These days, I’d say that the majority of underground metros do have 4G and 5G network coverage. There are a few inglorious cities that haven’t gotten their act together for years now, but let’s not talk about them today. Let’s rather talk about the positive examples, i.e. those metros that have gone the next step.
I’m sure you’ve heard the typical ‘GSM sound’ on an FM radio by chance when a phone call comes in and the phone was close to a radio. It doesn’t happen that much anymore of course, as devices are mostly camping on LTE and 5G networks these days. But if you manually select GSM, you … Continue reading When All Else Fails – The Garmin InReach Mini 2 – Part 13 – Hearing Iridium
In the previous episodes, I’ve gone into some of the details of the Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) extensions specified in 3GPP Rel. 17 36.300 and 38.300. One main aspect I haven’t addressed so far is mobility, so let’s have a look at that today! Actually, mobility in NTN is even more fun than in terrestrial networks … Continue reading NTN – Part 6 – Satellite Mobility
And again a seamless continuation from part 4 on 3GPP’s Non-Terrestrial Networks specification extension in Release 17 in which I’d like to come back to a particular requirement: The mobile device has to be aware of its location, which means it has to get a GPS fix before it can contact the network via a … Continue reading NTN – Part 5 – Why Does the UE Need a GPS Fix?
This part is the seamless continuation of part 3 on the 3GPP TS 36.300 and TS 38.300 extension for Non-Terrestrial Networks, i.e. satellite communication. So let’s jump back straight in. Before we talk more about specific architecture options, here are two more terms used in the specification that are important to understand: As discussed in … Continue reading NTN – Part 4 – Satellite and Mobile Operator Mix and Match
In part 1 of this series, I’ve taken a high level look at how the LTE and 5G air interface specifications have been extended in 3GPP Release 17 to accommodate for weaker signals, longer delays and patchy coverage typically experienced over satellite. In part 2, I’ve chased the question why the LTE NB-IoT and CAT-M … Continue reading NTN – Part 3 – 3GPP Rel. 17 – System Architecture for Satellite Services
In the previous post on the topic, I’ve been looking at how 3GPP has studied and then extended the LTE and 5G NR air interface so it can be used over a satellite link. For transmitting data to and from smartphones with omnidirectional antennas over satellites, 3GPP has extended the LTE Narrowband Internet of Things … Continue reading NTN Part 2 – NB-IoT over Satellite
In recent months, satellite services for smartphones have been hyped a lot. While surprising for many, including me, this didn’t come out of nowhere, and a lot of companies have worked on this topic for quite some time. 3GPP has also picked up the topic a few years ago with study items in 3GPP Release … Continue reading NTN Part 1 – 3GPP Rel. 17 – Non-Terrestrial Networks
Another crazy year, both good and bad in so many ways, is coming to an end, so here I go with time honored tradition of looking back to what moved me this year in tech! In The Wireless Domain Obviously, there’s been a lot going on in the wireless domain again. While some parts of … Continue reading Things That Moved Me in 2022
One thing that always bugged me when crossing a country border is that my mobile devices took endlessly to select a new network. That was probably because the device first searched all frequency bands for all available network and only then presented the results. One way out was to temporarily switch to GSM only mode, … Continue reading Improved Network Selection Speed When Roaming