It’s no secret that wireless communications standards continue evolving to provide ever-increasing data throughput capabilities. The boost in data rates is largely accomplished through enhancements in the physical layers of the protocols. These enhancements often take years to develop - allowing us to envision both the communications systems of tomorrow and the changes in RF test needs. Today, two main wireless standards are IEEE 802.11ac in wireless-local-area-network (WLAN) products and 3GPP LTE Advanced in cellular communications. [ + ]

While radio played a major role in alleviating some of Queensland’s worst disasters of 2011 - the floods and Cyclone Yasi - the technology found itself stretched to the limit on occasions.

In my 19 years within the two-way radio industry I have seen many changes and developments. I have seen the transition of radios using crystals, diode matrix boards, EPROMs and DSPs for programming and frequency changes, along with the introduction of data with MDTs, GPS and telemetry within the two-way radio medium.

TestAdvance, along with partners Technicas Competitivas and LSE, provided a Radio over IP system to help alleviate issues with interoperability on an existing network. [ + ]

New UWB technology, being researched in Europe, may be able to transmit data at speeds of up to 1 Gbps and determine the location of a person/object to within 50 cm.

The size of embedded software is increasing every year. In fact, embedded systems contain significantly more software than only a couple of years ago. This expansion has resulted in new types of problems.

Despite recent floods in Australia, fresh water supplies are becoming dangerously low in many areas of the world, and the use of technology to better monitor, control and safeguard water flow helps protect this threatened and valuable resource.

One of the world’s largest community safety and emergency service organisations, the Country Fire Authority (CFA) in Victoria, has selected Tait Radio Communications to replace its 10,000 handheld and vehicle-mounted radios.

The Lachesis vital signs monitor, developed by researchers at UniQuest’s commercialisation collaboration partner, the University of Technology Sydney, has received $70,000 in grants to help take the invention to the global market.

Alcatel-Lucent and PowerTrunk have completed a trial of a TETRA/LMR network with New Jersey Transit in Newark.

Over recent years responsibility for fleet safety has shifted from drivers to organisations and even individual managers - making this a growing issue for Australian businesses.

A recent ACMA investigation has identified two people who were unlawfully using a commercial radiofrequency for their own personal communications channel.

ClearCount Medical Solutions has selected NXP RFID to enable its SmartSponge System to detect and account for surgical sponges placed in a patient’s body when undergoing surgery, so that no items are left behind.

Multihop mesh protocols, such as Zigbee, are widely known for their ability to link together low data rate machine-to-machine (M2M) applications. Zigbee, in particular, is targeting itself as the standard bearer for wireless, low-power meshing protocols.

Simoco’s range has gained P25 Compliance Assessment Program approval.