General information
Organisation
The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) is a key player in research, development and innovation in four main areas :
• defence and security,
• nuclear energy (fission and fusion),
• technological research for industry,
• fundamental research in the physical sciences and life sciences.
Drawing on its widely acknowledged expertise, and thanks to its 16000 technicians, engineers, researchers and staff, the CEA actively participates in collaborative projects with a large number of academic and industrial partners.
The CEA is established in ten centers spread throughout France
Reference
2026-41062
Description de l'unité
The internship will involve two laboratories within the Wireless Technologies Department (STSF) of the Systems Division (DSYS) at CEA-Leti:
- The ‘Radio Signal, Protocols and Platforms' Laboratory (LS2PR) is responsible for the research and implementation of advanced wireless systems. Its areas of research cover the design of algorithms (e.g., definition of waveforms and associated radio signal processing) and protocols (e.g. spectrum access), the optimisation and orchestration of resources for communication, computing and control within wireless networks, connectivity architectures, and applications such as localisation, radar, and mapping. The solutions developed address the needs of both specific applications and future generations of cellular networks.
-The ‘Antennas, Propagation and Inductive Coupling' Laboratory (LAPCI) develops innovative solutions in the fields of antenna systems, electromagnetic propagation and microwave electronics, across a wide frequency spectrum ranging from a few MHz up to a few hundreds of GHz. Drawing on international collaborations and dedicated state-of-the-art experimental facilities (anechoic chambers, emulators and channel probers), the laboratory works on challenges related to the miniaturisation, integration and reconfigurability of wireless devices, as well as radio propagation in challenging environments, covering a variety of applications associated with 6G, the IoT, and radio-frequency sensors.
Position description
Category
Engineering science
Contract
Internship
Job title
Realistic radio propagation simulations for channel charting applications
Subject
In the frame of this internship, the aim is to develop a deterministic radio propagation simulator capable of addressing complex scenarios characterised by dense multipath and a large number of nodes (mobile users and base stations). Once calibrated using real-world measurements, this tool will enable the testing of new signal processing approaches, aimed at representing propagation channels in a compact manner by extracting their underlying ‘geometric' structure. These new channel charts can then be utilised within future distributed communication networks, for example to provide localisation and detection functionalities, or to proactively adapt network/radio resources to actual local needs.
Contract duration (months)
6
Job description
This internship is part of research activities conducted at the host department, leveraging new representations of the wireless channels for future communication networks, as follows:
- One first aim is to design and develop a radio propagation simulation bench, which jointly account for multipath and backscattering phenomena in complex multi-node scenarios. Such simulation tools are essential for accurately capturing the influence of the environment geometry—such as the location of surrounding objects—on radio wave propagation, which cannot be explicitly represented by conventional statistical channel models. The development of this tool will rely on a deterministic ray tracing simulator called Sionna, an open-source Python library developed by NVidia and dedicated to research. The issued simulations will then be analyzed and calibrated by means of experimental channel sounding data, which were preliminarily collected in a reference indoor environment at CEA.
- One second goal will be to make use of these calibrated simulations to explore and illustrate the potential of new “channel charting” techniques. The latter consist in representing, learning, and categorizing « similar » network operating conditions, by projecting high-dimensional vectors of radio parameters (e.g., channel state information estimated at mobile receivers over multiple frequencies wrt. several base stations (BSs)) into much lower-dimensional spaces, without requiring explicit insite labeling (e.g., without necessitating the user’s (UE) position). Recent advances in machine learning have made it possible to extract underlying geometric properties among the high-dimensional channel datasets. These compact representations can thus be further leveraged to proactively adjust network configurations and radio resources in Distributed Multiple Inputs Multiple Outputs (D-MIMO) systems or to localize connected users and sense the physical environment, etc.
By integrating modelling, scientific programming, numerical simulation and algorithmic validations, this internship will contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between propagation and environment geometry in the context of radio transmissions, as well as its exploitation in next-generation networks.
Applicant Profile
- Level of study
- Currently pursuing a fifth-year university degree (i.e., Research-oriented Master’s 2 or Last year of Engineering School);
- Required skills
- Solid knowledge of radio signal processing;
- Knowledge of wireless systems and technologies;
- Proficiency in scientific programming (Python) and most common machine learning tools.
Position location
Site
Grenoble
Job location
France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Isère (38)
Location
Grenoble
Candidate criteria
Prepared diploma
Bac+5 - Master 2
Recommended training
Radio signal processing; Wireless communication technologies and systems; Electronics;
PhD opportunity
Oui
Requester
Position start date
18/01/2027
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