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It isn’t news to any professional in the electronics industry, or virtually any other, that almost any technology, process, or service that can be internet or intranet connected is being connected. If it is a wired connection or a wireless connection, the fundamental way most people are interacting with their world or data is being done with, or enhanced by, connected devices. The heart of innovation is effective and accessible communication. The Internet of Things (IoT) has made it possible for devices to relay information one to another, but intrinsically relies on an analog backbone to operate.

In Part 1 of the 2-part blog series “5G in 2021 & The Rise of the Machines”, a high-level discussion of the wireless connectivity trends is provided, along with a glimpse into how wireless standard convergence is a likely outcome to the drive toward unbridled wireless connectivity. This blog will close the loop and finish the discussion of these trends, with highlights on the progress and potential impact of the Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications, connecting everything else, and how we can seize the opportunity of a new paradigm of connectivity.

5G has been heralded not only as a new frontier of cellular telecommunications, but an enabling technology for a new paradigm of interconnectivity and intelligence in devices deployed throughout the world. Advances in smart manufacturing, cities, transportation, and our homes, is part of an overhaul that will further enhance, automate, and generally “augment” people’s lives and our interactions with the machine realm.

Though Digital beamforming offers unique advantages in real-time reduction in co-channel interference and delivering multiple beams, the heightened complexity of the digital beamforming payload poses many real challenges and even disadvantages for some applications compared to phased-array antenna systems. Read this to learn more.

The emergence and rapid development of active antenna systems for terrestrial communications has also spurred development of highly integrated and capable digital beamforming (DBF) solutions for satellite applications. Read about this new development.

The past several years have seen wide upheaval in the space communication sector, from satellite payloads to ground station technology. This renaissance of space communications has largely been a shift from the five-decade-long approach of highly dedicated satellite communication and ground station technology to increased digitization and virtualization. A key aspect of this transformation is the digitization of satellite RF systems to yield more compact, lower weight, more configurable, and lower cost. Learn about this evolving trend.