DIGITALISATION
SUPERCHARGING THE INFORMATION AGE WITH
MILLIMETRE-WAVE TECHNOLOGY by Giovanni D’Amore, Director of Product Marketing, Keysight Technologies Overcoming the existing limitations. Forecasts have shown that there will be more than 29 billion networked devices by 2023, with machine-tomachine (M2M) connections representing half of the total. This type of communication needs to rely on very high transmission speeds and low latency to enable mission-critical applications such as self-driving cars and advanced driver-assistance systems.
Move up to millimetre-wave The millimetre-wave (mmWave) radio spectrum is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum with frequencies from 30 GHz to 300 GHz. Until recently, frequencies used for communications were limited to the microwave band, typically 3 GHz to 30 GHz. Most commercial wireless networks use the lower part of this band - between 800 MHz and 6 GHz. The 3G/4G/5G cellular connection on smartphones, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth connection on any wireless headset, and almost anything we can think of, uses those frequencies to transmit information. But while the number of users and devices consuming data increases exponentially, the radio spectrum frequency band available to telecom carriers has not changed. Each user is allocated a limited amount of bandwidth, leading to slower speeds and frequent disconnections. One way to solve this problem is to transmit signals on bands where spectrum is readily available. The mmWave band offers a huge amount of under-utilised bandwidth, frequency reuse and channel bandwidth - making it particularly suited for multi-gigabit mobile communication systems and high-throughput satellites. Components working in the mmWave bands are more compact and smaller in size, making them particularly useful in scenarios with a high density of devices operating simultaneously and in close proximity. Those advantages make mmWave technology the way to boost performance of data transmission and become the turbo of the information age engine.
Multi-gigabit connectivity for capacity and speed Satisfying demand for high-quality services for greatly increasing subscribers accessing mobile cellular networks is essential for network operators. More users and more connections mean stress on 26
THE SINGAPORE ENGINEER October 2021
Mr Giovanni D’Amore
the network. But while we assume the air is used as a wireless transmission medium and does not have bandwidth limitation, the reality is that it does. If the number of connections increases and the network does not adapt to this new need, it is like being at a big football game and not being able to call or message our friends due to the overwhelming number of users that want to do the same thing at the same time. New technologies like 5G or Wi-Fi (802.11ay) are designed to overcome those challenges and guarantee what is defined as ‘great service in a crowd’. To meet anticipated data throughput demands, high frequency bands in the mmWave range need to be adopted to accommodate more users in a spectrum section still free of interference, and not yet allocated. The mmWave bands give information bandwidth allowing data transfer rates up to 10 Gbit/s. This is comparable to optical fibre, and is 100 times faster than current 4G technology. Due to the properties of high frequencies in relation to atmospheric absorption, as you move to higher frequencies, transmission range gets shorter. Millimetre waves allow close-range communication up to 100 metres, rather than up to kilometres. In this scenario, frequency can be reused, allowing simultaneously operating networks that do not interfere with each other. Technologies such as beamforming also increase cellular network capacity, improving the transmission efficiency by targeting the users.
Enabling more flexible satellite communications Satellite communications play a vital role in the global telecommunications system. More than 3,000 operational satellites are currently in orbit and more than 1,800 of them are communications satellites. In the past two years, multiple commercial satellite operators have begun launching high-throughput satellite constellations. These next-generation satellites will be able to provide far more throughput - up to 400% more, compared to conventional fixed, broadcast, and mobile satellite services. This significant increase in capacity is achieved by using a ‘spot beam’ architecture to cover a desired service area, as in a cellular network, in contrast to the wide beam used in traditional satellite technology.
