HansITAcademy

There are a variety of wireless communication technologies available for embedded and specialized systems.

First we have 5G, which refers to the fifth generation of mobile networks.  It is a new global wireless standard made to connect virtually everyone and everything. I like to note that not all 5G are the same. There are mmWave, Low-Band, and Mid-Band 5G and there is a big difference between them. 5G is the first wireless standard to take advantage of the mmWave, so we will focus on mmWave.

Waves that operate at a lower frequency have longer wavelengths, so modulations happen at a slower pace, meaning low bandwidth. Frequencies at higher wavelengths does the opposite, meaning it talks fast and results in higher bandwidth.

The mmWave is the the latest and the greatest because it uses higher radio frequencies that were not used before. This means that the millimeter waves are not as cluttered as other older generations. This allows for it to carry more information at a much faster rate.

However, higher wavelengths tends to get more distorted and are easily blocked by objects. This is why 5G has adaptive beam switching where if the signal quality becomes unreliable it jumps over to a new frequency band until more reliable and faster connection is available.

Another biggest downside regarding mmWave is the distance. This is why for it to be effective, there will need to be multiple input and output antennas to boost signals and capacity across the wireless network.

This type of communication technology will enhance things like machine learning enabled automation.  mmWave will provide the quickness needed for machine learning and artificial intelligence to deliver automation capability.

5G architectures will be software-defined and can create software-defined subnetwork constructs known as network slices. These slices enable network administrators to dictate network functionality based on users and devices.

Next we have narrow-band data communication which uses only a small frequency band to transmit data with high efficiency, making it the perfect option for any application which needs reliable and low power due to its minimal amount of bandwidth usage.

It is used in lot of wireless applications, such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) and commercial vehicle remote keyless entry (RKE) devices.  It’s also highly applicable in sensors that are connected to SCADA system.  

Then we have the baseband which is a radio frequency signal that occupies the lowest range of frequency spectrum.  In baseband, frequency is not shifted to some other frequency band by means of modulating.  

A baseband unit (BBU) is a telecommunication network device used to process baseband signals and is required to convert analog into binaries.  

Let’s talk about Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Cards.  This is a tiny removable smart card for mobile phones that has information used to authenticate and identify subscribers on the network.  Treat it like a plane ticket with your government issued card.  

There is also eSIM (embedded-SIM), which is a form of programmable SIM card that is embedded directly into a device.

SIM cards can be used for numerous systems and not only phones.  From drones to vehicles.  It’s easy to use and it’s rewritable.  

Lastly we have Zigbee which is simply a wireless standard.  It is a IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high-level communication protocols that is used to create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios.  

Zibee operates on 2.4GHz, which is the same frequency band as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.  However, Zigbee is slower than Wi-Fi, but because only tiny amounts of data needs to be transferred for smart devices, it doesn’t really matter.  It is effective because it is a low latency wireless mesh network standard for low-cost, low-power devices in wireless control and monitoring applications. 

Zigbee standards allow instructions for smart devices and can communicate to multiple devices at once, providing you have a compatible smart home hub that can talk to all of your smart home devices.