Basically, at these frequencies, the line-of-sight signal is about all you can count on. Lower-frequency waves diffract around or through such obstacles, but higher-frequency signals are absorbed, reflected, or scattered. At 5G and 6G frequencies, the wavelength is vanishingly small compared to the size of buildings, vehicles, hills, trees, and rain. The wireless channel varies constantly depending on surrounding objects. That’s important, because as we move to higher frequencies, the propagation characteristics become more “hostile” to the signal. Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces could play a big role in the coming integration of wireless and satellite networks. Think of reconfigurable intelligent surfaces as the next evolution of the repeater concept. In fact, these metasurfaces can be programmed to make these changes dynamically, reconfiguring the signal in real time in response to changes in the wireless channel. So as the waves fall on such a surface, it can alter the incident waves’ direction so as to strengthen the channel.

Thin two-dimensional metamaterials, known as metasurfaces, can be designed to sense the local electromagnetic environment and tune the wave’s key properties, such as its amplitude, phase, and polarization, as the wave is reflected or refracted by the surface. Metamaterials to reflect and refract electromagnetic waves. These surfaces use advanced substances called These are planar structures typically ranging in size from about 100 square centimeters to about 5 square meters or more, depending on the frequency and other factors. Perhaps the most promising solution, right now, is to use reconfigurable intelligent surfaces. But how can we possibly engineer and control a wireless environment, which is determined by a host of factors, many of them random and therefore unpredictable? From now on, to get high performance as we go to higher frequencies, we will need to engineer the wireless channel itself. And today, as engineers roll out 5G and plan for 6G wireless, they find themselves at a crossroads: After years of designing superefficient transmitters and receivers, and of compensating for the signal losses at the end points of a radio channel, they’re beginning to realize that they are approaching the practical limits of transmitter and receiver efficiency. One is the overcrowding of radio bands, and the other is the move to escape that congestion by exploiting higher and higher frequencies. You can watch video of both experiments on F-Secure’s blog.įor all the tumultuous revolution in wireless technology over the past several decades, there have been a couple of constants. From those connections, F-Secure’s rigged hotspot gathered 32 MB of Internet traffic such as Web searches and e-mails sent by passersby. According to a report by the company, 33 devices connected to the Wi-Fi hotspot in just a half hour of operation. This time, they were testing to see how many people would log on to a public Wi-Fi network with no idea who it was being run by. In an accompanying experiment, F-Secure set up the same hotspot at Broad Sanctuary, a public space not far from the houses of parliament. The terms of this agreement stand for eternity.” In the event that no children are produced, your most beloved pet will be taken instead. Those terms-which, again, six people agreed to-included the following notice: “In using this service, you agree to relinquish your first born child to F-Secure, as and when the company requires it. To connect to the Wi-Fi network, which the company cobbled together from US $200 worth of parts that included a Raspberry Pi microcomputer, a battery pack, and some rubber bands, users needed to agree to a specially constructed terms and conditions page. In the experiment, F-Secure set up a “poisoned” Wi-Fi hotspot on a table in Café Brera, a busy coffee shop in London’s Canada Square. In order to connect to a rigged Wi-Fi network set up by mobile security firm F-Secure, six users agreed to sign over their first born children to the company. The results of a social experiment in London suggest that on-the-go Internet users are not being as careful as they should be when connecting to unfamiliar networks.

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