100 years of Wireless History

Recently attended the Cambridge Wireless Inaugural Wireless Heritage SIG event, “100 years of radio”. Some very interesting presentations and discussions on the wireless history. 

Each of the presenters touched on a double-decade period and focussed on the lessons that can be learnt from that time and their relevance today. Focusing on 20 year timeframes, the event walked us through the exciting rise and evolution of wireless technology from 1914 to present day, while showcasing live demos from each age.

Presentations were heard from:

• Colin Smithers, Chairman, Plextek "1914-1934: The wireless wave" - The Wireless Telegraphy Handbook of 1913 speculated on the future use of Continuous Waves and sets a benchmark against which fundamental trends in the industry can be measured and predicted including data costs and technology and transmission standard life spans. (PDF)
• Geoff Varrall, Director, RTT Online "1934 - 1945: The wireless war" - In his controversial book The Origins of the Second World War the revisionist historian AJP Taylor argues that the Second World War was not caused by Hitler but was the result of a combination of factors including the rapid growth of broadcasting technology. So was this the wireless war? (PDF)
• Steve Haseldine, CEO, Deaf Alerter, "1945 to 1974: The cold war - radio goes underground" - The National Communication Radio System, spy and clandestine radio, preparing for the Third World War (PDF)
• Nigel Linge, Professor of Telecommunications,  School of Computing, Science and Engineering, University of Salford "1974 to 1994" - The transistor comes of age, the role of radio in consumer electronics and cellular radio (PDF)
• Andy Sutton, Principal Network Architect, EE "1994 to 2014: Mass consumer cellular and the mobile broadband revolution" - Broadband radio, digital radio, smart phone and smart networks (PDF)

All presentations can be downloaded individually from CW website here. 

5G and the ‘Millimeter-Wave' Radios

There were quite a few interesting talks in the Cambridge Wireless Radio Technology SIG event last week. The ones that caught my attention and I want to highlight here are as follows.

The mobile operator EE and 5GIC centre explained the challenges faced during the Practical deployments. Of particular interest was the considerations during deployments. The outdoor environments can change in no time with things like foliage, signage or even during certain festivals. This can impact the radio path and may knock out certain small cells or backhaul. The presentation is available to view and download here.

Another interesting presentation was from Bluwireless on the 60GHz for backhaul. The slide that was really shocking was the impact of regulation in the US and the EU. This regulation difference means that a backhaul link could be expensive and impractical in certain scenarios in the EU while similar deployments in the US would be considerably cheaper. This presentation is available here.

Finally, the presentation from Samsung highlighted their vision and showed the test results of their mmWave prototype. The presentation is embedded below and is available here.

Vision and Key Features for 5th Generation (5G) Cellular - Samsung from Zahid Ghadialy

Finally, our 5G presentation summarising our opinion and what 5G may contain is available here. Dont forget to see the interesting discussion in the comments area.

The futuristic concept of 'Smart Batteries'

I did a presentation in the Cambridge Wireless Future technology SIG about what we call 'Smart Batteries'. The presentation is self-explanatory and is embedded below. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts about this idea.

Smart Batteries from eXplanoTech

Other links if you want to dig further on batteries:

• Li-Ion vs Li-Poly, plus how do Lithium batteries work anyway?
• Lithium-ion Batteries - Apple
• Battle of the smartphone batteries - Daily Mail
• New battery alternative emerges for hybrid cars
• Technology companies charge towards next generation battery future
• Light-weight body parts will be the battery of future cars
• These transparent solar cells provide 50% more battery life for your phone — and ‘infinite’ standby time
• Smartphone battery life: 2 problems, 4 fixes (Smartphones Unlocked)
• New lithium-ion battery design that’s 2,000 times more powerful, recharges 1,000 times faster
• The Power Treadmill

Rise of the "Thing"

Light Reading carried an interesting cartoon on how M2M works. I wouldnt be surprised if some of the M2M applications at present do work like this. Jokes apart, last week the UK operator EE did a very interesting presentation on Scaling the network for the Rise of the Thing.

A question often asked is "What is the difference between the 'Internet of Things' (IoT) and 'Machine to Machine' (M2M)?". This can generate big discussions and can be a lecture on its own. Quora has a discussion on the same topic here. The picture above from the EE presentation is a good way of showing that M2M is a subset of IoT. 

Its also interesting to note how these 'things' will affect the signalling. I often come across people who tell me that since most M2M devices just use small amounts of data transfer, why is there a need to move from GPRS to LTE. The 2G and 3G networks were designed primarily for Voice with Data secondary function. These networks may work well now but what happens when the predicted 50 Billion connected devices are here by 2020 (or 500 Billion by 2030). The current networks would drown in the control signalling that would often result in congested networks. Congestion control is just one of the things 3GPP is working on for M2M type devices as blogged earlier here. In fact the Qualcomm presentation blogged about before does a decent job of comparing various technologies for IoT, see here.

The EE presentation is embedded as follows:

Scaling the Network - Rise of the Thing from Zahid Ghadialy

Another good example website I was recently made aware of is http://postscapes.com/internet-of-things-examples/ - worth checking how IoT would help us in the future.

Handset Antenna Design

Came across this presentation on Handset Antenna design from a recent Cambridge Wireless event here. Its interesting to see how the antenna technology has evolved and is still evolving. Another recent whitepaper from 4G Americas on meeting the 1000x challenge (here) showed how the different wavelengths are affecting the antenna design.

Maybe its better to move to higher frequencies from the handset design point of view. Anyway, the Cambridge Wireless presentation is embedded below:

Handset Antenna Design from Zahid Ghadialy

Making LTE fit for the IoT

Another presentation from the #FWIC2013. This presentation by Vodafone covers some of the areas where the LTE standards are being tweaked for making M2M work with them without issues.

Another area is the access barring that I have blogged about before here. This will become important when we have loads of devices trying to access the network at the same time.

The presentation is embedded below and you can also listen to the audio here.

Making LTE fit for the IoT - Vodafone from Zahid Ghadialy

Big Data and Vulnerability of Cellular Systems

I am sure most of you are aware of Big Data, if not watch this video on my old post here. Moray Rumney from Agilent recently gave a talk in #FWIC on how Big Data techniques can be used to exploit the vulnerabilities in a cellular system. Though the talk focussed on GSM and 3G, it is always a good intro. The presentation embedded below:

Collecting Big Data in an Increasingly Complex Mobile World from Zahid Ghadialy

You can also listen to the audio of his presentation here.

Connectivity in 'Connected Vehicles'

An interesting presentation from the Future of Wireless International conference about the evolution and options for connected cars and other vehicles

Connected Vehicle - Accenture from Zahid Ghadialy

Present and Future Technologies for Internet of Things (IoT)

An Interesting presentation from our Future of Wireless Conference (#FWIC2013) in Cambridge earlier this month. A question being asked is what technology will be used for Internet of Things (IoT) or Internet of Everything (IoE) as its also referred to nowadays. These 3 slides below summarises what technologies are see applicable to which scenarios.

Complete slides are embedded below and if you like to see the video, its available here.

Mapping the Future of the Internet of (Every)Thing(s) from Zahid Ghadialy

500 Billion devices by 2030, etc...

Few weeks back in the LTE World Summit 2013, I heard someone from Ericsson mention that internally they think that by 2030 there will be 500 Billion Connected devices on the planet. The population projections for 2030 is somewhere around 8.5 Billion people worldwide. As a result the figure does not come much as a surprise to me.

John Cunliffe from Ericsson is widely credited for making the statement 50 Billion connected devices by 2020. Recently he spoke in the Cambridge Wireless and defended his forecast on the connected devices. He also provided us with the traffic exploration tool to see how the devices market would look up till 2018. Here is one of the pictures using the tool:

In terms of Cellular connectivity, we are looking at 9 Billion devices by 2018. The interesting thing to notice is that in 2017, there are still some 4 Billion feature phones. While in the developed world our focus is completely on Smartphones, its interesting to see new and existing SMS/USSD based services are still popular in the developing world. Some months back I heard about Facebook developing SMS/USSD based experience for Feature phones, I am sure that would attract a lot of users from the developing world.

One thing missing from the above is non-cellular connections which will make bulk of connectivity. Wi-Fi for example is a major connectivity medium for tablets. In fact 90% of the tablets have only WiFi connectivity. Bluetooth is another popular method of connectivity. While its mostly used in conjunction with phones, it is going to be a popular way of connecting devices in the Personal Area Network's (PAN's). So its no surprise that we will see 50 Billion connected devices but maybe not by 2020. My guess would be around 2022-23.

From M2M Communications to IoT

M2M was again in the news recently when a new report suggested that it would be $1 Trillion industry. Back in december I posted a detailed presentation on M2M that has now crossed over 6K views. This shows that there is an appetite for this topic. So here is a three part presentation on M2M and IoT. In fact as I pointed out in a post last year, it is very often referred to as IoE (Internet of Everything) rather than IoT (Internet of Things). If this is a topic close to your heart then please do come to the Future of Wireless International Conference (FWIC) organised by Cambridge Wireless on 1st and 2nd July 2013. Details here.

Ten things Wi-Fi had in common with public toilets!

Interesting perspective from a presentation by Agilent in Cambridge Wireless Small Cells SIG.

Half Duplex Operation (HD-FDD) in LTE

It was interesting to hear the other day that there is an option for HD-FDD but it is still undergoing investigation and not standardised yet. From what I hear, operators are showing an interest and we may see it coming to an operator near us in the next couple of years.

Complete presentation below:

Half Duplex Operation in Multimode/Multiband/MIMO-capable Handsets from Zahid Ghadialy

The advantages are obvious but probably the only reason this was not standardised actively is probably because then peak rates often quoted when promoting technology will be halved. The economy of scale is also important and we may not see this becoming popular unless many operators decide together to push for this.

Other posts of interest:

• Quick Introduction to LTE-Advanced
• Quick update on 3GPP Release-12 progress
• TD-LTE in China: Progress and Plan

Opportunities for reshaping the future of your industry?

Another one from FWIC

Opportunities for reshaping the future of your industry? from Zahid Ghadialy

You can also view the webcast here.

Intelligent Devices and Smart Journeys

Couple of days back, I posted some videos that show technology advancements for the mobile phones. Here is a presentation by Peter Whale from Qualcomm in a recent Cambridge Wireless event about how Sensors and Context-engine will make the future devices much more intelligent then they already are.

Intelligent Devices and Smart Journeys from Zahid Ghadialy

A shameless plug for my presentation on the similar topic from the LTE World Summit 2012, that has now crossed 6000 views, available here.

Radio Challenges and Opportunities for Large Scale Small Cell Deployments

Here is another presentation by Keima at our Small Cells Event. Their last presentation on "Twitter et al. for Small Cell Planning" was a hit and has racked up over 9000 views on slideshare.

Radio Challenges and Opportunities for Large Scale Small Cell Deployments from 3G4G

Small Cell Backhaul Solution Types

This is from a presentation by Julius Robson of CBNL, representing NGMN in the Cambridge Wireless Small Cells SIG event.

Interesting to see all possible options for Backhaul for small cells.

The presentation is available to view and download from here.

Related blog posts:

• Two interesting NGMN papers on Backhaul
• Couple of presentations on Backhaul

Summary of Cambridge Wireless Event on Small Cells, 3rd Oct. 2012

We had another successful Small Cells SIG Event (jointly powered by the Radio Technology SIG) in Cambridge Wireless on the theme “Radio Challenges and Opportunities for Large Scale Small Cell Deployments”. I will be looking at the presentations in detail in separate blog posts as there are interesting bits and pieces from each of them that can easily be overlooked. Here is a high level summary of this event.

We had over a hundred delegates in this event and as one of the speakers admitted privately, they were expecting to see around a dozen people and were a bit overwhelmed by the number and caliber of the people. The delegates included small cell vendors, chipset vendors, test & measurement vendors, operators, industry analysts, regulators, etc. It was a lovely day to be in Cambridge with the sun shining the whole of morning and the afternoon to show us the best of the Downing college.

The event was kicked off by Prof. Simon Saunders, formerly the founding chairman of Small Cell Forum who talked about the long journey the small cells (or Femtocells as they were then known) have gone through, the benefits and the road ahead.

This was followed by a talk from Julius Robson of CBNL, who was also representing NGMN. The focus of the talk was on backhaul.

Nick Johnson, CTO of ip.access was the next speaker who started his presentation with humorous note. His presentation was titled "Building the World’s Largest Residential Small-Cell network" but as he said he was very tempted to change the title to “How to Screw Up the World’s Largest Residential Small Cell Deployment”. His talk had lots of real life examples on where and how things can go wrong and how to make sure they dont. If they do, what lessons should be learnt. Some of these problems have been faced by me too in various test scenarios. It was a very interesting talk.

After the break we heard a presentation from Steve Brown of Telefonica O2 UK. The talk was a bit familiar for me (and my blog readers) as I have already blogged on similar information in the past. It was though new information for the audience and could see that they were enjoying this information. A lot of questions were asked after the presentation and also in the panel discussion at the end. There is some interesting new information that I will blog later on.

The final talk was by Iris Barcia of Keima who talked about "Small Cell Network Design".

Finally we had a panel discussion with lots of interesting questions. Once the discussions finished there were people discussing and debating issues among themselves for a long time. I am looking forward to the next event in January in London on the topic "Lets get real!" where we are hoping to be able to hear from some more operators/vendors on the deployment and rollout issues. More details available on the Cambridge Wireless page here.

The Scent Phone

When I spoke about the 'next killer device', I showed this picture below and mentioned that smell is an area that has a lot of potential but difficult to exploit.  

In the Future of Wireless conference, one of the talks that many people were keen to listen about was about this 'scent phone'. Presentation embedded below:

Scent Phone from Zahid Ghadialy

I have also blogged about the same topic before that can be seen here.

If you are interested in these topics, see also:

• The Next ‘Killer Device’
• Future Mobile devices: Winners & Losers in technology

mHealth Revolution

We are living in amazing times where we can do things we could have just dreamt of 5-10 years back. I came across the following video:



This gives hope to the third world where a lot of our old non-smartphones are ending up. In fact this reminds me of Mexapixel Microscopy that can possibly have numerous applications.

There was an interesting presentation recently in the Future of Wireless Conference that was very well received and had people discussing it on twitter and in the event. Its embedded below (download from slideshare)

mHEALTHCARE Opportunities, Challenges and Prospects

View more presentations from Zahid Ghadialy

Do you have any more ideas or information on this topic? Please feel free to share in the comments.