Location adds a lot of value - and not just for real estate. Whether it’s asset tracking, turn-by-turn navigation, fraud prevention or fitness, the ability to pinpoint a person, place or thing is now a key part of most consumer and business applications.Satellites are a common way to enable location-based services (LBS), which is why the global GNSS chip market is on track to grow from $2.7 ...read more

If it seems like we’re still in early days of 5G, that’s because we are. I know this firsthand. As we help service providers test their networks and services, we tend to get a good sense of what’s real, what’s hypothetical, and what’s just around the corner. Based on what we’re seeing out there, the industry is about to make some major strides. Here are seven 5G...read more

Software Defined Radios (SDRs) are highly functional and advanced radio communication devices that are employed in numerous applications across various industries. The reason behind their ubiquitousness is their line-up of beneficial characteristics that include high functionality, ruggedness, versatility, compactness, wide compatibility, and ease of integration. This article is the third in a ser...read more

The Race to LEO Mega ConstellationsSince 2019, we’ve seen the first satellites of LEO mega constellations being launched into orbit. Reflecting the increase in consumer demand for connectivity in recent years, we’ve heard of plans to launch large constellations of satellites into LEO in order to deliver low latency and geographically wide-reaching coverage to consumers. With LEO becomi...read more

Software Defined Radios (SDR) have become the best option for many radio applications due to their precision, flexibility, reliability and simplified design process. In this article, we will discuss the application of SDR in radars. Although composed of mainly analog circuits in the past, modern radars rely on powerful digital signal processing to operate. Aviation and marine navigation, weather/m...read more

RF MEMS switches have proven their ability to operate under extremely harsh temperature, shock, and vibration environments and have debunked the long-standing belief that they were not robust enough to provide the operating life required in demanding applications.When MEMS technology was first realized in production devices it didn’t take long before it displaced legacy technologies at a rap...read more

When it comes to mmWave systems, science can only progress as far as compatible hardware will allow. This portion of the electromagnetic spectrum will unlock enormous potential for design engineers with the promise of vastly superior data speeds, capacity, and quality, all at low latency. However, the lack of high-performance components in the higher mmWave bands (50 GHz - 500 GHz) is limiting the...read more

Phased array antennas have proven their value for mmWave 5G radios. The improved beam reach and data throughput offered by a focused beam combines with the spatial multiplexing possibilities offered by directional beam steering to make array antennas essential at these frequencies. Driving these arrays of antennas with each antenna’s signal having a unique amplitude and phase setting require...read more

Software defined radios can be used for several different purposes: this article explores GPS/GNSS and how SDR can be used to great benefit.IntroductionIn this article we discuss how software defined radios (SDR) provide the radio communication capabilities of global positioning systems (GPS) and global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), and how different signals originating from the satellite c...read more

When it comes to software defined radio (SDR) applications requiring time sensitive reception and processing of signals, latency is of great concern. Components, devices and computing which contribute to latency in Per Vices SDRs are discussed here, as well as how these can be mitigated.What is and what causes latency?Latency is a term thrown around in any sort of electrical and computer networkin...read more

In the service provider (SP) networking space, we’re on the cusp of some groundbreaking changes. 5G standalone architectures, ultra-low-latency services, end-to-end network slicing—it’s all exciting, if still in early days. There’s one network transformation, however, that’s well under way that might just represent the biggest change of all: the shift to Open Radio Ac...read more

A software-defined radio (SDR) is a radio communication system that uses software for all transmit and receive functionality. In an SDR, signal processing is mainly implemented by means of software in a general-purpose computer or reconfigurable embedded system. Hence in principle, based merely on the software used, an SDR can transmit and receive practically any radio protocols or signal waveform...read more

In the time since the IEEE added support for Ultra-Wideband (UWB) communication to the 802.15.4 specification, a number of very big names have moved quickly to adopt the technology. Apple and Samsung now offer UWB as part of their latest smartphones, and a number of automakers, including Volkswagen, are demonstrating cars equipped with UWB features.Market analysts are talking about UWB, too, predi...read more

RF communication systems using advanced modulation formats rely on the linearity of the signal chain components to meet throughput performance requirements. Nonlinearities result in mixing products which include harmonics and intermodulation (IM) products. Though passive components such as cables, connectors, switches, and antennas are highly linear, they can become significant sources of passive ...read more

In the extremely simplified version of the realm of Quantum Computing, the ultimate goal is to be able to isolate and “read” Qubits, which are the Quantum equivalent of Bits in traditional data processing. Whereas standard data streams ultimately consist of bits that each have one of two values (either 1 or 0), a single Qubit has the tremendous advantage of representing up to FIVE valu...read more