Wireless & Internet Tech

The Next Means of Device Charging: Wifi?

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Researchers at the University of Washington propose wifi can do more than simply wirelessly connect devices to networks and the internet-- it might also be able to charge device through "Power over Wifi" (PoWiFi).

BatteryThe system consist of two components, namely an access point (or router) and specially-built sensors. The access point features custom software allowing it to simultaneously act as power delivery source and wifi router, while the sensors harvest RF power and convert it into DC power.

Admittedly wifi signals carry a limited amount of power-- 1W to be precise, making it unsuitable with smartphones but still ideal for small connected devices. As such the researchers have used PoWiFi to power a small camera located 5m away from a router, as well as charge a fitness charger and temperature sensors.

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Old TV Frequencies for "Super Wifi"?

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Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) suggest governments should not auction off old TV frequencies to the highest bidders-- instead they be used to create a free "super wifi" network.

KIT super wifiOld TV frequencies allow the transmission of wifi over lower frequencies , resulting in coverage as wide as several kilometres in radius. Such a network could replace pricey mobile services of the 4G variety, leading to far wider mobile internet use.

Current wifi technology operates at high frequencies of 2GHz and above.

The KIT researchers say they also have a technique for the prevention network congestion via the reserving of a 90MHz interval in the UHF bands. Another argument in favour is that in any case the general public should be given preference to the use of electronics communications.

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A Kiss for Faster Wireless Connectivity

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Keyssa claims to have a faster means for the wireless transmission of large files between devices in close proximity-- Kiss Connectivity, a low-power system using extremely high frequency (EHF) signals.

Kiss Connectivity According to the company the technology operates at transfer rates of up to 6Gbits per seconds, allowing users to download a 1GB file in as little as 2 seconds. It also has lower power consumption and, being a point-to-point connection, is more secure than network-based solutions.

In comparison, current wifi speeds top at 1.34Gbps, while NFC clocks at around 400kbps.

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Samsung Claims Faster Wifi

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Samsung announces the development of 60GHz wifi technology-- enabling wireless data transmission speeds of up to 4.6Gbps (or 575MB per second), a five-fold increase over the current 866Mbps maximum.

wifiThe company says it allows the transfer of a 1GB movie in less than 3 seconds, as well as real-time uncompressed HD video streaming from mobile devices to TVs.

According to Samsung the 802.11ad 60GHz wifi technology eliminates co-channel interference regardless the number of devices using the same network in order to maintain maximum speeds and remove the gap between theoretical and actual speeds. How so? Via the use of "micro beam-forming control technology" optimizing the communications module in less than 1/3000 seconds.

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An Ant-Sized IoT Radio

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UC Berkeley and Stanford University engineers develop a possible solution for the wireless demands of the Internet of Things-- a cheap tiny (3.7mm x 1.2mm) dual-band radio powered by the signals it receives.

tiny radioSimilar tiny radios already exist, but unlike similar solutions (which operate on low frequencies), the Berkeley/Stanford radio receives data on the 24GHz band and transmits on 60GHz. This reduces the power requirements by so much the radio charges itself with energy from received signals.

Higher frequencies also allow very fast data transmission rates, even if in the data transmitted is of low volume.

“One of the benefits of going to high frequencies is that the wavelengths get smaller and you can put the antennas on the chip itself,” UC Berkeley Wireless Research Center director Ali Niknejad tells Wired.

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