Prof. De’s research interests are in communication systems and networks, with emphasis on performance modeling and analysis. Current directions include energy harvesting and sustainable communication networks, broadband wireless access, spectrum sharing, and smart IoT communications. He is a leading researcher in cross-layer network resource optimization and has made a lasting impact in mobile communications with his ground-breaking research on heterogeneous wireless network load balancing. His pioneering research outcomes have led to highly impactful technologies. Some of his outstanding and impactful technology research and research translation highlights are the following:
Prof. De has made a seminal contribution is in optimizing resource allocation for broadband mobile services through his proposed integrated cellular and ad hoc relaying for traffic load balancing, network layer cooperation, cognitive multi-homing, and traffic and energy load balancing towards green cellular networks. His proposed hybrid cellular and ad hoc relaying architecture has had a significant impact on modern wireless networking concepts, including heterogeneous wireless network communications with user equipment having multiple radio interfaces such as Long-Term Evolution and WiFi, mobile relaying, network traffic offloading, modern cellular frequency planning with Universal Frequency Reuse and other hybrid architectures, and underlay device-to-device communications in today’s mobile and vehicular communications.
Prof. De has made significant contribution in cross-layer optimization for energy efficiency in wireless sensor networks and Internet of Things (IoT). He is one of the few pioneers with trail-blazing work in early 2000s on systems-level optimization for resource-efficient wireless network communications. Considering the node-level vulnerabilities, he proposed the first-of-the-kind meshed multipath (link-disjoint but not node-disjoint) routing, which achieved significantly higher end-to-end throughput in failure-prone wireless sensor networks. Dr. De also developed the virtual localization concept, where he fundamentally derived tight bounds on Euclidean distance between any two nodes from the hop count between them, and vice versa, in a multihop wireless sensor network. These impactful contributions have created the pathways to sustainable IoT communications. Further, his recent research on learning-aided ‘smart IoT’ has led to multiple impactful interdisciplinary technology developments towards sustainable environment monitoring and control.
His experimental RF energy routing and energy harvesting communication studies have highlighted the unique circuit-and-systems features/requirements/directions, including poor RF harvesting receiver sensitivity, nonlinear harvesting efficiency, constant power charging, energy relay optimization, and distributed beamforming. These findings have prompted reevaluation of the feasibility and shortcomings of basic propositions on Wireless Powered Communication Networks and Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer.
Besides citation-based impact of his research, his proposed multicriteria routing optimization was US/EU/World patented and monetized. His low-power IoT innovations have generated several patents (2 granted Indian patents, pending 10 Indian and 6 US/WO patents) and have drawn significant interest in indigenous technology development. Two of his inventive learning-based sensing and data pruning technologies have been implemented in campus installations and transferred to two technology startups. His smart IoT research translation outcomes have been selected among top 10 indigenous technology demonstrations.
Besides making deep technological and societal impacts through research, Prof. De’s professional stature is exemplified by his distinguished honors and awards, and association on several professional boards/committees.
