5G

More than 80% of the world’s population, or 6.648 billion people, own a smartphone — and all of them emit a low-level of radio frequency (RF) radiation. In particular, 5G phones are designed with high-performance RF devices and contain an increased number of antennas to support the demand for more reliable connectivity and greater bandwidth.

From smartphones and laptops, to ATMs and online shopping, data is constantly in flight. As consumer technology and industry innovations advance, global data creation is projected to grow to 175 zettabytes (ZB) by 2025. Nearly 53ZB of that data will be consumed in real time—the data equivalent of streaming 583 billion 4K videos at once—which will strain current network infrastructure.

Optical solutions are essential to connect and power the digital era as signal integrity forms the backbone of every digital platform. Every time someone opens a webpage or uses a connected device, data moves from point A to B—often using optical fiber. With increasing industry and consumer demand for high-quality internet and fast upload and download speeds, fiber now makes up 32% of fixed-broadband subscriptions, up 20% in the last decade. The data center and enterprise networking companies powering data usage and cloud computing need high performance optical interconnect technology to minimize cost and power consumption without sacrificing efficiency and speed.

Semtech’s Tri-Edge™ GN2255 is the industry’s first analog IC solution enabling ultra-low latency, less than 1.5W module power, and performance for up to 10km reach for 50Gbps PAM4 SFP56 optical modules. Based on the proven Tri-Edge CDR platform qualified in data center applications, the new solution delivers the cost effectiveness, small footprint, low power, ultra-low latency, and performance demanded by 5G front haul applications. The new Tri-Edge GN2255 enables 50Gbps PAM4 links that will double the bandwidth of currently deployed 25Gbps NRZ front haul links. Semtech’s introduction of the Tri-Edge 5G wireless IC will help support new 5G applications, including edge computing, enhanced mobile broadband and device streaming, and fixed wireless access (i.e., home Internet). Learn more about the product announcement here.

Earlier this year, Evaluation Engineering (EE) spoke with Raza Khan, senior marketing manager in Semtech’s Signal Integrity Products Group to discuss industry trends and the new Tri-Edge 5G wireless product.

This is the third blog in an ongoing series about LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® protocol, and its capabilities to transform next-generation networking applications built on 5G. This blog series follows Semtech’s “5G Fact vs. Fiction, and How LoRaWAN Plays a Role” webinar, featuring Charter Communications, MultiTech and Orange, and moderated by Beecham Research, and addresses some of the pressing topics offered by the audience during the webinar’s Q&A. Read the introduction to the new series in part one, and explore large scale LoRaWAN networks in part two, featuring MultiTech.

In part three below, Ronan Le Bras, Head of Technology Strategy at Orange, and Rémi Lorrain, Director of LoRaWAN Networks for Semtech, discuss Cellular devices, network management, regional deployment differences, and roaming/satellite communication.

This is the second blog in an ongoing series about LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® protocol, and its capabilities to transform next-generation networking applications built on 5G. This blog series follows Semtech’s “5G Fact vs. Fiction, and How LoRaWAN Plays a Role” webinar, featuring Orange, Charter Communications and MultiTech, moderated by Beecham Research, and addresses some of the pressing topics offered by the audience during the webinar’s Q&A. Read the introduction to the new series in part one.

We’re well into 2020, and the promise of 5G networking is continuing to lead conversations across the wireless industry. However, as 5G deployments increase, we also see a rise in alternative low power technologies to offer flexible, cost effective power and low bandwidth options for these so-called massive Internet of Things (IoT) deployments. In particular, market demand for solutions based on Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® protocol is continuing to increase, including those helping to combat the global COVID-19 outbreak. It has become clear that as 4G and 5G will target low latency and high throughput applications in the near future, LoRa and LoRaWAN-based applications will make up a larger portion of the massive IoT space, led by mobile operators, unlicensed spectrum operators and enterprises across private rollouts. The market is heading toward a Multi-Radio Access Network (Multi-RAN) strategy leveraging complementary standards, including 4G, 5G, LoRaWAN, and others such as Wi-Fi 6. 

There can be no doubt that Wi-Fi and LoRaWAN® are very different networking protocols. Wi-Fi’s technology excels at short to medium range, high throughput and low latency communication, while LoRaWAN-based networks serve long range communication with small amounts of data. Despite these differences, these two networking protocols share some very similar characteristics, address largely complementary use cases and are often used in very collaborative ways.

The new buzzword in the wireless industry is 5G and it is often used in relation to the Internet of Things (IoT). This has contributed to some confusion as IoT has been broadly gaining traction in the “things” market leveraging a wide range of connectivity options, including Cellular, LoRaWAN® and Wi-Fi, a pattern that looks sure to continue. With 5G expected to rapidly become a reality through the deployment of initial networks by Cellular operators around the globe, we believe clear positioning is required to allow enterprises and consumers to drive the IoT market to its full potential.

There is little doubt that 5G will play a major role in our society’s future. As a veteran of the telecommunications industry who has developed generations of hardware and software, I have a deep appreciation for what 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is doing with 5G, and am excited to see how it will change lives in the years to come.