Increasing demand of internet traffic drove researchers towards extra efforts that resulted in the development of ubiquitous wireless data coverage at exceptional speed. The new technology exploits millimetre waves to guarantee speed and coverage.

Times are changing, and human trends with them. The data used by mobile data devices, such as smartphones and tablet, took over that of desktops, signing an unprecedented result. The continue development of mobile technologies, such as 4k video streaming, Internet of Things (ioT), social networks, telemedicine, driverless cars and several other applications will require zettabytes (thousand billions of billions) of wireless data.

Smartphones use microwave frequencies, and will still do for several years, due to the waves ability to pass through barriers allowing connectivity. However, such transmission is limited with a limited amount of data transmittable, and therefore the only way to guarantee a high-speed transmission (download/upload) is by spread grids of micro, nano and pico ‘cells’ in urban areas at microwave frequencies, with each cell serving a small number of users.

The issues that manufacturers have been facing involve the necessity of providing large amounts of data to users and the impossibility of doing it easily, with Fibre connection as the only effective way currently available, still full of limitations. In fact, it is expensive and difficult to install, sometimes even impossible, due to the disruptions required in the process and the permission needed by city councils, resulting unavailable in many urban areas.

Therefore, the route of wireless transmission is seen as the most appropriate, especially when attempting to serve these areas were Fibre cannot be installed. An attempt to solve the issue involves the development of wireless layers that can transmit tens of gigabit per second per kilometre square, allowing flexibility and available at low cost.

However, such technology would be exploitable only by millimetre wave frequencies, 30-300GHz, representing only a limited spectrum of the frequencies, due to their multi GHz bandwidths, but rain has been proved to be a huge limitation to such tool, due to its capability of limiting, and eventually block, data transmission.

A new project financed by the European Union’s Horizon 2020, called ULTRAWAVE and worth 2.9million, aims to move a one step forward in the connectivity market by exploiting the whole millimetre wave spectrum beyond 100 GHz.

The project is led by Lancaster University scientists and aims to develop an ultra-capacity layer capable of transmitting 100 gigabits of data per second, flexible and easy to deploy. The layer is expected to be capable of feeding hundreds of small and pico cells, regardless of the number of mobile devices served by each cell, opening the path toward the full implementation of the awaited 5G.

To implement such layer, a remarkable transmission power will be required in order to cover large areas and overcome the attenuation at millimetre waves. To achieve so, the proposed solution will involve the convergence of three main technologies, photonics, vacuum electronics, solid-state electronics into an integrated and unified wireless system, permitted by the transmission of power at Watt level. Such power levels can be achieved through the use of novel millimetre wave traveling wave tubes.

Dr Claudio Paoloni, Head of Engineering Department and Professor at Lancaster University and Coordinator of ULTRAWAVE, explained: “When speeds of wireless networks equal fibre, billions of new rapid connections will help 5G become a reality. It is exciting to think that the EU Horizon 2020 ULTRAWAVE project could be a major milestone towards solving one of the main obstacles to future 5G networks, which is the ubiquitous wireless distribution of fibre-level high data rates”.

“The huge growth in mobile devices and wireless data usage is putting an incredible strain on our existing wireless communication networks. Imagine crowded areas, such as London’s Oxford Street, with tens of thousands of smartphone users per kilometre that wish to create, and receive content, with unlimited speed. To meet this demand, ULTRAWAVE will create European state of the art technologies for the new generation of wireless networks.”

The ULTRAWAVE project started slightly over one month ago, on the 1st September 2017 and will be publicly introduced and presented by the Kickoff Workshop at Lancaster University on the 14th September 2017.

Written by: Pietro Paolo Frigenti

Journal Reference: Find more information about the project here.