Streaming services, games, cloud storage, as well as web conferencing and remote desktop services cause stress on conventional wireless networks. This creates a huge demand for wireless capacity that cannot be solved with increases to the existing spectrum.
“Mobile broadband data demand will grow by a thousandfold between 2010 and 2020,” Upamanyu Madhow, a professor in UC Santa Barbara’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said.
According to Phys.org, Madhow and his fellow colleagues are examining what is called the ‘millimeter wave band,’ or an area of the electromagnetic spectrum that operates at a much higher frequency than the radio waves used in conventional wireless communications.
“Not only would the tiny wavelengths offer additional real estate on the electromagnetic spectrum but their relatively smaller coverage area (called “cells”) lends itself to better efficiency,” Phys.org reported.
“Because this emerging technology for wireless communications is still relatively new, significant research is necessary in a number of areas—including hardware design, algorithms, and network protocols, together with experimental validation to stimulate transition to future industry standards—before the next generation of wireless devices can be developed to take advantage of the millimeter wave spectrum,” Phys.org added.
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