
Alan Carlton
Alan Carlton is Vice President, InterDigital and Head of InterDigital International Labs Organization spanning Europe and Asia. In these regions, Alan is responsible for R&D activities in the areas of 5G and IoT. Alan has led his organization to over a dozen major collaborative project wins. He founded and currently leads the oneTRANSPORT initiative, one of the largest Smart City projects in the UK. In the area of 5G Alan's research interests include next generation internet, advanced applications of NFV/SDN, RAN evolution and Air Interface technologies.
Alan has more than 25 years wireless industry experience spanning every generation of wireless. Prior to InterDigital, he held senior positions at Nortel, Siemens, and several wireless startups both in Europe and United States. Alan is an EEE graduate of the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow and also holds an MSc. in Communications & Signal Processing from Imperial College, London. Alan holds many patents covering a diverse range of wireless technology areas. He is a regularly invited speaker at wireless industry events where he speaks on many of the topics covered in this Computerworld blog.
The opinions expressed in this blog are those of Alan Carlton and do not necessarily represent those of IDG Communications, Inc., its parent, subsidiary or affiliated companies.


How polar codes work
Polar codes break the wheel somewhat in the field of channel coding with an unorthodox approach that resembles some of the operations more conventionally seen in the standard communication chains between the baseband and radio front...
The 5G New Radio: 3GPP standards progress
An examination of the 5G New Radio – will this new radio really be a true paradigm shift away from 4G or simply more of an overhaul and a refresh for a new generation?

The 5G core network: 3GPP standards progress
An examination of the future of the core network as we move towards 5G.

Challenges in realizing the promises of the holistic edge
One thing that appears certain is that the holistic edge will manifest as a somewhat diverse beast that will present far-reaching challenges for innovators well beyond the relatively simple solutions of today.

Enabling the multiverse of mini-internets
In order for the Device Virtualization vision to be realized, Alan Carlton explains how the edge will need to transform into a different type of mini-internet that behaves just a little differently than the wider internet

HTTP and DNS in a 5G World
HTTP and DNS are almost established as household name protocols having been around since the earliest days of the World Wide Web but, like everything else in 5G, some changes are coming.

The future is not the cloud or the fog: it is actually the SEA!
5G is in the works and one of its primary goals is actually to deliver a ubiquitous, ultra-reliable, low latency and high data rate system. 5G will very likely be a key enabler for device virtualization.

Real world challenges between us and the Internet of Things
Alan Carlton examines the real world challenges between our today and the many promises of the Internet of Things (IoT) tomorrow; specifically in the Smart City space.

Big Data will enable better network and application intelligence in 5G
5G requirements clearly call out the need to support the IoT and the Big Data it produces. This article explores Big Data, how it can improve network and application intelligence, and how it will all work in 5G.

5G reality check: Where is 3GPP on standardization?
Good progress is being made in the key standardization efforts around 5G, but there is still a long way to go with Phase 1 standardization.

Surprise! Polar codes are coming in from the cold
Polar codes appear to have been accepted into a certain role in 5G, driven perhaps more by political forces than immediate differentiation.