Connectivity Technology Blog

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

Back in March, the UK Spectrum Policy Forum (UK SPF) held an event looking at what does the future look like for rail communications and what does it mean for spectrum policy? It explored the spectrum and technology possibilities for the future passenger and operational communications of the rail sector. The following is a summary from the event roundup : The session opened with the changing landscape of railway communications, notably the transition to the new Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS), the successor of the Global System for Mobile Communications – Railway (GSM-R). This is set to be rolled out in the coming years and should allow the railway sector to better leverage the latest communications technology. New rail related use cases and applications have been identified over the past few years increasing the demands on spectrum which can no longer be handled by GSM-R. The increasing number of performance related use cases include energy efficient driving, video

Radio (or Radiation) Detection and Ranging, a.k.a. RADAR is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (ranging), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. The modern uses of radar are highly diverse, including air and terrestrial traffic control, radar astronomy, air-defense systems, antimissile systems, marine radars to locate landmarks and other ships, aircraft anti-collision systems, ocean surveillance systems, outer space surveillance and rendezvous systems, meteorological precipitation monitoring, altimetry and flight control systems, guided missile target locating systems, self-driving cars, and ground-penetrating radar for geological observations. Radar is an important sensor in the autonomous cars. Typically, an autonomous car will have Lidar to scan the environment, Radar to identify the objects and Sonar to hear the objects. In our video of Tesla Model 3, we saw that the Forward-looking Radar is the primary sensor used to detect th

Back in November, the Singaporean MNO StarHub announced the launch of Singapore’s first 5G-capable mission critical communications solution, enabling enterprises and government agencies to communicate with specified groups of people simply by pressing a Push-to-Talk (PTT) button.  A press release said: Named StarHub SmartPTT, the new solution sets up an encrypted enterprise-grade network over StarHub 5G and 4G connectivity, for identified mobile phones to function just like walkie-talkies or two-way radios – boosted with crystal-clear quality, unlimited range nationwide, and first-of-its-kind ‘live’ video feeds. StarHub SmartPTT is a one-stop solution comprising island wide 5G/4G connectivity, ruggedised PTT devices, customisable user application, training, and comprehensive after-sales support with guaranteed response times. Customers just need to liaise with a single party for all of their instant and critical communication needs. In addition, the solution offers a dispatch console

While our Free 5G training course , '5G for Absolute Beginners', is still going great, nearly 2 years after we put it online, there is one area that was just too big to cover, the basics of 5G New Radio (5G NR). While we have quite a few materials on the topic, a recent webinar from the training company Wray Castle is a good one for beginners.  In the one-hour talk, they discuss some of the features of 5G NR, together with the advantages and opportunities they bring to network operators. Topics include: 5G New Radio Overview Underlying Flexibility – the Key Difference Compared to 4G LTE Working Efficiently with 4G LTE – Controlling the Investment 5G New Radio - Opening New Spectrum Advanced Antenna Techniques – Increasing Efficiency Maximising Efficiency Across a Wide Range of Radio Environments Coding for Error Protection – Across a Wide Range of Radio Environments Efficiently Tailoring the 5G NR to Different Use Cases Achieving Low Latency with 5G NR The video is embedded bel

We have looked at Connectivity on Planes in a tutorial before. We have also discussed Air-to-Ground (A2G) Networks for Emergency Communications. As the number of 5G devices grows, it makes sense to have 5G connectivity on the planes to be able to provide much faster speeds to the end users willing to pay the premium. Gogo is the world's largest provider of broadband connectivity services for the business aviation market. According to their website , Gogo Business Aviation has shipped more than 17,000 systems worldwide, is a factory option at every major business aircraft manufacturer, and has solutions installed on the world’s largest fractional ownership fleets.  They also offer a customizable suite of smart cabin systems for highly integrated connectivity, inflight entertainment and voice solutions. Their products and services are installed on thousands of business aircraft of all sizes and mission types from turboprops to the largest global jets, and are utilized by the largest