Dev.SN

Radio Tech Could Halve Bandwidth Needs

posted by Cactus on Thursday February 27 2014, @05:30PM   
from the can-you-hear-me-now? dept.

AnonTechie writes:

According to an article from The Register, a team from Stanford University has patented technology that could halve the bandwidth that a mobile provider needs.

Operating under the name Kumu Networks, they are showcasing tech which they claim would exactly double throughput. Radio equipment (such as mobile phones) would be able to send and receive on the same frequency through a process similar to noise-cancelling headphones; by knowing what a base station is transmitting it can cancel out the information from the very faint signal it receives.

• Noise cancellation does not come for free (Score: 4, Informative) by sfm on Thursday February 27 2014, @06:05PM

  by sfm (675) on Thursday February 27 2014, @06:05PM (#8139)

  While the technique they describe has been used at audio frequencies for decades (think phone modems), it is much more difficult to do in the GHz range.

  The science behind their idea is sound, but it makes significant demands on the hardware. The dynamic range of the receiver has to cover the difference in signal level between the minimum received signal and the maximum transmit signal, in addition to having enough SNR left over to recover the received data. Easily this covers well over 100dB the receiver input, forcing significant improvements in analog and/or ADC circuitry.

  In the end, the benefits in bandwidth are likely to be cost prohibitive with todays technology.

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