Top 5 communications product stories in December

20th December 2021

Electronic Specifier

Sam Holland

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Electronic Specifier takes a look at the top communications product stories to have been released in December 2021.

Balloon-driven hybrid mobile network in Zanzibar

World Mobile is launching its hybrid mobile network supported by low altitude platform balloons in Zanzibar, as it plans to roll-out its service providing mobile internet to more people at lower cost throughout the African continent.

World Mobile’s balloons will be the first to officially launch in Africa for commercial use, providing a more cost-effective way to provide digital connection to people compared to rolling out legacy internet infrastructure. The remotely controlled aerostat balloons are powered by solar panels, inflated by helium and tethered to the ground. Once airborne, they act as floating cellular base stations transmitting radio signals to ground stations and personal devices.

The project – the first since a successful $40 million raise – will deliver coverage and access to the digital economy for over 1m million people in Zanzibar by end of 2023.

It is the first step in World Mobile’s mission to help bring nearly four billion people online before 2030 in line with the UN and World Bank’s SDGs.

Renesas expands satellite communications portfolio

Renesas's F61 ICs deliver low-power, high-integration for phased array antennas in satcom, radar, and point-to-point communications systems.

Renesas, a supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, has expanded its portfolio of mmWave LNAs and Tx BFICs with the introduction of three new dual-beam active beamforming ICs:

F6121 for Ku-band Satcom
F6122 for Ka-band Satcom and
F6123 for Ku-band radar and line-of-sight communications

The ICs feature the best-in-class power consumption, noise figure, compact size and ease of integration, these new ICs are a critical enabler of next-generation, low-latency electronically steered antennas for in-flight connectivity (IFC), maritime, satcom-on-the-move, and low earth orbit (LEO) ground terminals.

Combo module supports Bluetooth and WiFi

The Type 1XA WLAN and Bluetooth-enabled combo module from Murata is now being shipped by distributor Mouser Electronics.

The module supports Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2x2 MIMO RSDB with a PHY data rate up to 866 Mbps and Bluetooth 5.2 BR/EDR/LE PHY data rate up to 3 Mbps.

This compact, high-performance module is based on the Cypress CYW54591 combo chipset, which offers enhanced collaborative coexistence hardware mechanisms and algorithms to optimise the WLAN and Bluetooth collaboration.The WLAN section supports PCIe v3.0 Gen 1 interfaces while the Bluetooth section supports high-speed, four-wire UART interfaces and PCM for audio data.

World Mobile is launching its hybrid mobile network supported by low altitude platform balloons in Zanzibar, as it plans to roll-out its service providing mobile internet to more people at lower cost throughout the African continent.

The SoC series provides RF signal processing with expanded digital functionality and RF capacity that greatly improves 5G RU performance and energy efficiency. The SoCs are the newest addition to ADI’s RadioVerse ecosystem and combine its Zero IF (ZiF) architecture with advances in functional integration and linearisation.

“Samsung and ADI have long worked together to support the swift deployment of 5G in the global market,” said Dong Geun Lee, Vice President and Head of Hardware R&D Group, Network Business at Samsung Electronics. “We are excited for the successful launch of ADI’s new SoC, as we expect this cutting-edge technology will bring better 5G experience to consumers. We look forward to expanding our engagement with ADI.”

Demand for power efficient RUs is expanding rapidly as global network operators race to deploy 5G infrastructure. With the exponential growth of wireless demand, energy efficiency is a key metric for operators as they seek to reduce their carbon footprint while expanding network capacity.

"World’s first" 10GbE LAN module in M.2 form factor

Innodisk has announced its EGPL-T101 M.2 2280 10GbE LAN module, which they claim is the first 10GbE LAN designed in M.2 form factor, features flexible integration and excellent compatibility with existing network infrastructure for crucial backward compatibility.

Looking into the booming markets and scenarios ranging from surveillance to gaming, networking, and industrial uses, the growing demand for high-speed LAN solutions is promising.

Additionally, interference issues are also occurring more often as the size of the PCIe form factor cannot fit in the smaller design of IPC platforms nowadays. Being the leading global provider of industrial embedded flash and memory, Innodisk is introducing the first M.2 10GbE LAN module designed to meet the demand for increased speed and reduced size, high-speed LAN solutions.