Claudio da Silva Assistant Professor The Bradley Dept of Electrical and Computer Eng Virginia Tech
Email: cdasilva at vt dot edu Office: 445 Durham Office Hours: Monday  12:00PM – 1:00 PM Friday      2:00PM - 3:00 PM

My research interests lie at the intersection of communication theory, statistical signal processing, and wireless network design.  Currently, my primary research focus is on the advancement of cognitive communications and dynamic spectrum access.  Specific research interests include single-radio and cooperative spectrum sensing, coexistence of heterogeneous wireless systems, and network scalability.  Additionally, I am interested in short-range communication networks, including ultra-wideband (UWB) and millimeter wave systems (60 GHz and beyond).  Current and past research in this area includes interference mitigation, channel estimation, signal acquisition, cooperation protocols, and phased arrays.  My work is primarily theoretical and can be directed to various practical applications.

ECE3614: Introduction to Communication Systems [Fall'05, Spring'07, Spring'08, Spring'09, Spring'10]
ECE5544: Coding Theory [Spring’06]
ECE5605: Stochastic Signals and Systems [Fall’06, Fall’07, Fall'08, Fall'09]
ECE2004: Electric Circuit Analysis [Fall’05, Spring’06, Fall'06, Spring'09 - Recitation sections]

Claudio R. C. M. da Silva is an Assistant Professor at the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. He received the B. S. and M. S. from the State University of Campinas, Brazil, in 1999 and 2001, respectively, and the Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 2005, all in electrical engineering.  His research interests are in the area of communication theory and systems.  He is affiliated with Wireless @ Virginia Tech.

Dr. da Silva received the best student paper award at the 2003 Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Conference on Ultra-Wide Band Systems and Technologies, and was awarded a fellowship from the California Institute of Telecommunications and Information Technology for the academic year 2001-2002. He spent the summer of 2004 working on ultra-wideband systems with the Corporate Technology Group of Intel Corp.  He holds an Extra Class amateur radio license.

- Journal publications
- Conference publications
- Other contributions

Journal Publications

- A. B. MacKenzie, J. H. Reed, P. Athanas, C. W. Bostian, R. M. Buehrer, L. A. DaSilva, S. W. Ellingson, Y. T. Hou, M. Hsiao, J.-M. Park, C. Patterson, S. Raman, and C. R. C. M. da Silva, "Cognitive radio and networking research at Virginia Tech," Proc. of the IEEE, vol. 97, pp. 660-688, April 2009.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva and B. Choi, "Non-asymptotic performance analysis of single-cycle detectors," IEEE Trans. Wireless Commun., vol. 7, pp. 3732-3737, Oct. 2008.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva and L. B. Milstein, "Coarse acquisition performance of spectral-encoded UWB communication systems in the presence of narrow-band interference," IEEE Trans. Commun., vol. 55, pp. 1374-1384, July 2007.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva and L. B. Milstein, "The effects of narrow-band interference on UWB communication systems with imperfect channel estimation," IEEE J. Sel. Areas Commun., vol. 24, pp. 717-723, April 2006.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva and L. B. Milstein, "Spectral-encoded UWB communication systems: Real-time implementation and interference suppression," IEEE Trans. Commun., vol. 53, pp. 1391-1401, Aug. 2005.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva and M. D. Yacoub, "A generalized solution for diversity combining techniques in fading channels," IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 50, pp. 46-50, Jan. 2002.

- M. D. Yacoub, C. R. C. M. da Silva, and J. E. Vargas B., "Second-order statistics for diversity-combining techniques in Nakagami-fading channels," IEEE Trans. Veh. Tech., vol. 50, pp. 1464-1470, Nov. 2001.

- M. D. Yacoub, J. C. S. S. Filho, and C. R. C. M. da Silva, "Simple closed-form solutions for level crossing rate and average fade duration in Nakagami-m equal gain combining," IEE Elect. Lett., vol. 38, pp. 1734-1735, Dec. 2002.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva and M. D. Yacoub, "Bit error analysis of equal gain combining reception for Nakagami fading channels: An exact formulation," IEE Elect. Lett., vol. 36, pp. 1147-1149, June 2000.

- M. D. Yacoub, C. R. C. M. da Silva, and J. E. Vargas B., "Second-order statistics for equal gain and maximal ratio diversity-combining reception," IEE Elect. Lett., vol. 36, pp. 382-384, Feb. 2000.

- M. D. Yacoub, C. R. C. M. da Silva, and J. E. Vargas B., "Level crossing rate and average fade duration for pure and threshold selection diversity-combining systems," Intl. J. Commun. Systems, vol. 14, pp. 897-907, Dec. 2001.

Conference Publications

- J. D. Reed, R. M. Buehrer, and C. R. C. M. da Silva, "An optimization approach to single-source localization using direction and range estimates," accepted for presentation at IEEE Global Comm. Conf., Honolulu, HI, 2009. 

- F. C. B. F. Muller, A. Klautau, and C. R. C. M. da Silva, "Performance analysis of a multiband OFDM UWB system in the presence of narrowband interference," accepted for presentation at IEEE Global Comm. Conf., Honolulu, HI, 2009. 

- W. C. Headley and C. R. C. M. da Silva, "Asynchronous SNR estimation of PSK/QAM modulated signals in flat fading channels," in Proc. IEEE Military Comm. Conf., Boston, MA, 2009, pp. 1-5.

- A. C. Malady and C. R. C. M. da Silva, "Clustering methods for distributed spectrum sensing in cognitive radio systems," in Proc. IEEE Military Comm. Conf., San Diego, CA, 2008, pp. 1-5.

- J. D. Reed, C. R. C. M. da Silva, and R. M. Buehrer, "Multiple-source localization using line-of-bearing measurements: Approaches to the data association problem," in Proc. IEEE Military Comm. Conf., San Diego, CA, 2008, pp.1-7.

- L. DaSilva, A. B. MacKenzie, C. R. C. M. da Silva, and R. W. Thomas, "Requirements of an open platform for cognitive network experiments," in Proc. IEEE Symposium New Frontiers Dynamic Spectrum Access Netw. (DySPAN), Chicago, IL, 2008, pp. 1-8.

- W. C. Headley, J. D. Reed, and C. R. C. M. da Silva, "Distributed cyclic spectrum feature-based modulation classification," in Proc. IEEE Wireless Comm. and Netw. Conf., Las Vegas, NV, 2008, pp. 1200-1204.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva, W. C. Headley, J. D. Reed, and Y. Zhao, "The application of distributed spectrum sensing and available resources maps to cognitive radio systems," in Proc. Information Theory and Applications Workshop, La Jolla, CA, 2008, pp. 53-57.

- Y. Zhao, D. Raymond, C. R. C. M. da Silva, J. H. Reed, and S. F. Midkiff, "Performance evaluation of radio environment map-enabled cognitive spectrum-sharing networks," in Proc. IEEE Military Comm. Conf., Orlando, FL, 2007, pp. 1-7.

- H. I. Volos, C.R. Anderson, W. C. Headley, R. M. Bueher, C. R. C. M. da Silva, and A. Nieto, "Preliminary UWB propagation measurements in an underground limestone mine," in Proc. IEEE Global Comm. Conf., Washington, DC, 2007, pp. 3770-3774.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva, B. Choi, and K. Kim, "Distributed spectrum sensing for cognitive radio systems," in Proc. Information Theory and Applications Workshop, La Jolla, CA, 2007, pp. 120-123.

- W. C. Headley, C. R. C. M. da Silva, and R. M. Buehrer, "Indoor location positioning of non-active objects using ultra-wideband radios," in Proc. IEEE Radio and Wireless Symposium, Long Beach, CA, 2007, pp 105-108.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva and L. B. Milstein, "Coarse acquisition performance of spectral-encoded UWB communication systems in the presence of narrow-band interference,” in Proc. Asilomar Conf. on Signals, Syst., and Comput., Pacific Grove, CA, 2005, pp. 1099-1103.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva and L. B. Milstein, "Performance of DS/CDMA UWB communication systems in the presence of narrow-band interference and imperfect channel estimation," in Proc. IEEE Global Comm. Conf., Dallas, TX, 2004, pp. 247-251.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva and L. B. Milstein, "Spectral-encoded UWB communication systems: Channel estimation in the presence of narrow-band interference," in Proc. IEEE Military Comm. Conf., Monterey, CA, 2004, pp. 1034-1039.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva and L. B. Milstein, "UWB communication system design: Narrow-band interference issues," The Communications Design Conference, ElectronicaUSA, San Francisco, CA, 2004.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva and L. B. Milstein, "Spectral-encoded UWB communication systems," in Proc. IEEE Ultra-Wideband Syst. and Tech., Reston, VA, 2003, pp. 96-100. Student paper prize.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva and M. D. Yacoub, "Diversity-combining analysis in a Nakagami environment," in Proc. IEEE Intl. Microwave and Optoelect. Conf., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1999, pp. 663-666.

Other contributions

- C. R. C. M. da Silva and Laurence B. Milstein (contributors), ''Design of synchronization algorithms for UWB systems,'' in Short-Range Wireless Communications: Emerging Technologies and Applications, R. Kraemer and M. D. Katz, Eds., Wiley, April 2009.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva and Laurence B. Milstein (contributors), ''WWRF white paper on UWB,'' in Technologies for the Wireless Future: Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF), vol. 3, K. David, Ed., Wiley, Nov. 2008.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva, ''Key elements in the development of dynamic spectrum access: Network scalability limits and spectrum sensing in realistic environments,'' presentation at the Centre for Telecommunications Value-Chain Research, Trinity College Dublin, October 2009.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva, ''A networked approach to spectrum sensing in cognitive radio systems,'' invited presentation at Microsoft Research's Cognitive Wireless Networking Summit, June 2008.

- D. G. Leeper, C. R. C. M. da Silva, E. Green, and H. Yamaguchi, "Spectral sculpting and a future-ready UWB," contribution to the IEEE P802.15 working group, doc. IEEE 802.15-04/0425r0, Sept. 2004.

- "Proposed modifications to Section 5.1.2 of the working document toward a preliminary draft new report on compatibility studies of systems using UWB technology with systems operating within radiocommunication services," Intel contribution to the ITU-R TG1/8 spectrum management group, Oct. 2004.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva, "Performance of spectral-encoded ultra-wideband communication systems in the presence of narrow-band interference," Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. Calif. San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 2005.

- C. R. C. M. da Silva, "Generalized solution for diversity combining schemes," M.S. thesis, State University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil, 2001.

Technical Program Committee Member

- IEEE Global Communications Conf., Symposium on Selected Areas in Communications, Miami, FL, 2010. 
- IEEE Global Communications Conf., Wireless Communication Symposium, Honolulu, HI, 2009.
- IEEE Global Communications Conf., Wireless Communication Symposium, New Orleans, LA, 2008.
- IEEE International Conf. on Communications, Wireless Communications Symposium, Dresden, Germany, 2009.
- IEEE International Conf. on Communications, Wireless Communications Symposium, Beijing, China, 2008.
- IEEE International Conf. on Communications, General Symposium, Istanbul, Turkey, 2006.
- IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conf., Physical layer track, Budapest, Hungary, 2009.
- IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conf., Physical layer track, Las Vegas, NV, 2008.
- IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conf., Physical and MAC track, Hong Kong, 2007.
- IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conf., Physical and MAC track, Las Vegas, NV, 2006.
- IEEE International Conf. on Ultra-Wideband, Vancouver, Canada, 2009.
- IEEE Symposium on New Frontiers in Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (DySPAN), Singapore, 2010.
- International Conf. on Cognitive Radio Oriented Wireless Networks and Communications (CrownCom), Singapore, 2008.
- IEEE International Symposium on Spread Spectrum Techniques and Applications, Manaus, Brazil, 2006.

Referee for various IEEE journals and conferences, including Transactions on Communications, Transactions on Wireless Communications, Journal on Selected Areas on Communications, Transactions on Vehicular Technologies, Communications Magazine, Communication Letters, Signal Processing Letters, Globecom, ICC, Milcom, and WCNC.