Connectivity Technology Blog

In Nov 2022, Rakuten Mobile announced that it has obtained preliminary experimental test station licenses to conduct mobile communication tests and preliminary verification in Japan using AST SpaceMobile’s low earth orbit satellite, BlueWalker 3. We blogged about AST & Science's ambition to have SpaceMobile beam 4G/5G directly to devices here and here . Back in Nov. AST SpaceMobile announced that it had successfully completed deployment of the communications array for its test satellite, BlueWalker 3 (“BW3”), in orbit. I found the Tweet showing the unfolding very interesting. History is unfolding! We've deployed #BlueWalker3 's 693-square-foot array, which is now the largest-ever commercial communications array in low Earth orbit. Read more about this important milestone here: https://t.co/4kupfxn3vO pic.twitter.com/KnE9CeWOCT — AST SpaceMobile (@AST_SpaceMobile) November 14, 2022 Coming back to Rakuten Mobile's announcement, the press release said: In order to

It's that time of the year again when we look back to see which posts did well and which didn't. Here are the top 3 posts from this year. Laser Inter-Satellite Links (LISLs) in a Starlink Constellation , Feb 2022 Almost everything you need to know about Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be) , Feb 2022 GSMA's DIG discusses how 5G Networks will handle UAV Layer , June 2022 Since this blog is just over three years old, the most popular posts are not necessarily from 2022. Here are the 5 most viewed posts this year. Laser Inter-Satellite Links (LISLs) in a Starlink Constellation , Feb 2022 CSI-RS vs SRS Beamforming , Mar 2021 IEEE 802.11be Extremely High Throughput (EHT), a.k.a. Wi-Fi 7 , Nov 2020 High-level Architecture Introduction of Mobile Cellular Networks from 2G to 5G , Aug 2019 Fibre-to-the-room (FTTR / FTTRoom) , July 2021 Do you have a favourite post on this blog? Please let us know. Related Posts :  The 3G4G Blog: Top Blog Posts of 2022 Free 6G Training: Top Blog Posts of 2022 Tel

At Telecom Infra Project's Fyuz 22 conference, one of the main stage panel session talked about New Business Models, Neutral-Host NaaS and the Rule of Threes. During that session, Kunal Bajaj, CEO & Co-Founder of CloudExtel spoke on how India can tackle this challenge and unlock 5X Quality of Experience improvement for users, through Shared RAN solutions. CloudExtel successfully deployed its first solution at Mumbai Central railway station , one of the country's largest railway stations, addressing this issue. The video of the panel session below has been adjusted to start exactly at Kunal's talk. There is an Q&A session followed by the talk. If you would rather hear all the talk in the panel sessions, rewind to 33:10. A lot of neutral host solutions are being deployed in different parts of the world. If properly planned, they can help service providers deliver a much better experience for the end users.  Related Posts :  Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: Details on Ind

After years of wondering if smart devices and gadgets in home made by multiple vendors would be able to talk to each other, there is a hope. Two new protocols, Matter and Thread, are enabling devices to quickly talk to each other. The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) is responsible for Matter and describes it as: Matter is the foundation for connected things. This industry–unifying standard is a promise of reliable, secure connectivity—a seal of approval that devices will work seamlessly together, today and tomorrow. Matter is creating more connections between more objects, simplifying development for manufacturers and increasing compatibility for consumers. The Thread Group explains Thread as follows: Thread is a low-power and low-latency wireless mesh networking protocol built using open and proven standards. Thread solves the complexities of the IoT, addressing challenges such as interoperability, range, security, energy, and reliability. Thread networks have no single point

LTE UE Categories were a popular topic once upon a time. I have various blog posts on the topic, the earliest one being in 2009 , then in 2011 and 2015 . Most of the smartphones started with Category 3 (Cat-3), going on to Cat-6, Cat-9, etc. Cat-2 was never used as far as I know. Cat-1 and Cat-4 gained popularity in various IoT applications. The picture above from this press release , nicely summarises the evolution of various 3GPP technologies, including IoT. As you will notice, an updated version of LTE Cat-1 known as Cat-1bis was in 3GPP Release-13. You will also notice that LTE Cat-0 was introduced in Release-12 that evolved into eMTC or LTE-M (Cat-M1). A blog on Ericsson has a nice summary here . In Release-13, LTE Cat-1bis was introduced. This article explains what Cat-1bis is and how's it different from Cat-1: LTE Cat 1, sometimes also refers as 4G Cat 1, is specifically designed for more feature-rich Machine-to-Machine (M2M) IoT applications. The technology was initially

Earlier this year, Ericsson published an interesting case study about American Samoa. Quoting from the report: American Samoa Telecommunications Authority, ASTCA, supplies telecommunication services to the residents of the American Samoan islands, a territory of the United States, which are found in a remote area of the Pacific Ocean. The primary backhaul system between the islands consists of fiber-optic cables and satellite connections. Over Independence Day weekend 2021, the undersea fiber-optic cable linking the Tutuila and Manu’a Islands failed, completely stranding the Manu’a Islands from all telecommunication services. ASTCA selected Ericsson in 2019 to provide a high-capacity wireless backup system to the existing fiber-optic network between the islands. One of the planned microwave links was to connect the island Tutuila to the Manu’a Islands with a challenging distance of 84.23 miles (135.55 km). To put this into perspective, it’s the same distance as between New York City a

We have explained the concept of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles as well as Vehicle to Everything (V2X) in our tutorials earlier. Now in a new whitepaper , 'C-V2X: A New Era of Smart Transportation in the United States', Qualcomm has highlighted the potential of C-V2X to deliver transformational benefits in road safety, enhance environmental sustainability, and create new jobs in the U.S. A press release from Qualcomm said: The new report describes the ground-breaking power of C-V2X and raises the issue that regulatory delays have hindered its deployment. Implementing C-V2X and wireless technologies in transportation will bring about enormous benefits to the public interest, such as reducing roadway incidents and improving trip planning, transportation mode choice, and traffic efficiency – all of which will inevitably lead to lower fuel consumption. Examples of these benefits include real-time route guidance to bypass congestion, adjusting vehicle dynamics for optimal spe

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