SLAM technology has begun to be introduced into the construction industry to develop its potential in this sector, following in the footsteps of other industries such as robotics and autonomous systems, areas where it is already widely used. Traditionally, construction documentation involves the manual capture of hundreds of photos or videos to track project progress.

Huawei has launched a series of F5G Advanced (F5G-A) solutions and products for customers in Europe. Gavin Gu, President of Huawei's Enterprise Optical Business Domain, shared key industry trends: intelligent transformation is placing greater demands on data sensing and transmission, driving three major trends in the optical industry.

In recent years, there has been a trend in optical transceiver technology toward integrating the transceiver with the ASIC. Traditionally, pluggable optics—optical modules that are inserted into and removed from the front panel of a switch—have been located near the edge of the printed circuit board (PCB). These pluggable optics are widely used in data center networks to interconnect switches and servers. While they offer flexibility, scalability, and ease of upgrades, they face significant challenges, primarily high power consumption and limited bandwidth density.

The Draghi Report on the future of European competitiveness prioritizes the closure of legacy copper networks and the completion of the first step in Europe's digital transformation. Setting a specific date for the closure of legacy copper networks reflects the commitment of DG Connect.

Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology has come a long way since its inception. The technology began in the late 1990s when the U.S. National Security Agency and Department of Defense started looking for ways to transmit massive amounts of data securely and quickly. The goal was to create a system resistant to hacking, interference, and other security threats.

Metamaterials are innovative, man-made materials with unique properties rarely found in nature. Composed of composite materials such as metals and plastics arranged in precise, repeating patterns, metamaterials derive their extraordinary capabilities from their meticulously engineered structures rather than their base materials. By manipulating shape, geometry, size, orientation, and arrangement, metamaterials can control incoming waves—blocking, absorbing, enhancing, or bending them—in ways that conventional materials cannot.

Over the past decade, the capacity of Ethernet switches for data centers has increased from 0.64 Tbps to 25.6 Tbps, driven by the adoption of 64x400 Gbps or 32x800 Gbps pluggable optical transceiver modules. However, these high-speed modules, within their current form factors, present significant challenges. These include the required densities of electrical and optical connectors, as well as the increasing power consumption.

To achieve next-generation optical engines that support 800 Gbps and more per module, the communication speed must be doubled to at least 100 Gbps per lane.

CISPA researcher Adrian Dabrowski, along with colleagues from SBA Research and the University of Vienna, has discovered two significant security vulnerabilities in the mobile protocol Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi), also known as WLAN calling. These vulnerabilities compromise the security of communications for millions of mobile phone customers worldwide. Updates to address the issues have already been released.

Modern smartphones can establish phone connections not only via mobile networks but also over Wi-Fi, thus ensuring connectivity even in locations with poor mobile network quality, such as tunnels, basements, or while traveling on trains.

Antenna encapsulation methodologies have evolved to counteract the increasing signal attenuation in high-frequency communications, such as 5G mmWave and the planned 6G networks. Previously, antennas were placed on printed circuit boards; now, there is a shift towards integrating antennas directly into the same package as the radio frequency chip.

Future connected vehicles will offer drivers a safer, smoother, and more comfortable driving experience. Drivers will not only have access to more navigation and entertainment options, but also to safety technologies that could potentially reduce accidents, improve traffic flow, and lower emissions worldwide by enabling vehicle safety systems to communicate with each other and with city traffic infrastructure.

The Bundesnetzagentur has published a provisional report from the unit responsible for overseeing duplicate fiber infrastructure projects, which the Bundesnetzagentur and the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) created in July 2023.

Klaus Müller, President of the Bundesnetzagentur: “The interim report is the first comprehensive review of real-world cases of infrastructure duplication. It reveals two things in particular. First, duplicate infrastructure projects generally exist across the market and in various competitive landscapes.”

This year's first ETSI Conference on Non-Terrestrial Networks has underscored the importance of technical standardization in achieving a fully connected planet through NTNs, a key element of tomorrow's global 6G networks.

Held on April 3 and 4, 2024 at the ETSI headquarters in Sophia Antipolis, the event was jointly organized with the European Space Agency (ESA), the 6G Intelligent Networks and Services Industry Association (6G-IA) and the Intelligent Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU).

Thanks to the constant advances in the development of quantum computers and their ever-increasing performance, it will be possible in the future to decipher our current encryption processes. To meet this challenge, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are participating in an international research consortium to develop encryption methods that apply physical laws to prevent message interception. To safeguard long-distance communications, the QUICK³ space mission will deploy satellites.

While the world awaits the full rollout of the next generation of telecommunications technologies, 5G, key stakeholders are preparing for the future of telecoms: 6G. This may seem premature, given that the deployment of 5G infrastructure and base stations has not yet reached its peak. In fact, IDTechEx predicts that the high-frequency, high-throughput bands of mmWave 5G will not take off for several years.

Crop maps help scientists and policymakers track global food supplies and estimate how they might change with climate change and population growth. But obtaining accurate maps of the types of crops grown from farm to farm often requires on-the-ground surveys that only a handful of countries have the resources to maintain.

Now, MIT engineers have developed a method to quickly and accurately label and map crop types without requiring on-site assessments of each farm. The team's method uses a combination of Google Street View imagery, machine learning, and satellite data to automatically determine the crops grown in a region, from one fraction of an acre to the next.

Most computation in modern neural networks involves linear operations, such as matrix and vector multiplications and convolutions. Linear operations can also play a significant role in cryptography. While dedicated processors like GPUs and TPUs enable highly parallel linear operations, these devices are energy-intensive, and the limited bandwidth of the electronics still restricts their operating speed. Optical networks are better suited for this type of operation due to their inherent parallelism, high bandwidth, and high computational speed.

Smart devices, autonomous driving, remote patient monitoring... countless new applications are being unlocked thanks to advances in telecommunications technology, specifically the transition to 5G. 5G telecommunications introduces two new frequency bands: sub-6 GHz (3.5 - 7 GHz) and mmWave (24 - 71 GHz).

A NASA technology experiment on the International Space Station completed its first laser link with an orbiting laser relay system on December 5, 2023. Together, they complete NASA's first end-to-end, bidirectional laser relay system. NASA's Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) and the space station's new demonstrator, ILLUMA-T (Integrated LCRD Low Earth Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal), successfully exchanged data for the first time. LCRD and ILLUMA-T are demonstrating how a user mission, in this case the space station, can benefit from a laser communications relay located in geosynchronous orbit.

The chair established by Fractus and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) to promote research in 6G wireless communication systems has yielded its first results, specifically in its studies on the use of smart surfaces, with very promising outcomes. The project aims to configure a smart surface capable of reflecting electromagnetic waves differently than conventional surfaces, thereby significantly improving the performance of current wireless networks.

Nokia announced today that it has set two new world records in underwater optical transmission, both of which will shape the next generation of optical networking equipment. The first sets a new optical speed record for transoceanic distances. Researchers at Nokia Bell Labs demonstrated a data transmission rate of 800 Gbps over a distance of 7,865 km using a single wavelength of light.