About the Project
Supervisor: Dr Chao Xu
Imagine a world where there is Internet access and radar-assisted living and quantum security, wherever there is light. The objective of this project is to implement Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) in visible light bands.
ISAC is anticipated to serve as a pillar of 6G. However, the seamless integration of communication and sensing technologies remains challenging in the highly congested Radio Frequency (RF) bands. By contrast, the bandwidths available in the unlicensed Visible Light (VL) band ranging from 400 THz to 800 THz offers the potential of achieving both Gigabits-per-second (Gbps) communication and millimeter-precision sensing.
However, VL-ISAC still faces several challenges.
- Firstly, a signal emitted from LED will encounter both line-of-sight (LoS) and non-LoS (NLoS) paths, such as reflections from walls. This multipath phenomenon inevitably misleads localization and data detection.
- Secondly, although the LED-based illumination infrastructure can effectively support downlink data transfer, user-initiated uplink transmission remains a critical challenge.
- Thirdly, how to optimize conflicting objectives in communication and sensing functionalities remain an open problem.
This project will explore multi-carrier waveform designs for mitigating multi-path, optical Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS) for steering signal propagation as well as enabling backscatter-based uplink user data, machine learning techniques for multi-objective optimization.
This project will be supervised by Dr Chao Xu, who’s the first researcher from the University of Southampton to achieve the highest score 100/100 in the EU’s Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) fellowship proposal evaluation.
Entry requirements
A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent.
Fees and funding
We offer a range of funding opportunities for both UK and international students. Horizon Europe fee waivers automatically cover the difference between overseas and UK fees for qualifying students.
Competition-based Presidential Bursaries from the University cover the difference between overseas and UK fees for top-ranked applicants.
Funding will be awarded on a rolling basis, so apply early for the best opportunity to be considered.
For more information, please visit our postgraduate research funding pages.
How to apply
Apply now
You need to:
- choose programme type (Research), 2027/28, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences
- select Full time or Part time
- search for programme PhD Electronic & Electrical Engineering (7092)
- add name of the supervisor in section 2 of the application
Applications should include:
- research proposal
- your CV (resumé)
- 2 academic references
- degree transcripts/ certificates to date
- English language qualification (if applicable)
Contact us
Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences
If you have a general question, email our [contact details available in the full listing]
Project leader
For an initial conversation, [contact details available in the full listing].
The School of Electronics & Computer Science is committed to promoting equality, diversity inclusivity as demonstrated by our Athena SWAN award. We welcome all applicants regardless of their gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or age, and will give full consideration to applicants seeking flexible working patterns and those who have taken a career break. The University has a generous maternity policy, onsite childcare facilities, and offers a range of benefits to help ensure employees’ well-being and work-life balance. The University of Southampton is committed to sustainability and has been awarded the Platinum EcoAward.
