pCell: Holy Grail of Wireless Networking?

What if you could make your mobile network completely ubiquitous and 1000 times faster? Imagine if you never searched for a network signal, but it followed you everywhere. That’s the potential impact of pCell technology, which will be ready for large-scale commercial deployment shortly.

Latest reports suggest that wireless data traffic growth will hit an all-time high of 1250% by the end of 2014. The demand for data is expected to multiply by a factor of 25 by 2020. As a result, cellular operators could soon be struggling to provide reliable services to subscribers. But now, this could be facilitated through ‘pCell’ or ‘personal cell’ technology—a revolutionary solution for clogged cellular networks and connectivity woes. In contrast to traditional cellular sites, this technology is equipped to take advantage of interference and create a network that delivers unbelievable data speeds, provides a reliable connection to subscribers, and transforms the way we communicate.

pCells work on DIDO (Distributed-Input-Distributed-Output) technology—a concept that promises a personal cellular network for each phone, but without a great number of antennas. Here, pCell’s radios work in concert to focus signals on individual phones. The result? Five bars everywhere and no dead zones! But perhaps even more importantly, pCell ensures that today’s phones work as you expect them to—that calls aren’t dropped or texts delayed, and that one can still use a network when thousands of people are on it at the same time.

Since the advent of wireless, it’s the coverage area that has defined the quality of cellular networks. But now, the coverage area will follow the consumer. In fact pCell gives each phone a tiny ‘signal bubble’ around it that goes everywhere with the phone. This ‘personal bubble’ provides each user with as much network bandwidth as they need and doesn’t require them to share it with anyone else.

In addition, pCell-enabled devices use less power than Wi-Fi chips built into handheld devices. pWave radios use a 1-milliwatt transmitter to deliver data, compared to 250 milliwatts used by most Wi-Fi radios and even larger amounts of power used by cellular towers. pCell also brings a significant reduction to the infrastructure needed to power a cell network. Unlike cell towers, which need massive fiber infrastructure to provide sufficient bandwidth for all their users, pCell technology can be deployed more cost efficiently. Also, instead of using expensive hardware for signal processing, a pCell depends on software to achieve the same results.

Of course, this revolutionary technology still has to reach the consumer market. It is expected to be deployed in all major markets in the US, Asia, and Europe by the end of 2015.
So, how do you think pCell will revolutionize the next generation of cellular connectivity and data transfer? Share your views with us in the comments box below.

About the Author

Wipro Insights set up the Council for Industry Research, comprising of domain and technology experts from the organization, to address the needs of customers. It specifically looks at innovative strategies that will help them gain competitive advantage in the market. The Council in collaboration with leading academic institutions and industry bodies studies market trends to equip organizations with insights that facilitate their IT and business strategies. http://www.wipro.com/insights/

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