Cognitive radio to increase mobile phone bandwidth
SmartPhones continue to dominate mobile phone sales with the primary reason being mobile data – accessing the internet, emails and downloading apps. Already the mobile networks are seeing a huge increase in data traffic across their networks leading to unlimited data tariffs becoming a thing of the past.
Nokia have been researching alternative ways of routing network traffic and their solution is cognitive radio. This routes traffic through additional bandwidths (eg. those used for radio and TV) when the existing mobile networks start to get clogged up.
Other companies are also looking into the problem and alternative solutions include proximity-based data sharing technologies and Smart WiFi – a technology that focuses Wi-Fi signals only where they are needed.
All of these solutions seek to solve a problem that will shortly exist based on existing mobile phone handset technology. Increasing the amount of bandwidth available is an absolute necessity with alternative devices, such as the iPad, also claiming a share of network traffic.
People expect to be able to connect 24 hours a day without restriction or any slowing down of service. Hopefully cognitive radio will help ease the burden on the networks and free up some extra room for consumers to use.