L-R Huawei Founder, Ren Zhengfei and Dr Erdal Arikan
JOHANNESBURG – HUAWEI has presented a special award to Turkish professor, Dr Erdal Arikan, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the development of communications technology.
Arikan is the inventor of 5G polar codes. Polar codes are a 5G standard.
More than 100 of Huawei’s in-house scientists were also honoured for their work on basic research and standards. In particular, the company wanted to recognise their successful research in 5G New Radio and their eight groundbreaking innovations, including new waveforms and new coding schemes.
The recognition by Huawei comes as the world gets ready to move to the next generation (fifth) mobile network.
The old set of codes that had been running 3G and 4G will not support the faster 5G download speeds.
Professor Arikan’s Polar Code and the “LDPC” (low-density parity check) coding method are the frontrunners for new global industry standards being overseen by the 3GPP (third Generation Partnership Project).
Eric Xu, Huawei’s rotating Chairman, said 5G standards were the result of a worldwide effort to drive progress in basic research and wireless communications technology.
For these standards to take shape, it took more than ten years of hard work from tens of thousands of scientists and engineers, along with dozens of companies around the world, he said.
“We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Professor Arikan, as well as his peers in academia, fellow scientists, and Huawei employees who have all contributed to 5G,” Xu said.
He was speaking in Shenzhen where Huawei honoured the inventor.
Huawei first came across the Bilkent University professor’s coding method for 5G data transmission a decade ago. Starting in 2010, Huawei began working Arikan to take polar codes from theory to practical application.
Huawei founder, Ren Zhengfei, praised Arikan for his work in 5G.
He said Huawei would “take a page from his book,” and keep working hard to make its own contribution to humanity.
Arikan said the invention of polar codes was a group effort and one that testified to the capabilities and innovation of his team.
“It gives me pleasure to acknowledge that, without the vision and technical contributions of Huawei directors and engineers, polar codes would not have made it from lab to a standard in less than ten years,” the professor added.
Xu hailed the birth of 5G standards as only the beginning of a new journey.
The company pledged to continue working hard to ensure that 5G technology – including polar codes – creates greater value for society, and sooner.
“At the same time, we hope that the close collaboration between companies and the academia, like the one between Huawei and Professor Arikan, will continue, and give rise to more scientific marvels that drive the development of the ICT industry and society as a whole,” Xu added.
– CAJ News
