FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MICRONETICS WIRELESS CLEARED FOR PATENT ON INTEGRATED CIRCUIT THAT FACILITATES SELF-MONITORING OF WIRELESS SYSTEMS
"This tiny component gives you the ability to get inside the RF, or analog, portion of a wireless system and really see what's going on," says Micronetics Wireless Chief Technical Officer, Dave Robbins.
"In the past, the focus has been on monitoring digital systems and components. Monitoring the RF part of a wireless system is still a pretty time-consuming process, requiring that each individual channel within the communications bandwidth be tested one-at-a-time to locate potential trouble spots. There's always going to be an RF portion within a wireless or mobile system, and that's where we saw an opportunity to provide a solution."
Once inside a portable telephone or base station, the MicroCal Module acts much like a detective would, continuously looking around the entire bandwidth and gathering data that can be fed back to a centralized maintenance center.
What makes the MicroCal Module unique is its low cost, small size (less than 1/4" square), surface mount packaging, and repeatability. Repeatability is essential when a component is scattered throughout a wide area in many different types of equipment.
"In a Wireless Local Loop System, the module could be placed in subscriber units near homes or businesses -- the place where the system is the most vulnerable -- the most difficult to reach and monitor," Robbins continues. "That way, data could be accessed remotely, without having to dispatch a technician every time there's a problem."
The ability to monitor wireless systems in this way offers benefits to wireless subscribers, service providers, and equipment manufacturers.
For subscribers, it means they'll have more control over, and information about, their day-to-day service; the day may come when all they'll need to do is flip a switch in a subscriber unit to determine if there's a problem with their portable handset, or in the wireless RF network itself. Service providers will have the ability to more closely and cost-effectively monitor wireless systems. And wireless equipment manufacturers will be able to build systems that are already geared up to provide this function for their customers.
Micronetics Wireless is already working with Motorola, Nortel and Stanford Telecom to integrate and test the MicroCal Module in wireless infrastructure equipment. One application involves the installation and start-up of a cellular base station network; another is designed to provide ongoing system calibration in the Wireless Local Loop; and a third calls for using the MicroCal Module for testing and evaluating personal communications (PCS) cell sites.
Micronetics Wireless designs and manufactures specialized RF components and test equipment to help OEMs and service providers deliver high quality, reliable communication systems and services.
Earlier this year, the company was awarded another U.S. patent for a low phase noise voltage controlled oscillator (VCO).
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