Articles by David Vye

by Richard Mumford, MWJ European Editor Agilent Technologies will showcase its measurement solutions for LTE, TD-LTE, HSPA+, E-EDGE (EDGE Evolution), WiMAXTM, UMA/GAN, 3GPP W-CDMA, GSM 3GPP Long Term Evolution, femtocells, mobile business analytics and VoIP for MSS. Visitors to Hall 1, Stand D45 will see Agilent demonstrate: ● The Radio Digital Cross Domain (RDX) solution that provides a single test environment for MIPI Digital Radio Frequency (DigRF) v3 and v4 protocols. ● MIMO channel emulation and co-existence test, solved with the N5106A PXB MIMO receiver tester. ● Industry-leading mobile test solutions for HSPA+, HSDPA, E-EDGE, UMA/GAN and GPS. ● LTE...

by Richard Mumford, MWJ European Editor TriQuint Semiconductor will be showcasing the TriQuint Unified Mobile Front-end (TRIUMF) Module™ family, convergence architecture for mobile device manufacturers designing next generation 3G/4G products. The family aims to offer manufacturers a streamlined radio frequency footprint combining GSM, EDGE, WCDMA and HSPA transmit functionality into one module. This convergence of functionality into one power amplifier module should offer up to a 50 percent size reduction over today’s multi-band module solutions. Andreas Nitschke, product marketing manager for mobile handsets at TriQuint stated, “TriQuint set the industry standard for size and performance with its highly-integrated TRITIUM and...

by Richard Mumford, MWJ European Editor As a leading supplier of test and measurement solutions for wireless communications and with over 75 years of experience of driving innovation, Rohde & Schwarz will showcase its MIMO, 3GPP LTE, HSPA+, WiMAX™ and Edge Evolution in Hall 1, Stand D59. A new addition to the portfolio is the R&S CMW500 test platform solution that performs all relevant wireless device tests, especially for LTE and HSPA+. When equipped with the appropriate hardware and software components, the R&S CMW500 can perform T&M tasks ranging from RF and protocol tests up to complex application tests. The...

On this day (February 6th) in 1959, Jack Kilby (November 8, 1923 - June 20, 2005) filed a patent for a "Solid Circuit made of Germanium", the first integrated circuit. Along with Robert Noyce (who independently made a similar circuit a few months later), Kilby is generally credited as co-inventor of the integrated circuit. He was a Nobel Prize laureate in physics in 2000 for his invention of the integrated circuit. The transistor, invented at Bell Labs in 1947 had stimulated engineers to design ever more complex electronic circuits and equipment containing hundreds or thousands of discrete components such...

Gartner, Inc. has identified eight mobile technologies that will evolve significantly through 2010, impacting short-term mobile strategies and policies. “All mobile strategies embed assumptions about technology evolution so it’s important to identify the technologies that will evolve quickly in the life span of each strategy,” said Nick Jones, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “The eight mobile technologies that we have pinpointed as ones to watch in 2009 and 2010 will have broad effects and, as such, are likely to pose issues to be addressed by short-term strategies and policies.” Gartner’s eight mobile technologies to watch in 2009 and...

While sales in technology have gotten off to a slow start this year, government spending may be the best hope for many in the communications industry. Federal spending by the US government is expected to be about $80.6 billion on information technology products and services this year, according to a December study released by Compass Intelligence. According to the report this is a 5.5% increase over last year. The report also noted that spending on software applications will be the fastest-growing segment, with an annual growth between 8.6% and 9.8%. Stephanie Atkinson, managing partner and principal analyst at Compass Intelligence...

John Maynard Keynes, (June 5, 1883 – April 21, 1946) was a British economist whose ideas, called Keynesian economics, have had a major impact on modern economic and political theory as well as on many governments' fiscal policies. He advocated interventionist government policy, by which the government would use fiscal and monetary measures to mitigate the adverse effects of economic recessions, depressions and booms. Should government spending extend to communication and the microwave industry? As the US and the Obama administration look to short-term fiscal stimulus of the lagging economy, the idea of improving rural access to broadband telecommunications appears...

Sprint announced plans to eliminate 8,000 positions by the end of the current quarter--in an effort to trim $1.2 billion in internal and external labor costs. The job cuts were intended to make its cost structure more competitive in the industry and keep the company fiscally secure in the current economic downturn. While many companies are trying to cut costs during the recession, wireless is one of the few areas where most operators don’t appear to be struggling. Sprint has the double misfortune of facing not only a bad economic climate but the task of simultaneously trying to rebuild its...

According to iSuppli Corp research analysts, China’s domestic wireless phone market is set to maintain its growth in 2009, with a 7.7 percent increase for the year. The forecast calls for the domestic handset market to reach 239.1 million units in 2009, up from 222.1 million in 2008. “China’s three wireless operators are attracting new subscribers by reducing service fees. This will greatly contribute to demand from first-time buyers,” said Kevin Wang, senior manager of China research at iSuppli. “New subscribers are expected to exceed 90 million in 2009. Furthermore, more existing mobile users will be subscribe to a second...

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has successfully carried out field trials of Orthogonal Sub Channel (OSC) technology that is said to double the voice capacity of GSM radio networks using standard handsets. The OSC test demonstrated the use of four handsets sharing only one radio timeslot without compromising the call quality. NSN says the demonstration with existing commercially available GSM handsets was the first of its kind and is a "significant step in GSM evolution." The aim is to help mobile operators cope with their cost challenges due to declining revenues per call minute. With OSC technology, operators can gain more...