Evans Named IEEE Fellow

Professor Brian L. Evans was elevated to IEEE Fellow "for contributions to multicarrier communications and image display." In multicarrier communications, Prof. Evans has made significant contributions to wireless base station design and ADSL receiver design.

In wireless base stations, his primary contributions are in high-speed Internet access in metropolitan networks (WiMax) and next-generation cellular communications (long-term evolution). In particular, Prof. Evans’ developed a framework for downlink multiuser resource allocation that maximizes the overall bit rate to the mobile users and that has very low complexity (on the order of the number of users times the number of subcarriers). From the framework, Prof. Evans derived iterative and adaptive algorithms to reach the optimal allocation.

In ADSL receiver design, his primary contributions are in equalizer design and real-time implementation. In particular, he developed the first ADSL equalizer training algorithm that maximizes a measure of bit rate and is realizable in real-time fixed-point software. By only a change of software, certain ADSL chipsets were able to double their achievable bit rates. He also developed two new ADSL equalizer structures and their associated training algorithms.

In image display, his primary contributions are for home and office printers. In particular, he developed algorithms to assess and mitigate visible artifacts in image halftoning by error diffusion (a.k.a. noise-shaped feedback coding). His algorithms for artifact reduction are amenable for real-time fixed-point implementation in printer pipelines.

His current research interests are in radio frequency mitigation algorithms for wireless receivers, real-time testbed development for multichannel ADSL systems, image display algorithms for handheld reflective displays, and design automation tools for multicore embedded systems.