professor Hazer Inaltekin (who can also be associate supervisors).

Availability

This scholarship is available to eligible candidates to undertake a direct entry three-year PhD program.

Awards will only be available to applicants who, at the time of application are an Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident, or a New Zealand citizen (domestic student).

The ideal candidate will have:

  • a background in one or more of:
    • electrical engineering
    • telecommunications
    • signal processing
    • applied mathematics
  • strong mathematical skills
  • experience with MATLAB and/or Python programming
  • knowledge of digital communications and signal processing.

Components

The scholarship comprises:

  • a tuition fee offset/scholarship
  • a living allowance stipend.

The value of this stipend scholarship is $39,700 per annum (full time, indexed) for three years.

How to apply

Before submitting your application, submit an expression of interest (EOI) to Professor Stephen Hanly at stephen.hanly@mq.edu.au.

Your EOI should include:

  • your Curriculum Vitae (CV)
  • academic transcripts (undergraduate and postgraduate)
  • a brief statement of research interests (one page maximum)
  • contact details of two academic referees.