RF&WirelessBlog

UK Broadband launches first commercial TD-LTE network in the UK

UK Broadband has announced this week that it has switched on an LTE system in Southwark, London –the first TD-LTE 3.5GHz deployment in the world, and the first commercial LTE deployment in the UK. UK Broadband (UKB) is building its network using Huawei TD-LTE basestations.

UKB, the UK's largest holder of 4G spectrum, will work with partners to offer commercial services from May 2012 to businesses, consumers and the public sector. The network will initially cover London's South Bank and the Borough area of Southwark.

Ubidyne to show active antenna system for 700MHz LTE at Mobile Word Congress

Ubidyne has announced that it will be featuring a new active antenna solution for the US LTE 700MHz digital dividend band at next month's Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona. The uB700 Antenna Embedded Radio with flexible beam forming and tilting capabilities has just completed independent network trials with a leading US mobile operator, reportedly delivering double throughput at the cell edge and an increase of over 40% cell capacity with the same output power. Ubidyne says these results show that operators can use active antenna technology to address the exploding demand for wireless data by maximising coverage and capacity from their existing macrocells before they need to invest in small cells.

In addition to the new uB700, Ubidyne's uB900 Antenna Embedded Radio supports GSM, UMTS and LTE in the 900MHz frequency band to address mobile networks in Europe, Africa, Oceania, Asia and the Middle East. Future products are also in development for the European digital dividend bands of 800MHz and highband up to 2.6GHz as well as multi-band solutions.

By removing the need for bulky coaxial feeder cables, remote electrical tilt assemblies and additional amplifiers on antenna towers and masts, Ubidyne says that its active antenna technology significantly reduces installation costs and energy consumption while improving radio performance, deployment flexibility, coverage and network capacity. OPEX costs and outages are further reduced by a self-healing mechanism that secures antenna coverage in the event of a system failure.

"The US trials show that active antennas can significantly increase cell capacity using vertical sectorisation and double the uplink throughput at the cell edge as well as increase the coverage area with independent uplink and downlink tilting," said Michael Fränkle, CEO of Ubidyne. "Active antenna technology offers end users a continuous service, while operators will save both CAPEX and OPEX costs; we have the potential to dramatically change the radio architecture and operations of mobile communications without migrating to small cells at tremendous cost. Active antennas have arrived and we are seeing increasing interest and demand from operators around the world."

Linear acquires Dust Networks

Linear Technology has acquired low-power wireless sensor network company Dust Networks. Dust Networks’ low power wireless sensor network technology extends Linear’s product portfolio into key growth areas in industrial process control, data acquisition and energy harvesting. Dust Networks’ ultralow power wireless systems complements Linear’s analogue and digital sensor interface ICs, and energy harvesting power management products in applications where measurement of physical parameters has traditionally been impractical or impossible.

New mesh network protocol is self-configuring

Radiocrafts and TinyMesh have developed a new mesh network protocol operating in all sub-1GHz and 2.4GHz license free ISM bands. TinyMesh networks are self-forming and self-healing without external interaction. Due to the mesh network redundancy, TinyMesh offers excellent range and reliability, with no limitations in number of gateways or addressable nodes.

Microchip expands MiWi wireless development environment for IEEE 802.15.4, 2.4 GHz and unlicensed sub-GHz networks

Microchip has expanded its MiWi development environment for designing star and mesh wireless networking products. The MiWi  development environment (DE) comprises Microchip’s free, proprietary MiWi P2P, MiWi and MiWi PRO star and mesh networking protocol stacks; the 8-bit Wireless Development Kit (WDK) and 2.4 GHz, 868 MHz and 915 MHz ZENA Wireless Adapters; as well as the multi-purpose Wireless Development Studio (WDS) with cross-platform support for Linux, Mac OS and Windows operating systems.  The MiWi DE simplifies the development of ISM-band wireless networking applications for the home and industrial automation, wireless sensor monitoring and control, and smart energy markets.

Femtocells to the fore at the Fira – Mobile World Congress 2011

This year more than ever before, femtocells were one of the key technology stories at Mobile World Congress. But far from just conventional residential femtocells, larger enterprise and 'metro' femtocells were much in evidence this time, and the distinction between these and microcells or picocells is now largely based on which platform they have been developed on rather than their physical size or capacity. At the opposite end of the spectrum, a residential femtocell can now be realised in a USB dongle form factor.