Connectivity Technology Blog

Regular readers of this blog are no doubt aware of how many different satellite projects are going on, with or without 5G. Many industry pundits are sure that none of these initiatives will ever break even but that hasn't stopped new and existing players coming up with newer solutions. Recently, Professor Rob Maunder, CTO of AccelerComm and Tim Farrar, President at TMF Associates delivered a webinar on 'Challenges and Opportunities in Delivering Satellite 5G'. The event abstract says:  Constellations of 5G satellites are set to play a vital role in completing the technology and connectivity ecosystem addressing critical connectivity challenges, such as data speed and coverage limitations as well fulfilling the needs of a wide range of emerging use cases. We have seen a revolution in the thinking around the potential for 5G applications but while there are considerable opportunities, there are also several challenges. This webinar will take a deep dive into the market and co

Deutsche Telekom has been actively promoting Campus Networks for a while and their website defines Campus networks as exclusive mobile networks for a defined local campus, a university or individual buildings, such as an office building. They are tailored to the individual needs of users and meet future requirements in the area of Industry 4.0. This introductory video from them is a good place to understand the basics as well. If you are not very familiar with private networks (or non-public networks as 3GPP calls them), then my old tutorial is a good place to start. I also cover the basics of Campus Networks in that. 5G Private Networks and Responsibilities from The 3G4G blog post '5G Private and Non-Public Network (NPN)' - https://t.co/hicWpkmpJr via @3g4gUK #Free5GTraining #3G4G5G #PrivateLTE #PrivateNetworks #NPN #Private5G #Enterprise5G #Industrie40 #Industrial5G pic.twitter.com/3UBq5Iq0c7 — Free 5G Training (@5Gtraining) February 7, 2021 At the P rivate Networ

Back in 2019 when Vodafone UK launched 5G , they demonstrated it with a remote rugby tackle where Wasps Rugby player Juan de Jongh felt the impact of a tackle made 100 miles away by team mate Will Rowlands while wearing a haptic Teslasuit connected over 5G (and Wi-Fi).   Since then Vodafone UK have use the haptics for some other use cases too. One recent use case was to allow deaf and hard-of-hearing music fans to experience live music like never before. Vodafone unveiled some innovative 5G-enabled haptic suits that allowed people to feel the music through vibrations.  Vodafone used #5G -enabled haptic suits to allow deaf and hard-of-hearing fans to experience live music like never before. 🎵💃 Here's how it works: https://t.co/fUqYoykFE0 pic.twitter.com/faObMUHxi0 — Vodafone Business (@VodafoneBiz) July 1, 2022 These vibrations were delivered across 24 touchpoints on the wrists, ankles and torso to provide a full multi-sensory experience. You can read all about that here and wa

It's been nearly four years since we made a tutorial on Fixed Wireless Access ( FWA ). Since then a lot has changed. 5G has rolled out much more rapidly then anticipated, more of the LEO satellites are being launched and more operators are being convinced to roll out mmWave based FWA.  At the Qualcomm 5G Summit 2022, Federico Agnoletto – senior economist, GSMA Intelligence, held a Fixed Wireless Access MasterClass. In that, he explained the key business and technical considerations that impact the cost to deploy and operate Fixed Wireless Access networks and services. The following is from the masterclass summary: As 5G Fixed Wireless Access continues to grow and transform broadband access, this masterclass teaches operators how to maximize the return on investment for these technologies. GSMA Intelligence gives insight into the results of its detailed business analysis of Fixed Wireless Access, including comparisons with alternatives, and addressing ever-growing customer and soci

Public-Safety Answering Point or Public-Safety Access Point is abbreviated as PSAP. It is a call center where emergency/non-emergency calls (like police, fire brigade, ambulance) initiated by any mobile or landline subscriber are terminated. Wikipedia has details on this here . At the EENA Conference 2022 David Wales, Customer Experience Expert & Filip Malenak, Managing Director, Zachranka presented a talk looking at Video communication to PSAPs - a human perspective. Technology is there to allow video communication between citizena & PSAPs, but human perspective has to be taken into account : safety of the caller, psychological impact for the call-takers #eena2022 pic.twitter.com/kFA5egpkBj — Cristina Lumbreras (@CrLumbreras) April 29, 2022 The abstract says: With new information and communication technologies, there is a growing demand to make it possible for citizens to contact emergency services by video. But allowing video communication with PSAPs comes with many challen

GSMA's Drone Interest Group ( DIG ) consists of mobile operators and other members from around the world, working with UAS and UTM suppliers and other ecosystem players to encourage the use of cellular communications for drones. The aim of the DIG is to explore opportunities for mobile connectivity to be deployed in commercial drones, share industry knowledge and position mobile operators as key enablers for the autonomous BVLOS growth. DIG hosted their first deep dive session in May which provided a brief overview of the UAS related activities in 3GPP by Helka-Liina Määttänen from Ericsson, also a 3GPP RAN2 delegate. In addition, Francesca Stockton, Product Manager for Verizon Robotics shared real life experiences supporting drones from the Mobile Operator perspective. She touched upon network quality and management, use cases and related performance and also spectrum. The video of the session is embedded below: If you found the above video useful, you would like the video from M

Autonomous and Connected Vehicles have featured regularly on our blogs. In fact, couple of years back we made a tutorial on the 'Introduction to Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs)'. You can find links to some of our posts as the bottom of this post.  Earlier this year, DISH Wireless released a whitepaper on this topic here . The original paper seems to have disappeared but you can download it (automatically) from here or view it here . Quoting the executive summary: This white paper discusses how DISH will support the fast-growing connectivity needs of vehicles by delivering cost-effective optimization and intelligent vehicle cloud connectivity supported by private, public or hybrid-cloud infrastructure. Efficient vehicle data flow and management, for both consumer and commercial vehicles, is critical to creating a superior in-vehicle experience, even before achieving Level 4 autonomy. Properly-timed extraction and analysis of critical data is a primary value focus for c

Back in 2017, we were discussing about drones and helikites to bring temporary coverage in areas that have either no coverage or have lost coverage due to some or other reason. Things have certainly moved on in the last few years as we look at connected drones to help solve problems. In a LinkedIn post couple of weeks ago, Santiago (Yago) Tenorio, Fellow and Network Architecture Director at Vodafone posted on LinkedIn on how "Vodafone has been able to transport urgent nutrient solutions to premature babies across a 40-hectare hospital – setting the stage for future innovation in medical deliveries".  This briefly started a 'we did it first' discussion with rival Deutsche Telekom's SVP of Group Technology for Innovation, Arash Ashouriha, posting their achievement from 2020. Others from Vodafone jumped in to point out all the other demos that Vodafone has done over the years.  So what has Vodafone been up to with all the drone demos? Here is a short summary: May

The 5G VISTA (Video in-stadia Technical Architecture) project is part of the UK Government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport's (DCMS) 5G Testbeds and Trials programme, a £200 million investment in testbeds and trials across the UK to investigate new ways that 5G can boost productivity, grow existing businesses, and spark new ones. It was completed on 1st April 2022. The project has tested and demonstrated the potential of 5G Broadcast and Multicast to deliver new and exciting digital experiences to spectators at live events.  The technology developed uses a concept called Further-evolved Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service (FeMBMS) technology to support innovative use cases - to both enhance customer experience at events, and increase engagement. Whilst most mobile and internet communications are modelled on a “one-to-one” system, FeMBMS is a “one-to-many” service; it will take a single stream and send it to multiple users. Following a successful tria