DailyDirt: Smaller, Better, Faster Wireless

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Wed, Apr 17th 2013 5:00pm — Michael Ho

The term wireless is a bit strange because it classifies a whole range of modern technology by the lack of a wire. Cordless technologies are getting better all the time, but the reliability and transfer speeds of wires are still superior in many ways. Thankfully, there are plenty of folks working on making wireless equipment that is faster and smaller, pushing the capabilities of wireless transmissions to make mobile devices better and better. Here are just a few notable milestones.

Transmitting a wireless signal at 2.5 terabits per second isn't anywhere near commonplace yet, but maybe someday wireless spectrum will have almost unlimited capacity. Networking equipment that can handle both orbital angular momentum (OAM) and spin angular momentum (SAM) modulation will have to get out of research labs first. [url]
Antennas can be the largest component in a wireless device, but a hemispherical antenna design might approach fundamental size limits. Phones might not get any smaller, but there could be more room for batteries.... [url]
Antennas made of thin films of graphene could allow for terabit per second data transfers over short distances. Graphene is still a tricky material to work with, but as researchers work out how to make useful electronics from graphene, there could be some amazingly small wireless devices in the future. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

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Filed Under: antennas, graphene, spectrum, terabit, wireless

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Watchit (profile), 17 Apr 2013 @ 5:40pm

More proof that there's no need to fear a "spectrum crunch". As humanities data usage increases at an exponential rate, so too does it's technology.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Apr 2013 @ 6:13pm

Re: spectrum
Yah, but let's not auction off spectrum to large companies to hold it hostage. Some frequencies are better than others at penetrating walls and traveling for miles....
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ingemar wikman, 24 Apr 2013 @ 8:24pm

wimax wireless spectrum
The first 802.16d standard wimax equipment for metropolitan areas operarated much differently then the newer 16e standard which is engineered strictly for mobile terminal devices.

Since their compact designs and form factors reduced battery life as mobile device processors needed to balance power with antenna gain to maintain the best signal reliability.
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Wireless Internet India, 14 May 2013 @ 1:38am

mobile broadband
All the demand-side signals suggest that consumption of mobile broadband particularly along with an emerging machine-to-machine market and increasing diversity in applications and services available via mobile broadband ... support strong volume growth in mobile data. We expect that demand to continue.
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