Notes by Akshat Jiwan Sharma

  No they don’t emit, they reflect and keep on reflecting until the signal reaches the other end. Fiber optics use infrared light to transmit data [1]. This is a form of radiation (heated objects also emit IR). In fact, Infrared radiation is so common in nature that there is an entire branch of study dedicated to it called thermal imaging [2]. Fiber cables are radiation guides. Their purpose is to transmit the data signal (infrared radiation) to as long a distance as possible with minimal loss. This is done with the help of total internal reflection. If fiber optic cable emitted any radiation at any point (except at the receiving end) it would fail its purpose. But even then the radiation is not harmful it would get dissipated just as the radiation from a heated body gets dissipated. [1]https://www.thefoa.org/tech/wavelength.htm [2]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermography I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please don't hesitate to get in touch with me.  Akshat Jiwan Sharma St...

ABSTRACT: We present a technique to manufacture large scale carbon based conductors for transmission of electrical energy over continental scale distances. We start by identifying precursors that could be used for production processes.We review the current manufacturing techniques of producing carbon based fibers and explain why certain precursors have dominated carbon materials industry. We identify methods that can be used to increase the yield through alternative precursors.We put forward a theory of why carbon conductors have less conductivity than metals and what can be done to improve it. Finally we postulate that with cheaper production methods even if carbon based conductors are 10 times less effective than poor metallic conductors like steel, they can still outperform them in High Voltage transmission lines if cheap manufacturing techniques could be developed.  INTRODUCTION: Copper and in certain very specific applications aluminium & silicon steels dominate when it co...

Beamforming refers to focussing the signals in a particular direction. There are two types of beamforming Reflection based This can be seen in parabolic antennas which reflect the omnidirectional radiation from the source to a point (for example to a satellite in space or a base station on the ground) All antennas are omnidirectional. We add reflecting elements to focus their energy where we want. Parabolic dishes are easiest to find but other antennas like yagi,horn etc also help in beam forming. Basically anything that reflects the signal in a particular direction can create a beam. Beamforming is particularly important in point to point wireless backhauls. In these systems you want the signal to go in as straight a line as possible. Just like they would do if they were travelling in a fiber optic or an ethernet cable. (That is why tower installation people try to find line of sight, so that once the beam is in place it is not obstructed by any other object like a building or a tree....

To start with I don't have much idea about the financial health of telecom companies except for the reports that I have been hearing in the news and the opinions I've been reading on social media. Now it may indeed be true that they are not doing that well or it may be exaggerated, hard to tell. But what I do seem to sense is that the telecom industry is going to move away from being an infrastructure provider and become a service provider. Just providing the internet is no longer going to be enough. [Remember that the license for the spectrums that have already been purchased last for 20 years] Verizon purchased yahoo, JIO has their own suite of entertainment and news services and plans to build data centers, airtel has its bank and dish TV etc etc. You can see examples like this everywhere. A few years back, just around the time when whats app was gaining hold in the market there was a big outcry about application companies "eating the lunch" of infra companies. The...

Terahertz antennas are the hot new research topic. I’m afraid you won’t find many books on the matter just yet. Few articles on the web are written on the topic though from time to time https://www.technologyreview.com/2013/03/05/179586/graphene-antennas-would-enable-terabit-wireless-downloads/ As a rule, the greater the frequency the smaller the wavelength. Smaller the wavelength, the smaller the antenna. Terahertz frequencies are so high that the antennas are nano scale. So while you won’t be able to find much on antennas in particular, nano tech is a well researched topic with plenty of material available. For example here is the page on wikipedia that details 7nm chips used in semiconductors. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_nanometer It's the same theory, through and through. Nothing changes. [1] Now imagine that you succeed in building a terahertz antenna. What is the next step? How much energy can a nano material capture? You will then find out that what you need is an array ...

  Snapdragon 865 is an integrated mobile platform. That is in addition to the RF modulator it contains many other components like processor, camera and audio. To determine what kind of mobile networks it supports you’ll have to look at the modem that is on the platform. Which is in this case “X55 5G modem” https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon-x55-5g-modem And while it says 5G in the title here are the actual specs in the cellular technology section Cellular Technology: WCDMA (DB-DC-HSDPA, DC-HSUPA), TD-SCDMA, CDMA 1x, EV-DO, GSM/EDGE LTE Technology: LTE FDD, LTE TDD including CBRS support, LAA, LTE Broadcast 5G Technology: SA, NSA, 5G NR FDD, 5G NR TDD As you can see, not only does it support 4G LTE but it also supports older technologies like GSM and Edge. This is why Snapdragon 465 mobile platform could launch in India and other countries even when there have been no 5G networks in place. With that out of the way a natural question would be how can these modems support mu...

5G does not require a new spectrum but it needs it if multiple protocols have to be supported simultaneously. In wireless communication a frequency acts as a physical communication channel. If a certain protocol uses that frequency it does not mean that no other protocol can use it. For example wifi uses 2.4 GHz but so does bluetooth, microwave oven, and even satellites [1] As you can see the underlying physical channel does not care what kind of communication protocol it enables. However it does put telecom operators on a spot. They are already providing a service on a spectrum. Certain frequencies for edge and gsm. Others for 4G. Now in order to bring 5G they either need to buy license for new spectrum or try to accommodate it in the ones they have already bought. That is why some telecom companies are decommissioning old protocols so that they can reuse the existing frequency for new technology without paying more fees for acquiring more spectrum. So yeah you absolutely don't ne...

 Your observation is correct. Broadband is indeed cheaper than G networks and there are several reasons for this. Fixed line is a necessity. The present deployment of wireless technology is such that all telecom towers are actually just the termination points for fixed line networks (Very expensive and power hungry termination points for that matter). So that any communication standard you look at , 3G, 4G, 5G it all runs on fixed lines. Without those fixed lines the G networks won’t really work. Fixed line components are mostly passive (I’ll explain what that means in a minute). This makes them cheaper over the course of very large distances. Although when it comes to the last mile connectivity, they suddenly become expensive. It's not as easy to install fiber in the cities as it is to lay them in an ocean bed. Still fiber installation is no more expensive than installation of electrical lines or laying down of railway tracks or making roads. And if those things can be done certai...

  A base station is the brain behind a wireless network. It is responsible for creation and management of data transmission lines,authentication, routing,computing. Although it looks much different, a base station is simply a desktop computer packaged in a way that it can be placed outdoors. So that if you can build a gaming pc that can play Metal Gear Solid V on max settings you can build a very powerful base station. Now of course there are some differences. For one instead of a graphics card you would go with a network card. Instead of an ssd you might want to get the latest wifi card. You may ask, is this how the base station for 5G and 4G is created? Yes but they use different wireless chips and the software to control these chips are proprietary.. for now. But inside the components are the same. A motherboard, RAM, processor, peripheral components. Luckily there are alternatives. WiFi that can work on both 2.4 and 5 GHZ bands is quite open. Coupled with the advantage that you...