Archive for the ‘Wi-Fi’ Category

IEEE 802.11 working on successor to 802.11ax

Monday, July 16th, 2018

Last Friday the IEEE 802 Executive Committee approved Working Group 802.11’s request to form an Extreme High Throughput (EHT) Study Group. This means there’s sufficient interest to work toward launching a more-formal EHT standard-development project, which will likely happen after the Study Group’s work is complete.

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Concurrent multi-band Wi-Fi floated in IEEE 802.11

Wednesday, May 31st, 2017

A proposal for concurrent multi-band Wi-Fi was brought into the most recent meeting of working group IEEE 802.11. Similar to how mobile broadband can use multiple bands at the same time, the proposal would allow a Wi-Fi connection to use the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands simultaneously. Data would be split based on instantaneous channel conditions.

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Wi-Fi Alliance reports some consensus from its Wi-Fi/LTE-U Coexistence Test Workshop

Sunday, November 22nd, 2015

In a November 20 FCC filing, the Wi-Fi Alliance reported on recent meetings with FCC staff on the subject of Wi-Fi/LTE-U coexistence. The Alliance says consensus was reached on the following points at its November 4 Coexistence Test Workshop:

  • The LTE-U specification can be further refined to provide greater clarity, and recent updates to the specification are a good step forward
  • A broader set of test scenarios than currently exists is likely necessary to test LTE-U’s fairness to Wi-Fi
  • Stakeholders are committed to collaborating within Wi-Fi Alliance to develop an industry agreed test regimen for LTE-U devices

A follow-up workshop is scheduled for the week of February 8.

In LTE-U, different companies can come away with different views of the same event. We’ll see if these consensus points hold.

Positioning LTE Direct against other proximity-aware technologies

Saturday, August 24th, 2013

LTE Direct, now being standardized in 3GPP as part of Release 12, is a platform for directly discovering and connecting nearby peers. Qualcomm and Samsung sponsored an LTE Direct workshop earlier this year in which several major operators participated. A few days ago Qualcomm made available a white paper, prepared jointly by some of the participants, that summarizes key points from the workshop.

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Jarvinian files second experimental application for Globalstar/Wi-Fi tests

Sunday, March 10th, 2013

Last month I wrote about the Jarvinian Wireless Investment Fund and its application to the FCC to test its proposed terrestrial low-power service (TLPS). TLPS would use both the upper 2.4 GHz unlicensed band and Globalstar’s terrestrial-use spectrum (2473-2495 MHz all in all). That test would take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Jarvinian is back with a second application, similar to the first, but with testing taking place at three locations in Silicon Valley (Sunnyvale and Cupertino, California). The supporting technical exhibit appears essentially the same. Different is the equipment to be used. The Cambridge application specified 50 Linksys WRT54GL access points, 10 Ubiquity UniFi access points, 10 Ubiquity XR2 client cards, and 10 Ubiquity SR-71-12 client cards. The Silicon Valley application specifies 10 TP-LINK TL-WA5110G access points,  20 TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND access points, and 20 Ubiquity SR-71-12 client cards.

This application was received by the FCC on March 6. The Cambridge application was received February 13 and is still pending.

FCC to move on 5 GHz, but no faster nor further than NTIA

Friday, February 15th, 2013

At its February 20 meeting, the FCC will likely adopt a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking as a first step toward increasing the amount of spectrum available in the 5 GHz band for unlicensed devices. Up to 195 MHz might be made available, which is a 35% increase over the present 555 MHz.  Chairman Genachowski announced this initiative at CES in January. A leading application for new spectrum would be IEEE 802.11ac, which could have four instead of the current two 160 MHz-wide channels.

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Wireless investment fund seeks FCC authority to test Globalstar’s proposed terrestrial low-power service

Thursday, February 14th, 2013

Yesterday the FCC received an application for experimental radio license from the Jarvinian Wireless Innovation Fund. Among other activities, the fund is working with Globalstar in its effort to establish a so-called terrestrial low-power service (TLPS).  Globalstar petitioned the FCC to create such a service last November. The idea is to take the upper 2.4 GHz unlicensed band that isn’t now available for Wi-Fi, combine it Globalstar’s terrestrial-use spectrum, and create a new service operating on 2473-2495 MHz. This corresponds to IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) channel 14, which can’t be used in the U.S. as it overlaps with Globalstar’s spectrum. Unlike Wi-Fi, TLPS would be managed to control interference.

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A crucial engineering fact I’m not hearing from municipal TV white space proponents

Monday, February 11th, 2013

Here it is: At 600 MHz, interference travels farther than it does at higher frequencies, all else equal.

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FCC’s 5 GHz spectrum initiative could mean more and wider channels for IEEE 802.11ac

Thursday, January 10th, 2013

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski yesterday announced an initiative to make 195 MHz of more spectrum available for Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz band.

The last time more spectrum for Wi-Fi was made available in this range was in 2003, when an FCC increased the then 300 MHz bandwidth to 555 MHz. As the document in that last link shows, the 5 GHz band is not as neat as the 2.4 GHz band, with other services, such as radar, requiring protection. These coexistence issues will have to be looked at again.

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Experimental Radio Applications at the FCC

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

This summarizes a selection of applications for the Experimental Radio Service received by the FCC during September-December 2012. These are related to LF and HF propagation, cognitive radio, satellite telemetry, ultra-wideband (UWB), ground-penetrating and synthetic-aperture radar, mobile broadband, aerial communications (balloons), LTE, managed access, military communications, Wi-Fi, GPS, sensor networks, and MVDDS. The descriptions are sorted by the lowest frequency in the application.

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Deloitte’s mobile-broadband spectrum policy primer

Monday, October 15th, 2012

Deloitte recently issued a new report on mobile broadband. It positions the U.S. as number-one and offers tips to keep it there, some more useful than others. There’s not much new for the mobile broadband expert. The collection of various mobile-spectrum policy issues into one document, however, could be useful to some, especially to those new to the field. Early on, Deloitte promises suggestions for improving U.S. spectrum policy;  the suggestions, however, turn out to be mostly things we’ve heard before. There are a few problems with the report, discussed below, that readers should keep in mind.

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Qualcomm outlines vision of 1000x mobile capacity increases

Wednesday, August 29th, 2012

In the first of a series of webinars, Qualcomm today began reporting on the results of its “1000x Data Challenge,” an initiative to meet what it sees as the need, someday, to increase mobile capacity 1000-times. The webinar, conducted by Rasmus Hellberg, Qualcomm’s Senior Director of Technical Marketing, was an overview. He discussed spectrum, small cells, and other techniques to increase capacity. More-detailed webinars on each of these are forthcoming: spectrum initiatives on  September 18, small cells and heterogeneous networks on October 18, and more efficient networks, applications, and devices on November 14. Today’s webinar should be posted tomorrow, and a white paper should appear in about a week.

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Experimental Radio Applications at the FCC

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

This summarizes a selection from 289 applications for the Experimental Radio Service received by the FCC during April, May, and June 2012. These are related to AM, high-frequency propagation, ultra-wideband, frequency-hopped VHF, managed access, small satellites, radar, MIMO, TV white space, low-power FM, stadium wireless service, GSM, and DTV. The descriptions are sorted by the lowest frequency found in the application.

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Google Finishing Development of Personal Communication/Entertainment Device

Wednesday, July 18th, 2012

It appears Google is finalizing the design of what it variously calls, in recent FCC filings, a “personal communication device” or an “entertainment device.” It further appears it would be an unlicensed device supporting both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and operate at low power in the bands 2400-2483 MHz and 5180-5825 MHz.

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4G Americas Scenario Shows Mobile Data Growth Tapering Off

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

4G Americas, a wireless industry trade association representing the 3GPP family of technologies, has released a report looking at broadband devices and applications, and their impact on HSPA and LTE networks. There’s quite a bit of interesting information; here I highlight the discussion on mobile broadband offload and mobile data growth.

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