Product category:
Communications ICs (Wireless)
News Release from: IMEC
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 02 October 2003
Wireless grid to lay the foundations
broadband
IMEC is directing its long-term R and D on broadband wireless communication towards multimode, multihop terminals.
IMEC is directing its long-term R and D on broadband wireless communication towards multimode, multihop terminals New research activities include flexible digital communication engines, software-defined radios and quality-of-experience (QoE) engine controllers that perform cross-layer optimisation
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 20 Feb 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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Analysis of traditional architectures that consist of access points and terminals, shows that several physical limits will be reached, such as intrinsic compute power and spectrum availability.
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Moreover, a migration to frequencies above 10GHz, would give rise to problems in range versus transmit power and cost in the front end.
Completely novel architectures that break through the traditional base stations concept, need to be developed.
To this end, IMEC is launching research activities within the wireless grid concept where a conglomeration of discrete devices will automatically be configured into an ad-hoc network that will provide maximum flexibility, service quality and quantity to broadband wireless communication.
Several challenges have yet to be solved, but IMEC has already achieved several milestones which lay the foundations of its program on ubiquitous broadband wireless communication.
Given the variety in geographical environment and terminals, one ideal transmission scheme cannot be defined.
A generic transmission scheme that adapts to link and quality-of-service (QoS) demands is required.
To this end, IMEC is researching flexible communication engines that can handle different modes such as advanced coding schemes for full mobile broadband (wide band CDMA) and WLAN upgrades based on current and future multiple antenna systems (MIMO).
In this way, optimal spectral efficiency and power bookkeeping can be achieved.
The flexible communication engine will control the software-defined radio, which features a multimode, multifrequency and flexible front end.
To integrate the software-defined radio, a highly integrated "system-in-a-package (SiP)" strategy is deployed, which combines IC integration and RF multichip-module (MCM) technology.
The reconfigurable front-end requires a combination of the best quality technologies and enhancements to the design space with advanced technological components such as RF-MEMS.
Smart multiple antenna enhancements will boost range, reliability and data rates.
They will also be key to soft and seamless handovers between different air interfaces, and provide interference suppression in the wireless grid.
Although traditionally, such flexibility results in an increase in power, IMEC has proven that by providing intelligent flexibility in the design and operation, lower power consumption can be achieved.
IMEC's methodology enables crosslayer-performance/energy tradeoff exploration, providing the necessary information to carry out system adaptation at run time.
The approach has already been applied to WLAN systems in a simple single-hop networking scenario.
First results show that, by only considering one layer crossing, a sevenfold energy gain is expected when applying the proposed approach to next-generation WLAN systems.
IMEC's foundations for the wireless grid are based on generic patented technologies, which are accessible to industrial partners through a variety of business solutions and dynamic interaction programs ranging from long-term research contracts, bilateral collaboration contracts, technology transfers and licence agreements to industrial affiliation programmes.
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