Future smartphones could gain numerous benefits from algorithms to fight interference, developed by a little-known startup in Lawrence, Kansas, that last week drew closer to implementing the technology in devices.
The algorithms are intended to more efficiently cancel out interference among different radios built into the same phone, potentially giving users longer battery life or fewer dropped calls. The same technology might also be used to counter other types of interference, including military jamming and power-transmission signals that hurt powerline networks.
The source of these signal-filtering algorithms isn't a wireless-industry giant but Avatekh, a 2-year-old research company that's working with Kansas State University's Electronics Design Laboratory. They announced last week they have received a National Science Foundation grant to implement and test the technology in hardware.
Radio-frequency interference can hold back network performance, and one source of it is the multiple radios found in many devices. Most smartphones are equipped with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and other radio technologies, all of which may be transmitting or receiving signals at the same time in close proximity. Even if they use different bands, the radios in a device may interfere with each other if they're very close together, according to Alexei Nikitin, Avatekh's founder and chief science officer.
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon