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GNSS helping Synchrophasors keep Power Grids Stable

As we have started converting more wind, solar and other forms of energy to electricity, there is more supply that ever available previously.  Similarly we are also consuming more power than ever. Electric cars for example consume a lot of energy. In addition we have more electronic gadgets that we keep connected to chargers, regardless of weather they need charging or not.  At every instant of time, the power fed in the grid has to be consumed or stored somewhere. In addition, it has to be ensured that the amplitude, frequency and phase remains constant. This is where Synchrophasors come into play. The video below, explains it in a simple way what they are:  u-blox has a nice write-up on this topic explaining why this is important.  Improvements in terms of timing accuracy have come in lock-step with improvements in positioning accuracy. The u‑blox F9 GNSS receiver platform, which brought scalable and affordable high precision positioning – down to the decimeter-level – to the mass m
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Deutsche Telekom and Stratospheric Platforms Limited (SPL) show Cellular communications service from the Stratosphere

The technology advancement has reached a stage where it looks like everyone is trying to outperform others in communications from stratosphere. The latest in line is this announcement from Deutsche Telekom and Stratospheric Platforms Limited (SPL).  The DT press release says : Deutsche Telekom and its technology partner Stratospheric Platforms Limited (SPL) conducted the world's first successful demonstration of LTE/4G voice and data connectivity over a platform flying at the edge of the stratosphere and fully integrated into a commercial mobile network.  Beginning of October, several test flights were carried out in Bavaria with a remote-controlled aircraft system at an altitude of approximately 14 kilometers (Flight Level 450) to establish voice and data connections via the antennas installed on the aircraft. This enabled voice over LTE (VoLTE) calls, video calls, data downloads and web browsing on a standard smartphone. During the test, the smartphone was connected to the terres
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IEEE 802.11be Extremely High Throughput (EHT), a.k.a. Wi-Fi 7

We have been writing about Wi-Fi for a long time, weather it's to do with indoor connectivity , competition with 5G or just a name change to something simpler. When we last wrote about WiFi 6, a.k.a. 802.11ax, we were expecting a quick adoption of the technology in the industry. We are still not there yet.  You know what's strange? None of the new @madebygoogle gadgets from yesterday support Wi-Fi 6. Not the Pixel 5, not the Pixel 4a 5G, not the Nest Audio, and not the new Chromecast. pic.twitter.com/QtJ8iB9FeO — Ry Crist (@rycrist) October 1, 2020 Take for instance the new iPhone 12 supports Wi-Fi 6 in all their models as one would expect but none of the new Google Pixel phones (4a, 4a 5G and 5) support it. In fact none of the new Google devices support it. Which is rather bizarre. While we are still looking forward to Wi-Fi 6 becoming widespread, IEEE has already started working on the successor of 802.11ax, 802.11be - Standard for Information technology--Telecommunicati
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Smart Cities Playbook from Telecom Infra Project (TIP)

Back in summer, Telecom Infra Project (TIP) published a Playbook for Smart Cities. For people who may not understand, you can think of a Playbook as a case study but playbook is much more than case study. A case study shows how a company did something but it may not be relevant for anyone else or any scenario. If a scenario is repeatable then a playbook can be created with a complete process, workflows, procedures, communication needs, strategies, etc. Other companies can then follow the playbook to provide similar results and outputs. The Executive summary of the playbook states : This playbook is an output of the Smart City Connectivity sub-group within the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) mmWave Networks Project Group. It’s the result of a collaboration between TIP Members —operators, infrastructure providers, system integrators, and equipment vendors—to provide guidance to key audiences (especially municipalities) about the deployment of communication services at the street level. Coll
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Broadband Connectivity In 6G

While 5G rollout is gaining momentum, 6G is the new shiny object nowadays. Operators may still be struggling with finances and the ability to increase ARPU or revenues through 5G but that has not dampened the vendors and researchers appetite to start talking about 6G. Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), North American Organizational Partner for 3GPP and a leading technology and solutions development organization recently announced Next G Alliance to Advance North American Leadership in 6G. It has several operators and vendors as founding partners. In addition, 6G Symposium was held just last week bringing together vendors, researchers and though leaders in the mobile telecom networks to discuss the next evolution of mobile technology. While there is a lot of activity going on everywhere, 6G Flagship has been taking leadership role with the publication of many different whitepapers and even a magazine now. One of the whitepapers that has been published is about
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HAPSMobile and Loon Deliver 4G from Stratosphere

Last year, I wrote about how HAPSMobile is bringing connectivity from the sky for underserved, unserved areas as well as emergencies.  Earlier this year we saw HAPSMobile and Loon Partner for Stratosphere-Based LTE Communications Solution. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that HAPSMobile and Loon have announced "First in the World to Deliver LTE Connectivity from a Fixed-Wing Autonomous Aircraft in the Stratosphere" Selected extract of the  press release as follows:  SoftBank Corp.’s HAPSMobile Inc. (“HAPSMobile”) and Alphabet’s Loon LLC (“Loon”) today announced they successfully tested their jointly developed communications payload in the stratosphere on HAPSMobile’s “Sunglider,” a solar-powered unmanned aircraft system (UAS). Taking place during Sunglider’s first stratospheric test flight at Spaceport America (SpA) in New Mexico on September 21 MT, the test marked the world’s first successful delivery of LTE connectivity from a fixed-wing High Altitude Platform Sta
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First Cross-Border Drone Flight Over Mobile Network

I got to see innovations by the Latvian MNO, LMT at MWC 2019. I wrote about it on the Operator Watch Blog as well as 3G4G Blog . Now LMT has announced that they have performed a unique cross-border drone flight. The Google translated press release said: The operation of such flights is associated with a number of unknowns, including mobile network coverage in the air. To test this, on September 2, LMT conducted one of the world's first fully remotely controlled drone cross-border flights out of sight, where a connection to the mobile communication network was used to control the drone. The drone crossed the Latvian-Estonian border, changing mobile operators, but the pilot did not lose control of the drone's control. ... Previous tests performed by LMT in Latvia show that the signal strength of the mobile communication network is even better in some places in the air than on the ground, where it is disturbed by obstacles such as thick walls and trees. On the other hand, in this
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6G Research Visions Webinar on Remote and Rural Area Connectivity Challenges and Solutions

 A new 6G Research Visions Webinar took place on Wednesday 30 September 2020, presenting key findings by the Expert Group that prepared the 6G White Paper on Connectivity for Remote Areas. In the 90-minute webinar, representatives of the group gave talks on regulatory challenges, spectrum matters and wireless backhaul solutions for remote area connectivity. Talks by Expert Group representatives:  Alok Pandey, Indian Institute of Technology, India Brejesh Lall, Indian Institute of Technology, India Mohamed-Slim Alouini, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia Abdelaali Chaoub, National Institute of Posts and Telecommunications (INPT), Morocco Adrian Kliks, Poznan University of Technology, Poland The webinar was moderated by Dr. Harri Saarnisaari from University of Oulu who led the Expert Group.  The webinars are organized by the 6G Flagship program led by the University of Oulu, Finland and the 6G White Paper Expert Group which prepared the 6G White Pape
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How to Deploy a Private LTE Network using CBRS

We looked at CBRS not long ago but here is another post on the topic, which proved to be very popular. If you haven't seen the old post, it's here . Last week, the CBRS Alliance and American Tower collaborated for a webinar to walk attendees through the OnGo deployment process in the CBRS band.  It's trying to use OnGo as a brand for Private LTE deployed in CBRS spectrum Which seems totally pointless, given that there's a ton of *other* Private LTE deployed in the US & around the world. Nobody in the UK or Germany or Japan is calling a private 4G/5G an "OnGo" network — Dean Bubley (@disruptivedean) September 24, 2020 The CBRS Alliance has developed a set of detailed specifications and an accompanying OnGo certification program. The certification program + specifications will enable the commercialization of the OnGo architecture and ensure seamless interoperability for all network components. The certification program will ensure all OnGo-Certified Device
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5G Wireline Access Architecture

 I have looked at Wireless Wireline Convergence (WWC) and Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) in many different posts in our blog posts (see related posts at the end).  The training company, Mpirical, recently added a short video on 5G Wireline Access and what exactly it will bring us. This video is taken from their 5G Wireline Access course and  explains how connectivity with wireline access networks is supported in 5G networks. The video is embedded below. With Voice over Wi-Fi gaining prominence and offloading becoming a necessity in many cases as well, WWC is the next logical step that quite a few operators are looking at. The main dependency is having 5G core, so we will have to wait for Standalone 5G to be rolled out before this can be tried with real users and a commercial network.  Related Posts : Connectivity Technology Blog: Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and the Path to 5G Wireless Wireline Convergence (WWC) The 3G4G Blog: 5G and Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) The 3G4G Blog: Introd
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