Wireless radio is an elegant technology. It's streamlined, with no wires, and no port constraints. It's hidden inside devices, giving users a connectivity they already take for granted in cell phones, laptops, PDAs, even servers. It has already become
ubiquitousbut not yet fully seamless or completely easy to use.
One of the goals of the research being conducted in the Intel Communications Technology Lab (CTL) is to help people connect to the Internet in any setting, with the best possible connection, using inexpensive, easy-to-use technology.
To reach that goal, Intel researchers are focusing on multiradio technologies, such as digitally enhanced radio, multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems, and technologies that address interference issues.
Multiradio: The key to seamless connectivity
It's clear that the future will be wireless. There's already wireless LAN with ultra-wideband (UWB), Wi-Fi, and WiMAX.
The challenge is now about connecting those technologies more seamlessly. Researchers in cutting-edge labs, such as the Intel Communications Technology Lab, see this happening by going to a digitally enhanced "multiradio."
A multiradio would consist of the technologies to handle communication in any frequency, from cell phone bands to UWB. Devices would be able to turn radios on and off as needed, manage power, manage the connection, and augment communication with a mixed-networking software stack. Multiradio will offer a set of innovations that deliver that always-best-connected experience, regardless of location or device.
Shifting from analog to digital components
One of the primary challenges in developing multiradio technology is the limitation of analog components.
Physical radios have traditionally been built using analog-oriented semiconductor processes. These involve a lot of quasi-manual, fine-tuning of the end device. That adds costs, especially testing costs. It also limits how well the radio can be integrated into a digital system, because analog-oriented parts are built on physically different processes than digital parts. In addition, analog build processes are often much more expensive than the conventional, high-volume CMOS used to build digital processors.
One of the most important advances in radio research has been in reducing the number of analog components in the radio. This is allowing manufacturers to shift more radio functions into the digital domain. There are still analog parts, of course. At a fundamental level, the radio is an analog phenomenon. But much more of the radio is digitally processed.
Breakthroughs in footprint and energy consumption
Right now, digital radio components are still difficult to build. However, this is an area where researchers expect to see breakthroughs in terms of cost, die size, and simultaneous radio operation. For example, researchers have already seen a 5X reduction in terms of the number of inductors that would be required in this kind of designan important advance, since inductors tend to take up lot of footprint.
Especially for WiMAX and WiFi multiradios, the ability to make smaller radios is critical for reaching form factor and energy efficiency design goals. With smaller component sizes, manufacturers will be able to include the required technologies and interfaces to make multiradio work seamlessly across any communication infrastructure. It's an advance that will allow designers to manage simultaneous radio operations, deal with platform interference, mitigate noise, and resolve other similar issues.
Some manufacturers, such as Intel, have already developed the techniques to build digital radio structures using standard digital CMOS processes. Since such manufacturers are expert at building digital logic, the cost of producing digital radio components should drop significantly.
With few exceptions, since nearly the beginning of radio science, people have used a single-transmit antenna and a single-receive antenna to do radio communications. It turns out that if there are multiple antennas available, both at the transmit side and at the receive side (such as in a MIMO system), the radio can send a lot more data, send the data further, or send the data faster. The choices are varied.