Incremental wireless developments have seen a string of progressively more complex analogue modulation schemes, but no digital systems. Our old analogue technologies are merely interfaced with complex digital modems and we have failed to escape the constraints of bands and channels. But our world has moved on from big towers, high energy, and long distance communication to one dominated by very short range, mW, µW and nW transmissions. Even the mobile device world is migrating to smaller and smaller cells, whilst the IoT may predominately by-pass all our conventional networks by employing mesh nets and/or opportunistic store and forward. “A world of 250Bn fixed and mobile ‘Things‘ is entirely different to one of 7Bn Mobiles” In this new paradigm the apparent shortages of wireless bandwidth and capacity are more a manifestation of wrong thinking than actual constraints of a well trodden analogue past. The reality is; we have an infinity of bandwidth and there are no physical or otherwise limitations to wireless communications for short distance applications provided we think and design digitally to exploit all the degrees of freedom to hand. In the extreme, we can operate under the thermal noise to become invisible and beyond regulation and control. “The IoT will see more things connecting and communicating off the net than on”

1. Infinite IoT WirElesS
Sans channels, bands & regulation
Peter Cochrane
www.cochrane.org.uk
“We have no digital wireless, only old analogue
technologies using complex digital modems”

2. GENESIS
Fork lift radio - analogue - long distances - lots of power
CW, AM, FM, SSB+++
P2P Fixed, Broadcast+++
LW, MW, SW, VHF, UHF+++
Terrestrial, Maritime, Airborne+++
~30Bn fixed and mobile
broadcast radio & TV receivers
dominate followed by simplex
voice transceivers

3. Big cells and n x1000s of towers
MOBILE
~7Bn live devices on 3/4G
connected to a global net of
duplex voice & data comms
• Digital modes only
• Personal mixed use and traffic
• Static base stations dominate
• Terrestrial concentration
• Large cells <20km

4. slow forward
Small cells and Nx1000s of masts
~7Bn live devices on 3/4G
connected to a global net of
duplex voice & data comms
• Exponential traffic growth
• Concentrated communities
• Death of the fixed line phone
• Users demand more bandwidth
• Cells <1km

5. Now 1
D I Y c e l l s
P l u g a n d p l a y
n o e x p e r t i s e re q u i re d !
• Personal and up close
• 100% contiguous coverage
• Goodbye to fixed line phone
• Cells <100m
Office, home, providing new
services including virtual pbx

6. Now 2
DIY WiFi
P l u g a n d p l a y
n o e x p e r t i s e
re q u i re d !
WiFi ~ 55%
Copper/FTTP ~ 45%
3 + 5G ~5%
Internet Traffic

7. Observations
It is a miracle it all works
Protocols very inefficient
We avoid interference by dynamic juggling!
The spectrum shortage is an illusion
We seldom use more than 20% of the available space
5G unlikely to be a big player
It cannot fully service the IoT
We need more than incrementalism
More bands, channels, modulation and coding schemes are not enough

8. Does everything, but badly
THE BIG FIX ?
5g
• Replaces optical fibre
• Outguns 3 & 4G
• Gbit/s everywhere
• Will dominate the IoT
• +++++
• Cooks a chicken
• Improves your sex life….

9. n e w d i r e c t i o n S
From connected people to connected things
People
~10Bns
Traffic
~1 Bn
Goods
~100Bns
Components
~1 Tn IoT

10. E n e r g y l i m i t a t i o n S
We cannot realise such a future using our current approach
Internet and connected devices ~ 10% of all energy generated
What would 50, 250 or 1000Bn IoT devices demand ?
We have to get down from mW to µW, nW and pW
This demands ‘simplicity’ of processing and communications

11. N e w M o d e s
More things linking off net than on
Most THINGS will never connect to the internet
THINGS will want to network and connect with other THINGS
The IoT is entirely evolutionary and not just revolutionary
New sporadic networks and associations will occur

12. one size fits all - not!
We are going to need a multiplicity of technologies
Cost Per Unit ~ 0 - 20 £, $, €
Size of Units ~ 1 - 50 mm3
Power Used ~ pW - mW
Single Chips Rule

13. C o n t i n u e t W e a k i n g ?
This heritage/thinking cannot possible get us there

14. The Illusion of scarcity
Why do we do this - it is largely legacy thinking
Actually the
spectrum
is m
ostly unused!

15. A dense london location
~50k WiFi nodes within a 1km radius of Liverpool St
Very low RF Signal
occupancy typical of most
modern cities & rural locations

16. adopting reverse gear?
Status Quo
New Track ?
Analogue
pretending
to be digital
High
energy
& complex
Pure digital
Low
energy
& simple
Conserving bandwidth for medium /long distance
mobile communication
Wasting bandwidth
for ultra-short IoT
distances

17. OpportunitY Space
High loss is a short distance/reuse +++
God Given Spatial Filters
Status Quo
Leave well
alone
New Territory
and new
opportunities
Continues untouched
All modulation
schemes from
the past +new
New modulation
schemes & modes
including hyper
Direct Sequence
Spread Spectrum

18. The Illusion of scarcity
Why do we do this - it is largely legacy thinking
far too complex & expensive
Unfit for the IoT purpose - especially at 30 - 300 GHz

19. N e w O p p o rt u n i t i es
High loss ideal for short distance/reuse +++
Direct Sequence
Spread Spectrum
HYPER
Direct Sequence
Spread Spectrum

20. S/N dB
BW Hz
Duration
T seconds
Volumetric representation of S/N, BW and Time
Claude Shannon 1945/46
I = B.T log2(1 + k.S/N)
I ~ B.T.K.S/NdB
vv
Back to basics
k.S/N >> 1
With a little engineering licence

21. The same information transmitted in 3
different modes exploiting S/N, BW and T
S/N dB
BW Hz
Duration
T seconds
degrees of freedom
Hugely simplified for the purposes
of explanation and clarity

22. S/N dB
BW Hz
Duration
T seconds
In the Extreme
‘Waste Bandwidth’ to push the Signal Below the Noise
Filters
Coding
Modulation
Timing Recovery
Amplifiers & Mixers
Jitter
Phase Noise
Doppler Shift
Frequency Stability
Multi-Path Propagation
Negated

23. BW ~ 500MHz
All digital no analogue elements - mixers, amplifies, filters
UWB ON AFTERBURNERS
From UWB
To HWB Hyper Wide Band
BW ~ 50GHz
SIGNAL CODING/Error Correction => Bit Counting/Averaging
1bit/Hz
0.01bit/Hz

24. 5GHz
55GHz
DSS VariAnts
Thermal Noise
Sans pulse and absorption effects
Simple spectral replication reduces the processing demand of TX and RX units

25. Huge amounts of electronic complexity along with:
Jitter
Filters
Coding
Modulation
Phase Noise
Doppler Shift
Timing Recovery
Frequency Stability
Multi-Path Propagation
W E J U S T N E G A T E D

26. Antennas spanning huge
frequency ranges are a non-trivial …
and whilst fractal antennas may be
the ‘theoretical the holy grail’, no one
has yet succeeded in realising fully
workable designs
MAJOR Challenge 1

27. Status Quo
Vested Interests
Limited Thinking
Unwillingness to Change
MAJOR Challenge 2

28. ca-global.org
cochrane.org.uk
Can governments; FCC, OFCOM et al let go??
After >100 years of trying to be bandwidth efficient can we bring
ourselves to waste bandwidth to achieve energy, size, material
and operational efficiencies across > 100, 000,000,000 things ??
Thank You