3GPP最新NB-IoT标准

Javier GozalvezNew 3GPP Standard for IoTInternet of Thingsmajor milestone was achieved inthe Third-Generation Partner-ship Project’s (3GPP’s) Radio AccessNetwork Plenary Meeting 69 with thedecision to standardize the narrow-band (NB) Internet of Things (IoT), anew NB radio technology to addressthe requirements of the IoT. The newtechnology will provide improved in-door coverage, support of a massivenumber of low-throughput devices,low delay sensitivity, ultralow devicecost, low device power consump-tion, and optimized network archi-tecture. The technology can bedeployed in-band, utilizing resourceblocks within a normal long-termevolution (L TE) carrier, or in the un-used resource blocks within an L TEcarrier’s guard-band, or stand alonefor deployments in dedicated spec-trum. The NB-IoT is also particularlysuitable for the refarming of GlobalSystem for Mobile Communications(GSM) channels.Ericsson, AT&T, and Altair dem-onstrated over ten years of batterylife using LTE power-saving mode(PSM) on a commercial LTE IoT chipset platform. The demonstrationruns on Ericsson networks and Al-tair’s FourGee-1160 Cat-1 chip set fea-turing ultralow power consumption.Long-term battery life has becomea prerequisite for a vast number ofIoT applications. PSM is an EricssonEvolved Packet Core (EPC) featurebased on 3GPP (Release 12) for bothGSM and LTE networks. The featureis able to dramatically extend I oTdevice battery life up to ten yearsor more for common use cases andtraffic profiles. This capability isdefined for both LTE and GSM tech-nologies and lets devices enter anew deep-sleep mode—for hours oreven days at a time—and only wakeup when needed.Ericsson, Sony Mobile, and SKTelecom conducted lab testing ofthe key functionalities of LTE deviceCategory 0 and Category M (Machine-Type Communication). LTE Category0 has been standardized in the3GPP LTE Release 12 and is the firstdevice category specifically target-ing reduced complexity and, thus,reduced cost for the IoT. LTE CategoryM is a key theme in LTE Release 13,representing further cost savings andimproving battery lifetime. Wearabledevices and related applications wereselected for the user scenarios beingtested and trialed. The wearabledevice test use cases are focused onconsumer lifestyle and wellness ap-plications enabled through multiplesensors providing accelerometer,identification, pulse meter, and globalpositioning system functionality.Orange and Ericsson announceda trial of optimized, low-cost, low-complexity devices and enhancednetwork capabilities for cellular IoTover GSM and LTE. What the compa-nies claim will be the world’s first ex-tended coverage (EC) GSM trial willbe conducted in France using the900-MHz band, with the aim of en-hancing device reachability by up to20 dB, or a sevenfold improvementin the range of low-rate applications.This further extends the dominantglobal coverage of GSM in Europeand Africa to reach challenging lo-cations, such as deep indoor base-ments, where many smart metersare installed, or remote areas inwhich sensors are deployed for agri-culture or infrastructure monitoringuse cases. I n addition, EC-GSM willreduce device complexity and, thus,lower costs, enabling large-scale IoTdeployments. In parallel, the compa-nies will carry, in partnership withSequans, what they believe is theworld’s first LTE IoT trial using low-cost, low-complexity devices withone receive antenna (instead of two),and half-duplex frequency divisionduplex (FDD). This simplifies thedevice hardware architecture andreduces expensive duplex filters, al-lowing for a 60% cost reduction incomparison with the existing LTECategory 4. Ericsson will also dem-onstrate, together with Sequans,energy efficiency over GSM and LTEnetworks with the PSM technology.The PSM feature is applicable toboth GSM and LTE and supportedby EPC.Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MVT.2015.2512358Date of publication: 24 February 2016AEricsson, MyOmega System Tech-nologies, Intel, and Telenor Connex-ion have partnered to build what they claim is the world’s first end-to-end site implementation of secure oT connectivity service for wine-makers. The service will enable wine-makers to collect data on air and soil humidity and temperature, as well as solar intensity, using IoT sensors and ntel-based oT gateways con-nected to a cloud service. The data can be used to perform a predictive analysis and to support resource management and real-time remote monitoring. Ericsson’s secure I oT service is based on the Ericsson De-vice Connection Platform integrated with the Authentication Federation Gateway. Built on the 3GPP standard Generic Bootstrapping Architecture for LTE, the implementation features what Ericsson claims is the world’s first end-to-end security and authen-tication capabilities for transferring sensor data to the cloud for process-ing and analysis.Berg I nsight estimates that LTE will be the leading technology for cellular I oT devices in 2019. The company estimates that global ship-ments of cellular oT devices will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.1% to reach 239.7 million units in 2020.Gartner estimates that 6.4 bil-lion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, which repre-sents an increase of 30% from 2015. This figure will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. The firm expects that IoT will support total services spending of US$235 billion in 2016, which repre-sents an increase of 22% from 2015. Fifth GenerationThe Radiocommunication Assembly of the International Telecommunica-tion Union (ITU) has endorsed a res-olution that establishes the road map for the development of fifth-generation (5G) mobile and the term that will apply to it: “I nternational Mobile Telecommunications (I MT) 2020.” The overall vision for the 5G systems, along with the goals, pro-cess, and time line for its develop-ment, is now in place. The detailedtechnical performance requirementsfor the radio systems to support 5Gwill be developed, in close collabo-ration with industry and nationaland regional standards organiza-tions, following the stringent timelines defined by ITU. New demands,including applications requiringvery high-data-rate communica-tions, many more devices withdiverse service requirements, betterquality of user experience, and bet-ter affordability, will require anincreasing number of innovativesolutions. Low-latency and high-reli-ability communication are perceivedas an enabler for the future develop-ment of new applications in healthcare, safety, business, entertain-ment, and other sectors.NTT DOCOMO, I nc., announcedthat a 5G trial it conducted withNokia Networks at the RoppongiHills high-rise complex in Tokyo, Ja-pan, achieved ultrahigh-speed datatransmission in excess of 2 Gb/s.The trial used millimeter-wave-length signals with an extremelyhigh frequency of 70 GHz, a key de-velopment for the eventual commer-cial use of 5G wireless technology inactual-use environments. Accordingto the company, to date, no test hadachieved a 5G data transmission ina commercial complex, such as ashopping mall, due to problems withbase stations being out of line ofsight and diffused reflections caus-ing the attenuation of highly direc-tional millimeter signals. This time,however, the trial was successfulbecause of the use of two technolo-gies: 1) beamforming, which focusesradio waves in a specific direction,and 2) beam tracking to controlbeam direction according to the mo-bile device’s location. n addition,in a separate trial that DOCOMOconducted with Samsung Electron-ics in Suwon-city, South Korea, amaximum data-receiving speed ofmore than 2.5 Gb/s was achievedin a vehicle travelling with a speedof 60 km/h. The trial used a 28-GHzhigh-frequency signal in combina-tion with beamforming with a highnumber of antenna elements andbeam tracking.DOCOMO conducted other tri-als recently in collaboration withvendors: DOCOMO and Ericssonverified the feasibility of a mas-sive multiple-input, multiple-output(MI MO) technology by achieving areal-time data-receiving speed ofmore than 10 Gb/s using Ericsson5G radio prototypes with a 15-GHzfrequency band. DOCOMO and Fu-jitsu confirmed a multi-base-stationcooperative transmission system byachieving a data-receiving speed ofover 11 Gb/s in a total of four mobiledevices with a 4.6-GHz signal. Anoutdoor data-transmission trial con-ducted by DOCOMO, DOCOMO Bei-jing Communications Laboratories,and Huawei Technologies achieveda multiuser (MU) MI MO transmis-sion of 43.9 b/s/Hz/cell, which was3.6-times more efficient than thepast outdoor trials of the LTE-Ad-vanced-based MU-M I MO technol-ogy. According to the companies,the trial with Huawei representsthe first large-scale MU-MIMO tech-nology test, with a concurrent con-nectivity of 24 user devices in themacrocell environment on the sub-6-GHz frequency band. Huawei alsoclaims that it was the first time theperformance of sparse code mul-tiple access and filtered orthogo-nal frequency-division multiplexing(F-OFDM) was validated in the field.SK Telecom and Nokia Networksdemonstrated Nokia Networks’ centi-meter-wave technology in a joint 5Gtrial in South Korea. The two compa-nies achieved 19.1-Gb/s transmission B erg I nsIght estImates that Lte wILL Be the LeadIng technoLogy for ceLLuLar I o t devIces In 2019.speed over the air using 256 quadra-ture amplitude modulation (QAM), 8 # 8 MIMO transmission and 400 MHz of bandwidth.Ericsson published its Mobil-ity Report that provides insight into the future of 5G networks, including a forecast of 150 million 5G mobile subscriptions by 2021. South Korea, Japan, China, and the United States are predicted to lead with the first, and fastest, 5G subscription uptake. 5G will connect new types of devic-es, enabling new use cases related to the I oT; the transition will open up new industries and verticals to information and communications technologies (I CTs) transformation. The report also reveals a signifi-cant increase in mobile video con-sumption, which is driving around six-times-higher traffic volumes per smartphone in North America and Europe (2015–2021). North America data traffic per active smartphone will grow from 3.8 to 22 GB per month by 2021; in Western Europe, the increase is from 2 to 18 GB per month. Other highlights from the lat-est Ericsson Mobility Report include: global mobile data traffic is forecast to grow tenfold by 2021, and video is forecast to account for 70% of to-tal mobile traffic in the same year;20 new mobile broadband subscrip-tions are activated every second; by the end of 2015, there will be one billion mobile subscriptions across Africa; ICT will enable savings in en-ergy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across all other industrial sectors, with a total emis-sion reduction that could be up to 10 Gt of carbon dioxide emissions (15% of global GHG emissions in 2030). SpectrumThe World Radiocommunication Con-ference 2015 (WRC-15) concluded its deliberations as delegates signed the Final Acts that revise the Radio Regu-lations, the international treaty gov-erning the use of radio-frequency (RF) spectrum and satellite orbits. Around 3,300 participants, represent-ing 162 out of I TU’s 193 memberstates attended the four-week confer-ence 2–27 November 2015. Approxi-mately 500 participants representing130 other entities, including industry,also attended the conference as ob-servers. WRC-15 addressed morethan 40 topics related to frequency al-location and frequency sharing forthe efficient use of spectrum and or-bital resources. Following the grow-ing demand for spectrum for mobilebroadband services, WRC-15 identi-fied frequency bands in the L-band(1,427–1,518 MHz) and in the lowerpart of the C-band (3.4–3.6 GHz).WRC-15 achieved agreement on someadditional portions in other bandsthat were also allocated to mobilebroadband services to be used in re-gions where there was no interfer-ence with other ser vices. Tocounteract the difficulties encoun-tered in finding additional spectrumfor I MT in bands below 6 GHz,WRC-15 decided to include studies inthe agenda for the next WRC in 2019for the identification of bands above6 GHz that will allow technology tomeet demand for greater capacity.WRC-15 made a key decision that willprovide enhanced capacity for mo-bile broadband in the 694–790-MHzfrequency band in ITU Region 1 (Eu-rope, Africa, the Middle East, andCentral Asia) and a globally harmo-nized solution for the implementationof the digital dividend. Full protectionhas been given to television broad-casting as well as to the aeronauticalradionavigation systems operating inthis frequency band. The decision al-locates this band to the mobile ser-vice and identifies it for I MT in I TURegion 1, similarly to what was decid-ed by the WRC in 2007 for ITU Region2 (Americas) and Region3 (Asia-Pa-cific). WRC-15 identified spectrum inthe 694–894-MHz frequency band tofacilitate mobile broadband commu-nications for robust and reliable mis-sion critical emergency services inpublic protection and disaster relief,such as police, fire, ambulances,and disaster-response teams. WRC-15opened the way for the developmentby the International Civil Aviation Or-ganization of worldwide standards forunmanned aircraft systems, and iden-tified the regulatory conditions thatmay be applied to such systems inter-nationally. WRC-15 also agreed onspectrum for wireless avionics intra-communications to allow for theheavy and expensive wiring used inaircraft to be replaced by wire-less systems.Ofcom (United Kingdom) has con-firmed plans for releasing valuablenew airwaves that could be used tomeet the growing demand for mo-bile broadband services. An auctionis planned to take place in early 2016for the spectrum, which has beenmade available by the U.K. Ministryof Defence as part of a wider govern-ment initiative to free up public sec-tor spectrum for civil uses. A totalof 190 MHz of high-capacity spec-trum is being made available in twobands—2.3 and 3.4 GHz—which areparticularly suited for high-speedmobile broadband services. Ofcomproposes to auction the spectrum inlots of 10 MHz for the 2.3-GHz bandand 5 MHz for the 3.4-GHz band.Fourth GenerationChina Mobile Shanghai and The Re-search I nstitute of China Mobile, to-gether with Huawei, has successfullycompleted what they assert is theworld’s first massive MI MO solutiondeployment (ultralarge-scale multian-tenna system) on the fourth-genera-tion (4G) commercial network. Theresults of the tests indicated a down-link throughput per single cell ex-ceeding 630 Mb/s with a single20-MHz carrier. The massive MI MOsolution is an integral feature of L TEtime-division duplex (TDD) evolution[4.5G (4.5 generation)] and can po-tentially increase spectrum efficiencyby six to ten times in the future. I tscore is an ultralarge-scale multianten-na system, where each module inte-grates 128 RF channels and 128built-in antennas. The solution sup-ports all mainstream LTE-TDDfrequency bands. By using the three-dimensional (3-D) beamforming tech-nology, a single massive MI MO eNodeB installed at a height of 25 m is capable of providing 3-D coverageto a building 75-m tall as well as the surrounding roads. This demon-stration indicated that a single site could effectively solve coverage problems that previously could only be resolved with multiple legacy base stations.Ericsson, Vodafone, and Qual-comm Technologies, I nc., conduct-ed what they claim is the world’s first live testing of advanced carrier aggregation (CA) of LTE in licensed and unlicensed bands on a com-mercial mobile network. The trial uses the Ericsson RBS 6,402 indoor small cell, which supports LTE CA between licensed and unlicensed bands on Vodafone’s commercial network, connected to an LTE un-licensed-band-capable test device developed by Qualcomm Technolo-gies, I nc. The latest over-the-air re-sults were achieved by aggregating 20 MHz of Vodafone spectrum in Band 3 (1,800 MHz) with 20 MHz of the unlicensed 5-GHz band U-NI I-1 band. The testing validated LTE per-formance in the unlicensed band and fair coexistence with other tech-nologies like Wi-Fi within the unli-censed 5-GHz band. The Ericsson RBS 6402 indoor picocell includes a 5-GHz LTE-enabled radio in addi-tion to multiple LTE radio variants and an optional 2.4-GHz Wi-Fi mod-ule. The user equipment utilized in this trial is a test device powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon X12 LTE modem.HKT and Huawei successfully demonstrated what they believe is the world’s first 4.5G 1-Gb/s mobile network. The demonstration intro-duces what the companies claim is a world-first four-component carrier CA network.Nokia Networks and TeliaSonera have conducted a live demonstra-tion of LTE-Advanced three-band CA (3# CA) using Category 9 devices. The companies showcased whatthey claim are record-breaking datarates of up to 375 Mb/s on a commer-cial network, marking an industryfirst in the Nordic region. The end-to-end demo, performed on Sonera’scommercial network in Helsinki, ag-gregated three LTE FDD carriers of20, 20, and 10-MHz bandwidth.Alcatel-Lucent has launched theDistributed Antenna System (DAS)RF Module (RFM), a widebandlow-power LTE interface card thatremoves the need for bulky radiotechnology in a public installation.To connect to a DAS today, serviceproviders must deploy remote ra-dio heads alongside duplexers andattenuators to reduce output pow-er, as well as cooling equipmentin areas where there is often lim-ited space. Working together withAlcatel-Lucent’s LTE radio accessportfolio, the DAS RFM connects toAlcatel-Lucent’s digital basebandunit, working directly with the ana-log DAS through RF signals that con-sume just one-eighth of the powerand heat dissipation of an averageremote radio head, reducing spacerequirements and optimizing costs.Bell Labs has completed a study onthe cost savings delivered by thenew DAS RFM, compared with atraditional remote radio head andassociated equipment. The studyshows that service providers can re-alize up to 30% cost savings in termsof the wireless and DAS equipmentrequired, up to 81% cost savings interms of power and cooling; up to78% cost savings in terms of energy.Ericsson and SK Telecom havenow deployed Ericsson Lean Carrierin urban, suburban, and rural areas.Ericsson Lean Carrier reduces, ormakes lean, the level of referencesignalling needed for good networkperformance. This leads to a cor-responding improvement of thedownlink data speed, which appliesto all parts of the 4G LTE network,with the highest performance gainsoccurring in the areas with mostcell overlap. In a large-scale deploy-ment, users can enjoy up to a 50% in-crease in downlink data speed witha network average increase of about10%. By reducing interference, Erics-son Lean Carrier enables new 256-QAM higher-order modulation to beutilized over a broader area, extend-ing the higher data speed advantageto the outdoor macro environment.According to Ericsson, its Lean Car-rier solution increases the use of256 QAM by up to 280%.Nokia Networks has delivered anew Flexi Zone outdoor modular basestation that it claims is the world’sfirst small cell to achieve over 1-Gb/speak data rate. A bundle of servicessimplify small-cell deployment andhelp operators to evolve to ultra-dense networks. Nokia Networks’new Flexi Zone G2 Multiband CA Out-door Micro-/Pico- Base Station (BTS)platform delivers capacity and great-er than 1 Gb/s peak data rates. By us-ing three RF module slots, operatorscan deploy and aggregate betweenvarious radio access technologiesand spectrum combinations, includ-ing up to three LTE licensed carrierbands or configurations offering acombination of LTE licensed carrierbands, unlicensed LTE bands (LTE-Uor LAA) and Wi-Fi.Nokia Networks, Deutsche Tele-kom, and Cosmote have demonstrat-ed what they claim is a world-first:LTE-Advanced 3 CA combining LTE-FDD in Band 3 (1.8 GHz) with LTE-TDD in Band 42 (3.5 GHz). With 400MHz of TDD spectrum bandwidthavailable in many countries, the com-panies believe that 3.5 GHz providesa good solution for capacity expan-sion to meet future demand based onLTE and LTE-A Pro technologies. hKt and h uaweI successfuLLy demonstrated what they cLaIm Is the worLd’s fIrst 4.5g 1-g B/s moBILe networK.StarHub has successfully de-ployed Nokia Networks’ TD-LTE, FDD-LTE, and outdoor small-cells solution as part of its 4G HetNet in Singapore. The HetNet showcased what the companies claim is the in-dustry’s first TDD-FDD voice-over-LTE handover, with zero call drops and high-definition voice continuity for subscribers. As part of the solu-tion, LTE-Advanced CA delivered high data rates, while Nokia Flexi Zone small cells were installed at strategic traffic hot spots to handle peak-hour data demand.4G Americas announced that LTE-Advanced has been commercially deployed on 100 networks world-wide in 49 countries. There are glob-ally 430 commercial LTE networks with 907 million total LTE subscrib-ers (with an expected forecast of 3.6 billion by 2020). The first LTE-Ad-vanced networks were deployed in South Korea in June 2013 and utilized CA. CA allows operators the ability to utilize disparate spectrum bands to create larger spectrum swaths to increase efficiencies and download speeds. LTE-Advanced will continue to evolve through LTE-Advanced Pro (3GPP Release 13 and beyond) even as 5G technologies are standardized in Release 14 and onward.A new report from the Global Mobile Suppliers Association, “Eval-uating the LTE Broadcast Opportu-nity,” forecasts that the market for LTE broadcast services will reach US$14 billion worldwide by 2020. The report also expects that LTE Broad-cast will reach a potential customer base of 2 billion by 2020. Over 30 mobile operators have been involved in technical lab or field trials of Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multi-cast Service with a view to using it to reduce the load on their networks by broadcasting popular TV and videocontent rather than sending it toeach viewer individually.Research and T echnologyZTE Corporation announced thecompletion of what it claims is theworld’s first precommercial test ofdistributed MIMO (D-MIMO) technol-ogy. The field test, conducted jointlyby ZTE and a partner, demonstratedan up to nine-times increase in datarate at the cell edge through the useof D-MI MO technology based onZTE’s proprietary Cloud Radio solu-tion. The outdoor part of the testcovered single-user and multiple-us-er scenarios in an environment withmultiple overlapping base stationsand used commercially available mo-bile device terminals.The coherent-joint transmission(JT) technology used in ZTE’s new D-MIMO system ensures full-phase syn-chronization among base stations sothat the jointly transmitted signal isamplified to the maximum level as itarrives at the antenna of a user ter-minal, minimizing interference withother terminals. Compared with thelegacy noncoherent-JT technology,ZTE reported that coherent-JT pro-vides 3 dB of additional gain at theantenna of a target user terminal andforms null steering at the antennasof other user terminals to minimizesignal interference, achieving MU-JT.The D-MI MO technology can ef-fectively improve the data rate at thecell edge through coordinated trans-mission among base stations, resolv-ing a major challenge facingoperators. The indoor D-MI MO testresult showed that the MU-JT tech-nology can form null steering to-wards multiple users to guaranteegood multiuser joint transmission inan enclosed and small space. Thecompany said that the service datarate of a single testing cell was atleast quadrupled in an ideal nonin-terference situation, and a number oftesting cells have enhanced their re-sistance to interference by morethan a hundred times.Alcatel-Lucent released figuresshowing that in the first half of 2015,the number of security threats onmobile networks has come increas-ingly from a seemingly unlikelysource—personal computers andlaptops. The research also found asignificant increase in the number ofspy-phone applications being detect-ed on both Android and iOS mobiledevices. The Motive Security LabsH1 2015 Malware Report examinesgeneral trends and statistics for mal-ware infections in devices connectedthrough mobile and fixed networks.Data are aggregated across fixed andmobile networks, where Motive Se-curity Guardian malware detectiontechnology is deployed, coveringmore than 100 million devices. In thefirst half of 2015, Alcatel-Lucent esti-mates that an 80% of malware infec-tions detected on mobile networkshave been traced to Windows-basedcomputers and laptops. This findingrepresents a significant change from2013 and 2014 when the source of mo-bile network infections were roughlysplit 50:50 between Android and Win-dows-supported devices. The Motivereport also found that cybercrimi-nals are quickly taking advantage ofunique opportunities in the mobileecosystem to spread spyware. I nfact, 10 of the 25 most prolific threatson smartphones are in the mobilespyware category and are often de-livered bundled with games and freesoftware. These sophisticated spy-ware applications enable the remotetracking of a phone owner’s move-ments as well as the monitoring ofphone calls, text messages, e-mails,and browsing habits.Qualcomm Technologies, I nc.announced the introduction ofQualcomm Snapdragon Smart Pro-tect. The upcoming Qualcommt he d-mImo technoLogy can effectIveLy Improvethe data rate at the ceLL edge through coordInated transmIssIon among Base statIons, resoLvIng a major chaLLenge facIng operators.Snapdragon 820 processor is the first platform offering Snapdragon Smart Protect, providing real-time, on-device machine learning designed to support accurate and effective de-tection of zero-day malware threats for improved personal privacy and device security. Snapdragon Smart Protect is also the first application to utilize Qualcomm Zeroth technol-ogy, augmenting conventional anti-malware solutions by supporting on device real-time malware detection, classification, and cause analysis us-ing an advanced cognitive computing behavioral engine. Snapdragon Smart Protect complements existing signa-ture-based antimalware solutions by analyzing and identifying new threats prior to new signature updates.University of Washington (UW) engineers have developed a novel technology that uses a Wi-Fi router—a source of ubiquitous but untapped energy in indoor environments—to power devices. The UW team used ambient signals from this Wi-Fi rout-er to power sensors in a low-resolu-tion camera and other devices. The team of UW computer science and electrical engineers found that the peak energy contained in untapped, ambient Wi-Fi signals often came close to meeting the operating re-quirements for some low-power de-vices. But because the signals are sent intermittently, energy leaked out of the system during silent pe-riods. The team fixed that problem by optimizing a router to send out superfluous power packets on Wi-Fi channels not currently in use—es-sentially beefing up the Wi-Fi signal for power delivery—without affect-ing the quality and speed of data transmission. The team also devel-oped sensors that can be integrated into devices to harvest the power. In its proof-of-concept experiments, the team demonstrated that the power over Wi-Fi system could wire-lessly power a grayscale, low-power Omnivision VGA camera from 17 ft away, allowing it to store enough energy to capture an image every 35 min. It also recharged the batteryof a Jawbone Up24 wearable fitnesstracker from zero to 41% in 2.5 h.Watt Lab, which belongs to theCentral Research Institute at HuaweiTechnology Corporation Limited,unveiled its new quick-charging lith-ium-ion batteries. These new batter-ies have achieved a charging speedten-times faster than that of nor-mal batteries, reaching about 50%capacity in mere minutes. Huaweipresented videos of the two typesof quick-charging lithium-ion bat-teries: one battery with a 600-mAhcapacity that can be charged to 68%capacity in 2 min and another witha 3,000-mAh capacity and an energydensity above 620 Wh/L, which canbe charged to 48% capacity in fiveminutes to allow 10 h of phone callson Huawei mobile phones. Thesequick-charging batteries underwentmany rounds of testing and havebeen certified by Huawei’s terminaltest department.Electrical engineers at the Uni-versity of California, San Diego,demonstrated a new wireless com-munication technique that works bysending magnetic signals throughthe human body. The new technol-ogy could offer a lower-power andmore secure way to communicateinformation between wearableelectronic devices, providing animproved alternative to existingwireless communication systems.An advantage of this system is thatmagnetic fields are able to pass free-ly through biological tissues, so sig-nals are communicated with muchlower path losses and potentially,much lower power consumption.I n their experiments, researchersdemonstrated that the magneticcommunication link works well onthe body, but they did not test thetechnique’s power consumption.Researchers showed that the pathlosses associated with magneticfield human body communicationare upwards of 10 million timeslower than those associated withBluetooth radios. The researchersbelieve that this technique does notpose any serious health risks. Sincethis technique is intended for appli-cations in ultralow-power commu-nication systems, the transmittingpower of the magnetic signals sentthrough the body is expected to bemany times lower than that of mag-netic resonance imaging scannersand wireless implant devices.IBM Research and Carnegie Mel-lon University (CMU) announcedwhat they claim is the first openplatform designed to support thecreation of smartphone applica-tions that can enable the blind tobetter navigate their surroundings.The IBM and CMU researchers usedthe platform to create a pilot appcalled NavCog that draws on exist-ing sensors and cognitive technolo-gies to inform blind people on theCMU campus about their surround-ings by whispering into their earsthrough earbuds or by creating vi-brations on smartphones. The appanalyzes signals from Bluetoothbeacons located along walkwaysand from smartphone sensors tohelp enable users to move withouthuman assistance, whether insidecampus buildings or outdoors. Thefirst set of cognitive assistance toolsfor developers is now available viathe cloud through IBM Bluemix. Theopen toolkit consists of an app fornavigation, a map editing tool andlocalization algorithms that canhelp the blind identify in real timewhere they are, which direction theyare facing, and additional surround-ing environmental information. Thecomputer vision navigation applica-tion tool turns smartphone imagesof the surrounding environmentinto a 3-D space model to help im-prove localization and navigationfor the visually impaired.Industry Forecasts and SurveysITU has released its flagship annualMeasuring the I nformation SocietyReport. The report reveals that3.2 billion people are now online,representing 43.4% of the global。