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Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo has unveiled its commitment to ensuring 5G and its successor wireless technology generations continue to work.
Windows and other elements of modern buildings are hostile to the high-frequency radio waves used to transmit signals from smartphones and other wireless kits.
This is why texting in elevators doesn’t work.
The problem is expected to get worse as humans migrate from 5G to 6G, as signals will attenuate more at higher radio frequencies.
The Japanese mobile giant believes the solution is a window change. So we explored two of his new approaches to fenestration: the art of window design.
The first is to change the material inside the window. NTT has started testing a prototype of an airgel-infused signal-transmitting window in collaboration with American window manufacturer YKK AP.
Aerogels – dry substances made by removing liquid from gels that are ultralight, ultraporous, and trapping heat – have long been used in spacesuits and other NASA applications.
According to Docomo, airgel has a dielectric constant close to that of air, so radio waves can easily pass through it.
“This demonstration will allow DoCoMo to test the materials, shapes and window structures that best allow radio waves to pass through,” said the telecom company.
Docomo added that it will continue its research into radio-transmissive windows, with the ultimate goal of installing improved designs on both the ceilings and walls of existing and new homes and offices.
For other window design changes, we experimented with transmissive metasurface technology at the Yokosuka R&D Center. The technology incorporates a layer on the window surface that bends radio waves and directs them where people need them.
Transparent metasurface bend signal
The layer used by DoCoMo contains an array of sub-wavelength-spaced light scatterers that change the path of passing waves. The technology has been adopted by Kyocera on other surfaces to power his 5G, and by automaker Toyota (no kidding) to come up with an invisibility cloak.
Docomo says signals from 5G indoor base stations could be aimed at transparent metasurfaces in glass windows to improve coverage.
“Also, in the future, when building large multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with a much larger number of antennas, it is possible to achieve comparably large configurations at once with a relatively small number of antennas. It is possible to reduce costs by applying metasurface technology,” predicted the telecommunications giant.
All of this is being driven by organizations needing to deploy more wireless transmitters than ever before to cope with the growing reliance on Wi-Fi, the rise of private 5G, and whatever comes next. or may be highly valued. ®
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