Guided Wave Launcher for Bandwidth Expansion
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing demand for higher bandwidth in wireless infrastructure due to ubiquitous smartphone use and data consumption is not adequately met by existing technologies, particularly in providing efficient broadband access and managing electromagnetic waves in communication networks.
Innovation Solution
A guided wave communication system that utilizes electromagnetic waves bound to transmission media such as wires or dielectric materials, allowing for the propagation of signals without requiring an electrical return path, and employs couplers to launch and extract these waves, enabling efficient data transmission over long distances with reduced loss.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional wireless infrastructure and macrocell base stations are used, then coverage area is provided, but bandwidth capacity is insufficient to meet increasing data demand
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the wireless communication infrastructure into macrocells for broad coverage and small cells (microcells and picocells) for high-capacity localized access. This segmentation allows the system to simultaneously provide wide area coverage while delivering high bandwidth capacity in specific locations where data demand is highest, effectively resolving the contradiction between coverage area and bandwidth capacity.
2Speed
If electromagnetic waves are transmitted through traditional wireless media, then signal propagation occurs, but signal loss increases over long distances
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a dielectric waveguide as an intermediary medium to guide electromagnetic waves between the small cell base station and remote devices. This waveguide intermediary confines and directs the electromagnetic energy, enabling long-distance signal propagation with minimal loss compared to traditional free-space wireless transmission, thus resolving the contradiction between propagation distance and signal loss.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This system effectively increases bandwidth capacity by allowing guided electromagnetic waves to propagate along transmission media with minimal loss, supporting high-frequency signals and enabling efficient data transmission in wireless communication networks.
Implementation Method 1
a launcher, which generates and launches an electromagnetic wave along a transmission medium
Implementation Method 2
electromagnetic waves bound at least in part to a transmission medium... propagate along the transmission medium without an electrical return path
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, receiving a signal, and launching, according to the signal, an electromagnetic wave along a transmission medium, where the electromagnetic wave propagates along the transmission medium without requiring an electrical return path, and where the electromagnetic wave has a phase delay profile that is dependent on an azimuth angle about an axis of the transmission medium. Other embodiments are disclosed.