Researchers from Rice University, Yale University and Bell Labs have successfully demonstrated a new technology that will enable mobile network operators to increase capacity without adding spectrum by allowing cell towers to simultaneously beam signals to more than a dozen customers on the same frequency. Known as Argos, the new multi-antenna technology will assist wireless providers in keeping up with the rising data demands of smartphones.
A prototype built at Rice University and presented at the MobiCom 2012 wireless research conference in Istanbul used 64 antennas to allow a single wireless base station to communicate directly to 15 users simultaneously. Researchers theorize that this performance can be scaled up to work with hundreds of antennas and several dozen users at one time while also reducing the amount of power needed for a transmission.
Argos is estimated to be at least five years away from being available on the commercial market.
