Our Wireless Future podcast has reached 50 episodes! The new episode has the following abstract:
In episode fifty, Erik G. Larsson and Emil Björnson leave Earth to take a closer look at the new advancements in satellite communications. Constellations with thousands of low-Earth-orbit satellites are now orbiting the sky to deliver fast Internet connectivity to infrastructure, homes, and maybe even directly to 6G mobile phones. How can we reach such distant satellites, and how do the satellite constellations connect back to Earth? What are the intended use cases? How can the massive Doppler effect be overcome? What is the role of multi-antenna technology? All the answers are provided in this massive episode. To learn more about Distributed MIMO in space, we recommend the following paper. The Swedish SMART 6GSAT research center has the website https://cos.eecs.kth.se
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I found a 3.5 GHz sector antenna hidden away in a box when my research division moved offices. Naturally, I had to open it up and see what was inside! In this video, I unbox the antenna and then move ahead with a teardown of it. I show what it looks like under the hood, compare that with the datasheet, and I explain how the antenna actually works. We take a look at the internal dipole array, radiation patterns, antenna gain, and how this sector antenna differs from the latest antenna designs used in 5G systems.
We have released the 49th episode of the Wireless Future podcast. It has the following abstract:
The NYU Wireless Workshop this year was a lively scientific event, where the future of wireless technology was debated. Erik G. Larsson was among the invited speakers, and the main theme was “Twenty Years of Massive MIMO: What’s Next?”. In this episode, he discusses the main insights with Emil Björnson. They first dissect the practical challenges that still hinder multi-antenna technology from reaching its full potential. It ranges from unfavorable traffic patterns to channel characteristics and channel state information, and how to circumvent these issues. The conversation also covers wireless sensing, AI data aggregation over the air, near-field communications, and common misconceptions around mutual coupling. The most thought-provoking question is: Is the demand for wireless connectivity saturating, or is there still a wireless future ahead?
You can watch the video podcast on YouTube:
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We have released the 48th episode of the Wireless Future podcast. It has the following abstract:
Antenna arrays are used everywhere to enhance the wireless signal quality through beamforming and aperture gains. A common practice is to arrange antennas uniformly along a line or in a rectangle, but this is not necessarily the preferred arrangement. In this episode, Emil Björnson and Erik G. Larsson discuss how the geometry of an antenna array affects the shape of the beams it can transmit and the ability to spatially multiplex many users. They uncover how uniform arrays excel at packing many antennas into a compact space, while adjacent antennas collect redundant information about the world around us. In future systems operating above 6 GHz, we might not be able to afford to fill the aperture with antennas and can instead place them in a sparse non-uniform pattern. The vision is to optimize the arrangement at each base station site to maximize its communication and/or sensing performance. The conversation covers grating lobes, minimum redundancy arrays, preoptimized irregular arrays, and movable/fluid antenna systems. Further details can be found in “From Antenna Abundance to Antenna Intelligence in 6G Gigantic MIMO Systems”.
You can watch the video podcast on YouTube:
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We have released the 47th episode of the Wireless Future podcast. It has the following abstract:
Almost every 6G-related keynote speech at scientific conferences focuses on ISAC: Integrated sensing and communications. In this episode, Erik G. Larsson and Emil Björnson discuss how sensing and communication technologies have been developed separately in the past but are built on similar yet distinctly different principles. The conversation covers different integration levels, beamforming implementations, fundamental tradeoffs, alternative waveforms, and the most important question: What would ISAC be used for if it becomes widely available in 6G networks?
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I was recently asked to give an introduction lecture on ISAC and developed a brand new presentation for that purpose. I have now recorded a video based on that material. The lecture introduces the basic principles of ISAC, highlights similarities and differences between radar and communication systems, and discusses how and why sensing capabilities should be integrated into future cellular networks, including 6G.
The lecture covers:
Fundamentals of wireless sensing and communication
Classical radar features: range, velocity, and angle estimation
Comparison of radar and communication propagation models
Key differences between radar and communication systems
Levels of integration in ISAC (site, hardware, and signal sharing)
Potential internal and external use cases for ISAC
Detailed examples of range, velocity, and angle estimation
Trade-offs in waveform design, including the integration into OFDM systems
The Wireless Future podcast is back with a new season, and we have released the 46th episode. It has the following abstract:
One of the first topics covered in this podcast was reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS). Five years later, Erik G. Larsson and Emil Björnson return to this topic to reflect on what has happened since then. The conversation covers how these surfaces can improve wave propagation between transmitters and receivers, and identifies the most convincing practical use cases. Core challenges overcome in recent years are discussed, and Emil describes the RIS used in his lab and the lessons learned from his measurements. They also go through new forms of RIS, known as Beyond-Diagonal RIS, STAR-RIS, and Stacked Intelligent Metasurfaces. To learn more, you can read the paper “Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces in Upper Mid-Band 6G Networks: Gain or Pain?”.
You can watch the video podcast on YouTube:
You can listen to the audio-only podcast at the following places:
