Communications

Raytheon UK has developed a positioning and navigation system that adds 3D dead-reckoning to global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs, GPS for example), allowing navigation inside buildings. Called ‘Strider’, it comes in two parts – a ‘boot-mounted unit’ (BMU) and a phone app. Inside the BMU are MEMS accelerometers, gyros and a pressure sensor (height). This communicates with the ‘Strider Location ...

Building the mobile network for 5G will be completely different from what has gone before says the UK government. The Department of Culture, Media & Sport has commissioned Ordnance Survey (OS) to develop a new mapping tool to plan the national rollout of 5G wireless networks. The 5G Innovation Centre at the University of Surrey and the Met Office will also be involved in the ...

LiFi is a disruptive technology that is poised to impact a large number of industries, believes Harald Haas, Professor of Mobile Communications at the University of Edinburgh

DAF trucks will drive through Munich in a nose-to-tail computer-controlled convoy – so called ‘platooning’. “The demonstrations include platooning live on Munich roads, and traffic signal and vehicle synchronisation, with technology that protects vulnerable road users based on secure vehicle-to-everything technology [V2X, see below],” said NXP, which is involved in the demonstration. Previously, with TNO and Ricardo (in the EcoTwin truck ...

Analog Devices and Intel are determining the future of real-time Ethernet in industrial networks at the Electronica exhibition in Munich this week, writes Richard Wilson Real-time Ethernet is going to be the next big thing in industrial networking. Seen as a high speed alternative to the serial fieldbus networking protocol in factory automation, robotics and industrial IoT, real-time Ethernet could transform industrial ...

Small Cell Forum (SCF) has published its latest guidelines for operators planning to deploy Network Function Virtualisation (NFV). Small cell virtualisation offers scalability and network slicing and so is likely to be used as a part of 5G networks, enterprise services and the internet of things (IoT). Virtualisation allows network functions to be separated from the radio, and run on commodity hardware, including the ...

Analog Devices has moved into the market for real-time Ethernet with the acquisition of US-based firm Innovasic, which has developed interface chips for deterministic Ethernet. Seen as a high speed alternative to the serial fieldbus networking protocol in  factory automation, robotics and industrial IoT, real-time Ethernet is the focus of a new standards push for robust, synchronised networks. The IEEE has recognised that ...

Texas Instruments has released a slew of 10Gbit/s USB Type-C products. TUSB1046-DCI, for example, is a VESA USB Type-C Alt Mode re-driving switch supporting USB 3.1 data rates up to 10Gbit/s and DisplayPort 1.4 up to 8.1Gbit/s for downstream facing port (Host). 10Gbit/s is ‘SuperSpeedPlus’, compared with 5Gbit/s ‘SuperSpeed’. The device is used for configurations C, D, E, and F ...

If you thought there was nothing much left to do with switches, think again, and Elma has bought real-time variable feel to a rotary encoder. Dubbed Cyber One, as a switch it combines a 384 clock/rev rotary encoder and push-button. Then, for user experience, as an experience, its firmware offers various pre-set ‘feels’, including: 0-6 Ncm torque (electromagnetic), 8-64 detents, artificial end-stop, ...

Linear Technology is to show two third-party IoT network product ranges at Electronica in Munich, based on its SmartMesh radios.