MURUGAPPAN THIRUGNANA

Irving, TX *****

acecmy@r.postjobfree.com 214-***-**** www.linkedin.com/in/mthirugnana/

TECHNICAL LEAD

Wireless Mobile Professional / Embedded Software Engineer

Excels in solving challenging problems through expertise in multiple technologies,

exceeding expectations.

Focused, dedicated, and performance-driven wireless mobile software professional with comprehensive

achievements in developing, managing and improving Mobile Radio SW design, development, integration, and

verification. Proven expertise in project planning from conception to completion, delivering projects that surpass

expectations and goals. Recognized for being a total team player and working with cross-functional teams to

achieve common goals.

Areas of Expertise Includes:

Modem Protocol Stack (3GPP - WCDMA/HSPA/LTE) RF Firmware / RF Calibration for Handsets

Embedded Software Radio Performance / Conformance Verification

DSP SW and Physical Layer algorithms System Integration

Speech and Audio Processing Satellite and Land Mobile Communication

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Languages C, C++, Assembly Languages of TI DSPs (C55x, C5x, C3x), ARM, HC11, ADSP 21xx

RTOS QNX, DSP BIOS and BlackBerry RTOS

Tools Emulators / Debuggers for TI DSPs, OMAPv Series, Code Composer Studio, Lauterbach,

Matlab, Simulink, Proprietary Graphical Tools for Analyzing Logs from Field

Comm Testers R&S CMW500, CMU200, Agilent 8960, Anritsu MD 8480

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

RESEARCH IN MOTION (later became BLACKBERRY), Irving, TX 2007 – 2014

Technical Lead, UMTS L1, BlackBerry Wireless Group

Worked on wide-range of projects, supporting programs, including BlackBerry LTE/HSPA+ Platform and 3G

Modem Platforms, and Z10 Variant – STL 100-1, meeting business development requirements.

Worked on internal modem platform for LTE and HSPA+ as part of BlackBerry Wireless Group; worked on

Advanced LTE Rx calibration for Intel Smarti4G transceiver and test time optimization for 3G BER verification

test, which resulted in:

o Achieving more than 50% calibration time reduction by improving PC-side calibration software, which

involved combining all LTE bands and channels per band into 1 huge macro-procedure and Smart

alignment feature of Rhode & Schwarz CMW500 tester.

o Reducing test time more than 50% by changing device firmware implementation to handle statistical 3G

BER verification criteria.

Integrated HSPA+ modem from 3rd party modem chipset vendor for Z10 Variant for parts of Europe, Middle

East, Asia, and Africa by leading 3G (HSPA+) RF Firmware integration, performance, and factory RF

calibration from RF firmware point of view.

Ensured RF calibration met specifications, as well as throughput targets (>95%) by working closely with

modem chipset vendor, RF HW group, and factory test / tool teams.

Addressed and resolved numerous issues related to Radio / RF in calibration and verification by working

closely with parties involved, as well as addressed test time optimizations on continuous basis.

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RESEARCH IN MOTION (Continued)

Triaged issues reported from field, IOT Labs and 3GPP certification tests and conducted detailed analysis,

which involved extensive log analysis and performance studies by looking at logs from all layers of Access

stratum (L1, RLC/MAC, and RRC), resulting in quick resolution of issues. Studied RRC signaling messages

from the network extensively.

Completed knowledge transfer to In-Market team for in-market maintenance, leading to team maintaining

product.

As part of Task force comprising Radio SW experts, conducted massive study of call performance under

various networks and configurations for Blackberry’s 1st UMTS phone; identified and addressed various radio

issues (e.g. Layer 3 Filtering of measurement reports sent to network from the UE), which led to optimizing

radio performance.

Participated in designing Dual Mode Modem SW Solution wherein 3G L1 from Freescale could be adapted

into BlackBerry’s Modem SW architecture; designed / modified interfaces, ensuring all multi-RAT

measurements were possible in various scenarios, including idle, Cell DCH and Cell FACH modes, and made

available to entities that needed them.

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS, Dallas, TX 2006 – 2007

Technical Lead, Dual Mode Protocol Stack (DMPS) Group 2007

Led build and release management of DMPS Software for all release families, enabling test teams to start

testing in timely manner.

Solution Delivery Engineer (Layer 1), UMTS Solution Delivery Group 2006 – 2007

Interfaced with customers helping integrate Protocol Stack with TI’s 3G Layer1 (L1) Solution by serving as 1

of 2 main technical contacts in TI for 1 of the customers.

Worked with customer and R&D investigating various 3G L1 interface issues, as well as studied messaging

across various layers and analyzed message sequence charts and logs, allowing customers to make 3G calls

with TI’s L1 Solution.

NOKIA MOBILE PHONES AND NOKIA ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS, Irving, TX

R&D Specialist, System Integration / DSP Group 2005 – 2006

Designed and implemented in DSP SW, an AGC (Automatic Gain Control) scheme with External LNA (Low

Noise Amplifier), improving sensitivity of GSM Enterprise product.

Conducted system level feasibility study of scheme with External LNA in addition to internal LNA in RF ASIC,

which led to implementation.

DSP SW Chief, TDMA Product Program ‘Phantom (2260)’ 2005

Accountable for and owned DSP SW and performance; engine came from Oulu, Finland; various power level

tunings were done in Dallas, Texas, resulting in successful product and generating millions in sales.

Participated in DSP SW technology transfer for TDMA phones from Oulu to Dallas, Texas, which allowed for

independent management of DSP SW in Dallas.

Senior R&D Engineer, System Integration / DSP Group 2002 – 2005

Investigated and resolved many issues related to DSP SW for TDMA phones when programs were in Post-

Engineering (PE) phase, resulting in quick resolution of issues.

Made detailed study on production tunings (Calibration) and DSP SW’s impact on tunings, and how tuning

process could be improved, which led to implementation of new and robust method for Tx power-level

tunings for TDMA phones, and resulted in saving tune parameters, with minimal interference to Tester SW.

Submitted Robust TX tunings as entry to Nokia Quality Award for 2005, which received significant recognition

from management.

Additional Positions Include:

DSP Specialist, Technology Platform Group

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ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE

NOKIA RESEARCH CENTER, Tampere, Finland

Research Engineer – Speech Coding Group

MOTOROLA PENANG (Land Mobile Product Sector), Malaysia – Advanced Development Group

Staff R&D Engineer

Senior R&D Engineer

CENTER FOR DEVELOPMENT OF TELEMATICS (CDOT), Bangalore, India

Research Engineer / Program Manager – DSP Group

EDUCATION

Masters: Master of Technology, Communication Systems, Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu

University), India

Bachelors: Bachelor of Engineering, Electronics and Communications, Thiagarajar College of

Engineering, Madurai Kamaraj University, India

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

LTE A-Z Reloaded, LTE Multi-RAT interworking with 4G / 3G / 2G

HSPA+, HSUPA, HSDPA – Design Details and System Engineering

WCDMA Overview / Mastering UMTS Radio Networks

GSM / GPRS Overview

CDMA2000 Overview

Exploring IP Telephony

Wireless LAN (Internal)

TI OMAP ARM / DSP, LEAD3 DSP (Basic and Advanced)

Coding for Fading Channels

Nokia, TI and BlackBerry Internal Trainings on LTE, WCDMA, GSM, TDMA Systems

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

Participated in US-TDMA standardization activities in TR45.3.5 of TIA committee for TTY (TeleType for

Disabled using mobile phones) issues.

Previous member of CCITT (now, ITU-T) Study Group 15 (SG15); part of party that worked on Signal

Processing. Participated in the SG15 meeting at Geneva.

STATUS

US Citizen

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ADDENDUM

PAPERS PUBLISHED

T. Murugappan, R. Asokan, 'A Single Chip DSP Implementation of 16 Kbps Subband Speech Codec and echo

canceler for VSAT Network', International Conference on Communication Systems-1990, Singapore.

T. Murugappan, A. Venkatesham, 'An optimized version of 16 Kbps CCITT ADPCM and echo canceler for

VSAT network’ IEEE International Conference on Personal Wireless communications, 1994, Bangalore, India.

T. Murugappan, 'An Algorithmic model of a Digital Land Mobile Radio using Matlab / Simulink', Motorola

Internal Symposium, 1997, Penang, Malaysia.

T. Murugappan, 'Speech Coders for Digital Land Mobile Radios', Motorola Internal Symposium, 1997, Penang,

Malaysia.

PATENTS

‘Speech Recognition at a Mobile Terminal’ was filed in 2005 by Nokia in USA.

'Delayed Transmission' was filed by Motorola in USA.

Patent disclosure 'Hardware short circuit finder through software' was selected as a defensive publication and

was published in the 'Motorola Technical Development publication’.

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