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  • Author Author: Catwell
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60 GHz Wireless Communication, 4G in the UK

Catwell

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60 GHz Transceiver (via Imec & Panasonic)

 

The Innovation of 60GHz Wigig internet could replace our familiar Wi-Fi signal in the near future. Belgian research lab Imec hopes to implant 60GHz radio transceiver chips inside of mobile devices for incredibly fast data transactions. This could be an important technology as the UK will soon auction off the 4G spectrum. Delays have taken the auction from December 2011 to May 2012. Hopefully they will get this sorted soon, as the UK public wishes to use some sort of 4G service at least by 2013.

 

 

The company Imec is collaborating with Panasonic to take on some of the biggest challenges to the technology, mainly cost and power usage. The advantages to the technology are clear: 7Gbps data rates are realistic and the high propagation attenuation of high-frequency communication proves to be very useful in short-range applications (around 30 ft) for its immunity to interference, high security characteristics and frequency reuse.

 

 

In making this 60GHz radio, Imec is implementing a low power 40nm digital complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS). CMOS enable smaller transistors with higher switching speeds. CMOS technology also allows for combining the analog radio with the digital radio baseband on a single radio transceiver chip.

 

 

The low power transceiver’s transmit signal consists of a power amplifier and a mixer and uses 90mW. The path for receiving signals is made up of a low noise amplifier and a mixer, which consume 35 mW and have a noise frequency of 5.5 dB and give 30dB gain. This level of power consumption meets with the IEEE802.11ad standard.

 

 

Imec is pushing mass production of some of the transceivers components to drive down the cost. However, having such low-cost, low-power, small-sized modules also require integrating CMOS chips into antennas as well.

 

 

Applications like Gbps downloads, uncompressed video distribution and faster wireless connections between laptops and printers will be tested and could soon be found in devices for consumers. Although this may be 4G in the UK, sounds like it will be labeled 5G for everyone else.

 

Cabe

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  • in reply to Eavesdropper

    I was trying to use the far-field, i.e. electro-magnetic propagation, which requires the waves be smaller than the pipe.  Near-field propagation (i.e. inductive or capacitive coupling) requires the distance between the transmitter and receiver be less than half a wavelength.  I'm not sure if it could be made to work within a pipe without a common ground connection other than the pipe.  I think the answer is no, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

     

    Near-field is of interest to people who need to power something wirelessly and communicate data to/from it. 

     

    Regarding amt of data, at a given SNR, you need a certain amount of bandwidth for a certain amount of throughput.  For wireless transmission, it's roughly 1 MHz per 1 Mbps, which is why people colloquially call throughput "bandwidth".  If you consider ULF to be frequencies in roughly the 10s or low 100s of kHz, the whole ULF band is only a few hundred kHz wide, which is enough for a few hundred kbps.  At 60GHz, you can use 59.990GHz to 60.010GHz, and have a 20MHz signal using only a fraction of the band.

     

    You can get 5Mbps per MHz or greater if you use MIMO and/or have a very low SNR (802.11n will do it if conditions are just right), but 1MHz per 1Mbps is a good practical rule of thumb. 

  • in reply to gervasi

    Ultra-low frequencies (ULF) would eliminate the penetration problem, wouldn't it. I can see at frequencies like 60Ghz, a lot of data could be transmittion at any instant. However, at ULFs, could the same happen?

     

    I must look into this.

     

    E

  • I agree with all of this, but high path cost and object attenuation are dubious features of 60GHz.  I wonder how much more walls or other common objects attenuate 60GHz compared to 2.4GHz.  If you have a LoS path, the extra path cost is just extra required output power or receiver sensitivity to get the same range.   But it could be better at stopping non-LoS eveasdroppers.  Call-it-a-feature is a standard way to address a trait like this. 

     

    OTOH, I know someone who wants to transmits data down a metal pipe, 1" in diameter.  So the wavelength must be >12GHz for it to propagate at all.  People who need to do this must use wires or sound.  The pipe bends slightly so light won't work.  The distance is only 50m.  A low-power 60GHz transmitter might work in this application. 

     

    It's just a matter of time before this is used for cable replacement, as people had talked about UWB being.  By some definitions, this probably qualifies as UWB.