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The IoT is connecting new smart devices to the Internet from such diverse sectors as manufacturing floors, energy grids, healthcare facilities, domestic appliance and transportation systems. When an object can represent itself digitally, it can be controlled from anywhere. This connectivity means more data, gathered from more places, with more ways to increase efficiency and improve safety and security. A first step toward the IoT is to convert networks using proprietary or legacy protocols to IP-based networks. A wide range of devices can employ sensors and actuators embedded in physical objects – from roads to pacemakers. These are then linked...

Modern cellular networks support a concept known as the heterogeneous network – the term ‘heterogeneous’ is generically defined as meaning ‘diverse in character or content’ and that is the sense in which it is employed here. A HetNet is one in which many base stations, of varying types and sizes, share the same radio resource environment to provide a multi-layered or hierarchical service consisting of network of macro cells and small cells which can offer ‘multi-mode’ (a mixture of 2G, 3G and/or 4G services) and ‘multi-technology’ (a mix of cellular and Wi-Fi) services. Multi-technology deployments allow Wi-Fi access points to...

It is now seven years since LTE was standardized and six years since the launch of the first LTE networks. With new generations of mobile communication technology appearing every ten years or so, and network operators struggling to meet their users’ demands for bandwidth, research for 5G is already well under way. The demands on 5G networks will be severe: network traffic is forecast to increase by a factor 1,000 over the next 10-12 years, while the growth of the Internet of Things suggests that the number of connected devices may reach 50 billion by 2020. At the same time,...

In December 2015, the UK Government signed contracts with Everything Everywhere (EE) and Motorola Solutions as part of the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP). They join Kellogg, Brown and Root in a commitment to deliver the UKs £1bn Emergency Services Network (ESN). The system currently deployed is based upon an ageing circuit switched technology - Terrestrial Trunked Radio Access (TETRA), primarily designed for the dominant mode of communication used by the emergency services – voice. As the potential benefits of access to high speed data services become apparent, TETRA as a technology will be unable to satisfy the demands...