Industry consortia, research groups, special interest groups and the like are vital to promoting growth in specific technology sectors. The more widespread the technology, the more important, and more numerous, these collaborations are.
With telecommunications being such a thriving sector in virtually all end markets, there is no shortage of such initiatives in this field. The following are just a handful of the interesting areas of research and development currently under way.
MODE-GAP
This is a European R&D project supported under the European Union 7th Framework programme. Based on the premise that current technology will reach its capacity limits within 20 years, the project’s goal is to develop the disruptive technology and concepts needed to enhance communications infrastructure a hundredfold to avert network gridlock and reduce energy consumption.
The project is halfway through a four-year programme, and its mission is to develop transmission technologies based on specialist long-haul transmission fibres and associated enabling technologies.
Key organisations comprising MODE-GAP include Nokia Siemens Networks, the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre, the University of Aston’s Institute of Photonic Technologies, ESPCI ParisTech, OFS Fitel Denmark APS, Phoenix Photonics, the COBRA Institute at Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Eblana Photonics, and the Tyndall National Institute of University College Cork.
A key enabling technology in this arena is space division multiplexing, which the consortium has demonstrated to be capable of transmitting 57,6 Tbps (Terabits per second) over commercially deployed multi-mode optical fibre. This amounts to the staggering capacity to carry roughly double what is required for the entire world’s population to be on simultaneous phone calls.
Myriad-RF
Pioneered by UK-based Lime Microsystems, this open-source RF project is intended to widen the community of developers and aid RF innovation. Launched as a non-profit initiative, Myriad-RF aims to give both hobbyists and experienced design engineers a range of low-cost RF boards and free design files available for general use.
Myriad-RF boards use field programmable RF (FP-RF) transceivers to operate on all mobile broadband standards – LTE, HSPA+, CDMA, 2G – including all regional variants; and any wireless communications frequency between 0,3 and 3,8 GHz. This includes the regulated, licensed bands and unlicensed/whitespace spectra.
Designs hosted on myriadrf.org will initially come from Lime and close partners, but the initiative seeks to increase involvement and design contribution from the general RF design community – both hobbyists and professional system designers.
SEP2.0 for the home area network
According to Tim Dry, senior marketing manager – Smart Grid at Renesas Electronics America, the next 12 months will see a breakthrough for Smart Energy 2.0 Protocol (SEP2.0) as it relates to the home area network (HAN).
In the HAN, energy consumed by smart appliances, water heaters, electric cars, etc, or generated by solar panels or wind turbines, will be reported back to the home owner and energy providers (eg, utilities) via a smart meter or gateway device.
SEP1.x was originally developed by the ZigBee Alliance to run on the IEEE802.15.4 2,4 GHz radios. SEP2.0 is based on IPv6 Internet protocols and is compatible with portable devices like smartphones and tablets, enabling these devices as IHDs (in-home-displays).
SEP2.0 was opened up to the WiFi Alliance to run on IEEE802.11x radios, and HomePlug Green PHY PLC. This real-time (or near) communication from the HAN to their IHDs allows consumers participating in time-of-use pricing programmes run by their energy providers to realise cost savings.
Two examples include overriding thermostat settings for short periods of time to offset peak energy usage during extremely hot or cold periods, or temporarily switch off pool pumps.
SIGFOX network
Based in France, SIGFOX provides a network dedicated to the requirements of M2M (machine-to-machine) applications and the so-called Internet of Things (IoT). It does this by employing low-throughput UNB (ultranarrowband) RF communication technology that operates over an unlicensed wireless spectrum.
The result is an extremely robust, powerefficient and scalable network that can communicate with millions of battery-operated devices in coverage areas of many square kilometres. The system has already been deployed in tens of thousands of connected objects.
SIGFOX has chosen Silicon Laboratories as a technology partner, taking advantage of its EZRadioPRO wireless transceiver technology.
Weightless
Weightless is a communications standard using ‘white space’ spectrum – the unused, unlicensed portions of the spectrum band in and around TV transmissions – for M2M communications. These white spaces will be vacated once South Africa completes its transition from analog to digital TV signals.
Neul, a Weightless member company, recently released the first radio chip based on the standard. Capable of tuning across the entire UHF TV white space spectrum (470–790 MHz), the single-chip solution draws very little power (enabling a 10+ year battery life from a single primary cell) while delivering reliable, secure connectivity over a range in excess of 10 km.
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