A new dimension in mobile telecommunications The mobile industry is constantly evolving and growing at an astronomical pace. While this exceptional pace of growth is exciting, it also presents a whole new set of challenges. To keep up with demand, service providers will need to make investments to improve network speed, ... The mobile industry is constantly evolving and growing at an astronomical pace. While this exceptional pace of growth is exciting, it also presents a whole new set of challenges. To keep up with demand, service providers will need to make investments to improve network speed, intelligence and reliability. Indeed, with the emergence of widescreen devices, such as smart phones and tablet computers, network subscribers demand from their network operators to be able to use their handsets in the same way they use their internet connection at home or in the office. This translates to a demand of high and peaky bandwidth, which is stressing current network infrastructures and business models, which were not conceived for this new use. This demand of ubiquitous high-speed broadband is pushing for a convergence and interoperability of mobile, wired and wireless broadband network topologies as enablers of the future internet. However, the backhauling infrastructure is becoming a bottleneck for the development of these network solutions. In fact, only 1-2 % of European citizens are connected to high-speed Internet via fiber optic networks (as compared to 12 % in Japan and 15 % in South Korea), limiting the benefits of the technology. The European project E3Network will design an E-band transceiver for the backhaul infrastructure of the future networks. Its primary objective is to design a transceiver that allows data transmission at a speed of 10Gbps (Gigabits per second) via a new infrastructure network in EU member countries. It will work in the E-band, which enables highly focused "pencil beam" transmissions and huge bandwidth. The pencil-beam property facilitates a high degree of frequency reuse in the deployment of backhaul links and reduces EMF exposure of European citizens. The transceiver will use modern digital multi-level modulations to achieve high spectral efficiency. This together with the huge bandwidth will enable and provide high capacities above 10 Gbps. According to the project's director Igone Vélez, 'We're studying a way for everybody to be able to connect to the Internet no matter where they are and at a very high speed.' The researcher from the Electronics and Communications area at CEIT-IK4 highlighted the fact that the new system will mean "a new dimension in telecommunications, one which allows mobile phones to be used in much more social ways, including in rural areas." Research will be driven by the end-user and industrial partners to ensure that it addresses the needs of the future generations of the mobile network infrastructure. The potential for an increased economic and energy efficiency of access/transport infrastructures will be illustrated by a prototype integrated in the network providing communication over 1 km with availability of 99.995 %. The developed backhaul technology will strengthen the position of European Industry in field of network infrastructure technology. It will facilitate the transition to smaller and more energy efficient base stations, which are key for the novel network topologies needed to, address the new patterns of usage to European citizens.For more information, please visit: E3Network http://ict-e3network.eu/index.html Countries Spain
