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The past year has been a busy one for opening access to spectrum above 100 GHz.  On March 15, 2019 the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to allow access to spectrum above 100 GHz for the first time. Read this summary of where we are today with US and UK standards for over 100 GHz communications.

TCDk is a property which all circuit materials possess and it is how much the Dk of the material will change, with a change in temperature. The default test method for determining TCDk is typically done as a raw-material test and this video gives an outline of how to perform TCDk testing in circuit form. The circuit form testing for TCDk is considered a real-world test as opposed to the raw-material test method, which is typically intended for material characterization. Watch this video from John Coonrod covering this topic.

Ericsson just released their Mobility Report and here are some highlights. Taking information directly from the report, more than 50 service providers around the world have launched commercial 5G services.

GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association) is welcoming the decision today of the global spectrum regulators at the ITU’s World Radio Conference 2019 (WRC-19) to identify several millimeter wave frequency bands for 5G IMT. 

Back in the 1990’s, I completed an MBA night program at Northeastern University’s suburban campus in Burlington, just north of Boston. On my recent visit to the campus, I was stunned to find a completely transformed facility that used to only house a few classrooms and small library.

As 5G hits the first year of deployment from the first time initial commercial trials were started in the US by Verizon and AT&T, GSA is reporting that 50 commercial 5G networks have been deployed as China’s big three all activated 5G networks on Nov 1. Since most of the 3GPP 5G are in-process at this point so somewhat determined, several research activities have been announced for 6G.

Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) has emerged as a key part of mobile service providers’ 5G strategy at Mobile World Congress Los Angeles. DSS allows an existing LTE carrier to operate 5G NR and LTE simultaneously – with a simple software upgrade allowing a nice transition to 5G. This is especially critical in the low band where there are not a lot of users so dedicating just 5G usage there would be way too expensive to deploy.

Engineers must be able to utilize test hardware, test sets and 5G waveform generation that can be used in tandem with high-bandwidth IQ waveforms. Additionally, RF transceivers must also undergo extensive testing. Find out how in this posting.