Next-generation wireless networks: A new world, from bottom to top

Abstract

As data content mushrooms and becomes increasingly dispersed, the demand for (and need for) bandwidth - both wired and wireless - continues to increase; however, technology has demonstrably not been up to this task. A major intellectual gap has been the attempt to address this demand via "digital thinking," in which transistors and power can be used gratuitously to overwhelm the problem; this is simply not working. Despite a number of challenges, millimeter-wave radio is slowly emerging as a unique way to transcend the "digital mindset" and address a wide variety of bandwidth challenges - by making bandwidth available without outlandish demands in complexity and power consumption. In addition to the "usual" applications, the basic nature of millimeter-wave radio offers the prospect of revolutionizing network topologies, allowing for the development of new network infrastructures - such as mesh and pseudo-neural networks.