Professor Tom Marzetta Receives Test of Time Paper Award

Dr. Marzetta wearing a dark navy jacket, light blue shirt and yellow and light blue striped tie.

Clark Distinguished Chair Professor Tom Marzetta has received the IEEE Communications Society Test of Time Paper Award for Advances in Communications. His paper, Cell-Free Massive MIMO Versus Small Cells, was published in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, Volume: 16, Issue: 3, March 2017.

The co-authors of the paper are Hien Quoc Ngo (Queen’s University, Belfast), Alexei Ashikhmin (Nokia/Bell Labs), Hong Yang (Nokia/Bell Labs), and Erik G. Larsson(Linköping University, Sweden).

The Test of Time Paper Award for Advances in Communications is presented to outstanding papers published in the IEEE Communications Society publication in the previous 15 years. Winners are chosen based on their innovative approaches to solving challenges related to the field of communications engineering.

Marzetta’s paper looks ahead at the next generation of wireless, which is expected to begin in 2030. The current cellular wireless generation, 5G, exists in Massive Multiple-Input/Multiple-Output (MIMO). This physical layer of technology uses a high number of small, low-power, base-station antennas to serve millions of users by forming selective beams of information.

A new technology theory that will contribute to the next generation of wireless is Cell-Free Massive MIMO, which replaces conventional base-stations with service antennas placed at intervals over an entire city. In this case, the city itself functions as a cell. This is the basis for his award-winning paper.

Marzetta joined the ECE Department in the fall of 2025, after eight years as a faculty member at NYU. Prior to joining NYU, Marzetta directed the Communications and Statistical Sciences Department at Bell Labs, where his research in telecommunications led to his development of Massive MIMO, a fundamental part of the fifth generation of wireless. He has received extensive recognition for his work in this field and was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2020.

The award will be presented in December at the IEEE GLOBECOMM 2026 in Macau S.A.R, China.

Published October 27, 2026