Communications

Global mobile communications that reliably reach every remote region, leaving no gaps on the map? Satellites play a key role in achieving this goal. In the future, however, not all satellites will be powerful enough to act as complete base stations. As part of the TRANTOR project, Fraunhofer IIS has... Read more

Amazon is preparing to launch its first full batch of Project Kuiper satellites next week, marking a crucial milestone in the tech giant's bid to compete with Elon Musk's Starlink.... Read more

Blockchain technology was unveiled nearly 35 years ago, but it first became prominent more recently—in 2009, with the introduction of Bitcoin—giving this "digital ledger" an everyday, consumer purpose. However, while blockchains have been used for payments, digital contracts, and supply chains, blockchain systems still achieve a low transaction rate with... Read more

An estimated 240 million calls are made to 911 in the U.S. each year, with wireless devices accounting for 80% or more of these calls. Making sure emergency calls connect and stay connected to 911 dispatchers is essential and could have life-threatening consequences. MSU researchers found that in certain situations,... Read more

The United Nations on Tuesday urged countries to boost protections amid a marked increase in efforts to interfere with satellite navigation systems like GPS that are critical for aviation and maritime safety.... Read more

There's a major difference between humans and current artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities: common sense. According to a new paper by Walid Saad, professor in the College of Engineering and the Next-G Wireless Lead at the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus, a true revolution in wireless technologies is only possible through endowing... Read more

High above the Arctic Circle, on the rugged terrain of Andøya, three ESA radionavigation engineers take a rare moment to unwind with a game of shuffleboard. Outside, sheep graze under the shimmering northern lights, a serene backdrop to their demanding mission: test how navigation technologies withstand interference signals. With 100TB... Read more

Plasmonic modulators are tiny components that convert electrical signals into optical signals in order to transport them through optical fibers. A modulator of this kind had never managed to transmit data at a frequency of over a terahertz (over a trillion oscillations per second).... Read more

Modern communication networks rely on optical signals to transfer vast amounts of data. But just like a weak radio signal, these optical signals need to be amplified to travel long distances without losing information.... Read more

Indian telecom operator Bharti Airtel said Tuesday it has signed a deal with Elon Musk's Starlink to explore providing the U.S. satellite internet giant's services to customers in India, depending on government approval.... Read more

From music to film, subscriptions have become essential. The average number of subscriptions an American consumer maintains is four and a half, spending nearly US$1,000 a year. The average Canadian household pays for two and a half streaming TV platforms.... Read more

Korean researchers have succeeded in developing a core wired network technology that enables remote conferences, collaborations, and surgeries in a 6G environment. This technology will open up a hyper-immersive metaverse world in the future 6G world.... Read more

Researchers at the University of Twente, in collaboration with the City University of Hong Kong, have designed a cutting-edge programmable photonic chip in a thin-film lithium niobate platform, an important material in photonics. Published in Nature Communications, this work paves the way for next-generation high-performance radar and communication applications.... Read more

Indoor Positioning Systems (IPS) are essential for a wide range of applications, from robotics and drones to augmented reality. While traditional technologies like WiFi and Bluetooth often fall short in accuracy, Visible Light Positioning (VLP) stands out as a promising alternative due to its high precision and low infrastructure costs.... Read more

An internet rights group on Tuesday raised alarm over reports the United States may steer billions of dollars to Elon Musk's Starlink by making changes to a rural broadband deployment program.... Read more

Applications such as self-driving vehicles, 6G mobile communications and quantum communications are pushing fiber optic networks to their limits. Fraunhofer researchers have joined forces with partners to devise clever ways to optimize data transmission. Optical switches with liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) mirrors shrink data packets down to size so... Read more

Programmable metasurfaces (PMs), also sometimes referred to as reconfigurable intelligence surfaces, are smart surfaces that reflect wireless signals, but can also dynamically manipulate electromagnetic waves in real-time. These surfaces are highly advantageous for the development of many cutting-edge technologies, including advanced sensing and wireless communication systems.... Read more

The world's largest wireless technology showcase kicked off on Monday, with excitement over AI's potential to transform gadgets clashing with concerns over trade tensions fueled by the United States.... Read more

Quantum technology is no longer confined to the lab—it's making its way into our everyday lives. Now, it's about to transform something even more fundamental: how we navigate the world.... Read more

Wireless connections are common in most households today. From your lights to your heating, everything can be connected and controlled through Wi-Fi. However, wireless technology is inherently vulnerable to the threat of jamming.... Read more

A new study reveals advanced methods for improving orbit determination (OD) of large constellations of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, utilizing Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observations and inter-satellite ranging. These innovations promise to significantly boost the accuracy and computational efficiency essential for satellite communication, remote sensing, and navigation augmentation.... Read more

Three innovative design techniques substantially enhance wireless transmitter performance and can boost power efficiency and elevate data rates concurrently, as reported by the researchers from Science Tokyo, Japan. This effectively aligns with the growing demand for speed and efficiency, accelerating the widespread deployment of wireless devices. This enables synergistic operation... Read more

The University of Oulu's 6G research program was the first in the world to publish a 6G White Paper in 2019. It was jointly prepared by several dozen experts. In the following two years, several papers on different aspects complemented the series. In total, the scientific vision papers have been... Read more

With the exponential rise in drone activity, safely managing low-flying airspace has become challenging—especially in highly populated areas. Just last month, an unauthorized drone collided with a "Super Scooper" aircraft above the Los Angeles wildfires, grounding the aircraft for several days and hampering firefighting efforts.... Read more

Sixth-generation, or 6G, cellular networks are the next step in wireless communication, and electromagnetic terahertz waves are seen as crucial to its development. However, terahertz waves, with their higher frequency and shorter wavelength, are subject to greater interference from electromagnetic noise, making clear and secure transmission a challenge.... Read more

As 5G and 6G networks expand, they promise a future of incredibly fast and reliable wireless connections. A key technology behind this is millimeter-wave (mmWave), which uses very high-frequency radio waves to transmit huge amounts of data. To make the most of mmWave, networks use large groups of antennas working... Read more

Absorbing layers have been fundamental to advancements in technologies like energy harvesting, stealth systems, and communication networks. These absorbers efficiently capture electromagnetic waves across broad frequency ranges, enabling the development of sustainable, self-powered devices such as remote sensors and internet of things (IoT) systems.... Read more

In fall 2024, NASA developed and tested a 3D-printed antenna to demonstrate a low-cost capability to communicate science data to Earth. The antenna, tested in flight using an atmospheric weather balloon, could open the door for using 3D printing as a cost-effective development solution for the ever-increasing number of science... Read more

In recent years, electronics engineers worldwide have been trying to develop new hardware that could further boost the speed and efficiency of wireless communications. Digitally programmable metasurfaces, advanced artificial materials engineered to manipulate the properties of electromagnetic waves, have been found to be particularly promising for the transmission of wireless... Read more

A new study has introduced an advanced method for visual-inertial navigation, utilizing a single Ultra-Wideband (UWB) anchor with an unknown position to achieve exceptional positioning accuracy and robustness in environments lacking Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals.... Read more

AT&T is trying to address one of the biggest frustrations for wireless phone and internet customers—losing service to outages and still paying for it.... Read more

Look up: Can you see the sky?... Read more

Researchers have found a low-power, inexpensive way for large numbers of devices, such as machines in factories and equipment in labs, to share information by efficiently using signals at untapped high frequencies.... Read more

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are using non-weather data from the nationwide weather radar network to understand how to track non-meteorological events moving through the air for better emergency response. Weather reports on the news show colorful, near-time representations of clouds and precipitation moving over... Read more

Researchers have developed a new radar signal–processing technology that can dramatically enhance the resolution of existing low-resolution radars. This technology enables precise object recognition using existing hardware specifications without the need for bandwidth expansion.... Read more

A groundbreaking advancement in technology is paving the way for mobile phones and other electronic devices to recharge simply by being kept in a pocket. This innovative system enables wireless charging throughout three-dimensional (3D) spaces, encompassing walls, floors, and air.... Read more

The recent spate of unidentified drone sightings in the U.S., including some near sensitive locations such as airports and military installations, has caused significant public concern.... Read more

A breakthrough in antenna technology that could revolutionize the future of wireless communications, particularly for the upcoming 6th generation (6G) networks, has been announced by a research team led by Professor Chan Chi-hou, Chair Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK).... Read more

Researchers have developed a 3D-printed device that generates twisting light beams with orbital angular momentum (OAM), a form of rotational energy that can carry more data than regular beams. The efficient, compact and low-cost vortex beam generators could help enhance the capacity and reliability of future wireless systems.... Read more

As our devices multiply and data demands grow, traditional wireless systems are hitting their limits. To meet these challenges, we have turned to an innovative solution. At the University of Melbourne and Monash University, we have developed a dual-carrier Modular Optical Phased Array (MOPA) communication system. At the core of... Read more

Researchers have demonstrated a prototype mobile all-light communication network, paving the way for seamless connectivity across air, land and underwater environments—even when communication nodes are on a moving vehicle. This advance could enable uninterrupted data exchange in dynamic and challenging settings for navigation, emergency response, research and commercial operations.... Read more

By approving a merger of Vodafone and Three in the UK, the country has secured a commitment from the mobile phone operators to invest billions of pounds on 5G connectivity.... Read more

Researchers have achieved a breakthrough by mapping out the future of space-enabled 5G telecommunications. The 5G Infrastructure Study (5G-IS), funded by ESA's Connectivity and Secure Communications directorate, provides a comprehensive blueprint for delivering reliable connectivity worldwide.... Read more

A surge in GPS jamming attacks in drone warfare has inspired Australian researchers to develop a celestial navigation system that uses visual data from stars rather than relying on the global positioning system.... Read more

A data cable running across the land border between Sweden and Finland has been damaged, a company providing digital infrastructure and data communication in Northern Europe said Tuesday.... Read more

In urban environments, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) often struggle with signal obstructions caused by tall buildings, vehicles, and other structures. These obstacles lead to Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) errors that cause positioning inaccuracies, which are particularly problematic for technologies like autonomous vehicles and intelligent transportation systems.... Read more

One of Denmark's largest cellphone networks suffered severe outages Thursday that prevented people from contacting emergency services, forced at least one hospital to reduce non-critical medical care, and prompted security services in some regions to patrol the streets in search of people in need of help.... Read more

By leveraging cutting-edge additive manufacturing techniques and shape memory alloys, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, have created an antenna that can change its shape based on its temperature.... Read more

Imagine taking the radio frequency properties of the dish antennas you see on rooftops and knitting them into a wearable garment—a sweater or a blanket that is ultralight, portable, easy to fold up and stow away.... Read more

Smartphone-based augmented reality, in which visual elements are overlaid on the image of a smartphone camera, are extremely popular apps. These apps allow users to see how furniture would look in their house, or navigate maps better, or to play interactive games. The global phenomenon Pokémon GO, which encourages players... Read more