Inatel - Instituto Nacional de Telecomunicações

Instituto Nacional de Telecomunicações (Inatel) is a private nonprofit engineering college that offers telecommunication, computer, biomedical and control engineering degrees. Founded in 1965, Inatel is one of the most recognized centers for education, research and development in telecommunication in Brazil. Inatel also has a Service Center called Inatel Competence Center. There are about 650 employees to develop projects together companies, such as Hardware and Software Development. Inatel is a Brazilian reference on the transfer of technology from academy to industry, promoting extensive interaction with the IT market. This institute experience on this process, that lasts more than 30 years, can be verified, among other examples, by the following projects: • In 2003, Inatel, in a partnership with the Brazilian government and with the largest broadcasting company in Brazil, started a project to develop Digital TV modulators and transmitters. This project has strengthened Inatel ability to transfer technology to the market, resulting in a family of Digital TV transmitters compatible with ATSC (American), DVB-T (European) and ISDB-Tb (Nipo-Brazilian) standards. Also in this partnership, low-cost set-top-boxes for the ISDB-T standard were developed, allowing the integration of this technology in all segments of the Brazilian society. • In 2005 and 2006, Inatel led a consortium comprised of Federal University of Santa Catarina, State University of Campinas and Federal University of Technology in Paraná. The aim was to develop the Brazilian System Digital TV Innovative Modulation (Modulação Inovadora do Sistema Brasileiro de TV Digital – MI-SBTVD), a solution for the physical layer of the SBTVD to achieve higher performance than existing standards. The success of this project has clearly shown Inatel ability to coordinate the work of several institutions towards an innovative goal. • In 2009 and 2010, Inatel led the Reception System with Diversity and Intelligent Antennas for Digital TV (Sistema de Recepção com Diversidade e Antenas Inteligentes para TV Digital – SIRDAI-TVD) project. The goal of this endeavor, carried out alongside State University of Campinas, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Federal University of Technology in Paraná, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul and Mackenzie, consisted of the development of a solution to enable Digital TV reception at places away from metropolitan areas. The project was funded by RNP and also resulted in the development of real-time audio and video encoders for high, standard and low (for mobile devices) definitions. Equipment created from the project results are still currently being produced and sold by Inatel partners. • Inatel efforts for consolidating the Brazilian Digital TV broadcasting industry has continued with the development of a multiplexing system for the ISDB-T standard. This project main innovation was complete independency from other computing systems for the process of Broadcasting Transport Stream (BTS) creation. • Inatel has also developed a standard for BTS compression and decompression for distributing Digital TV signals using satellite links and links between studios and broadcasters. The used bandwidth has been 6 MHz, which is more efficient that the conventional 21 MHz bandwidth used for those types of communication. • In 2013, Inatel finished the ISCOD project funded by FINEP and carried out in partnership with Hitachi Kokusai Linear. The aim of the project was to develop video coders and decoders that could comply with the resolutions required by the Brazilian Digital TV System (Sistema Brasileiro de TV Digital – SBTVD), which are SDTV, EDTV, HDTV and LDTV. • Inatel finished in 2016 the project of a mixed-signal integrated circuit for sensors. It was funded by BNDES and developed to increase Sense Eletrônica Ltda company products portfolio. Up to 24 inductive proximity sensor models will use the developed integrated circuit. • Currently, Inatel is in a partnership with the Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication Brazilian Ministry, with FUNTTEL and with FINEP. The Radiocommunication Reference Center (Centro de Referência em Radiocomunicações – CRR) is the result from this partnership, developing applied sciences projects and development of technologies. The aim of the Center is to strengthen the Brazilian market on the radio communication sector, improve human resources on the most recent radio communication technologies and to certify products and processes involving radio communication. • Inatel is a EMBRAPII Unit since 2016 in Radiofrequency and Digital Communication; • Inatel is a Competence Center in 5G and 6G by EMBRAPII.