Communications

Rohde & Schwarz has simulated an LTE network with simultaneous time division duplex (TDD) and frequency division duplex (FDD) combining various frequency bands in mixed-mode TDD and FDD mixed carrier aggregation. The data was successfully transferred to the DUT on multiple aggregated carriers in different duplex modes. The simulation involved the CMW500 test platform which supports RF and protocol tests for carrier ...

Ericsson has worked with operator Unitel to demonstration of the end-to-end LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) Carrier Aggregation (CA) in a wireless network capable of supporting data speeds up to 450Mbit/s. According to Ericsson, this is one of the first demonstrations of 450Mbit/s data rate on a commercial LTE network. The demonstration link operated in 60MHz of spectrum, with three 20MHz LTE carriers ...

China wants to see a global standard for 5G, the next generation mobile phone standard which is expected to be introduced by 2020, writes Richard Wilson. China is the world’s largest mobile phone market and its adoption of a global 5G standard will be crucial. The head of the Chinese Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) which has worked on ...

French firm DelfMEMS has micromachined a 12-way RF switch, and will be showing prototypes at Mobile World Congress. “Until now, companies have tended towards the capacitive switch solution route. We chose contact or Ohmic switching because of the superior performance,” said CEO Cybele Rolland. “This is a key milestone for the company and we have already signed several contracts, with ...

Power-line comms chip start-up Xsilon (pronounced ‘ex-ill-on’) has launched an ‘early access partnership’ program (EAP) for companies interested in its silicon, which will sample in Q4. Unlike power-line firms which aim to transfer video or audio streams, Xsilon proposes to provide lower data rate (250kbit/s) whole-building machine-to-machine communication via the mains – for energy monitoring, for example. Alongside early silicon, companies ...

Intel’s spin in wearable devices seems to be based on a hardware module and the microprocessor company’s first purpose-built system-on-chip (SoC) device. But the module, called Curie, is only scheduled to ship in the second half of this year. This means Intel will miss the first generation of wearable products, and could see it playing catch-up with other suppliers including ...

Marvell has introduced a 4×4 802.11ac Wave-2 Wi-Fi SoC called the AP3200 reference Platform which combines the company’s Armada and Avastar product lines.

CSR is focusing its embedded design strategy on the ARM mbed operating system. CSR plans to offer two mbed expansion boards, also known as shields, to support Bluetooth and Wi-Fi interfaces. One shield solution combines Wi-Fi and Bluetooth based on the CSR6030 and CSR8311. The other offers a Bluetooth Smart interface based on the CSR1010 chip. These shields will work ...

Lattice Semiconductor has developed human voice detection and command recognition intellectual property for its iCE40 family of FPGAs for mobiles. The idea is that the main application processor stays asleep while the always-on FPGA listens for valid speech – waking the main processor when it has verified the speech. Either IP block will fit in a 2.1×2.1mm FPGA (36 ball, ...

The DECT ULE Alliance will present its certification program at CES in Las Vegas. “This is an important step forward, to mix and match smart home products, as you do with Wi-Fi clients,” said a spokesman for the Alliance. DECT ULE (ultra-low energy) is based around the cordless phone protocol, became an ETSI standard a year ago, and is intended ...