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Transmitting ever-increasing amounts of data at faster speeds than currently available – that’s the goal of the new 6G antenna technology being developed by the EU’s Horizon2020 project REINDEER.

Members of the REINDEER project team include NXP Semiconductor, TU Graz Institute of Signal Processing and Voice Communications, Technikon Forschungs- und Planungsgesellschaft MbH (as project coordinator role), etc.

“The world is becoming more and more connected,” said Klaus Witrisal, a wireless communications technology expert and researcher at the Graz Polytechnic University. More and more wireless terminals must transmit, receive, and process more and more data — data throughput is increasing all the time. In the EU Horizon2020 project ‘REINDEER’, we work on these developments and study a concept through which real-time data transmission can be effectively extended to infinity.”

But how to implement this concept? Klaus Witrisal describes the new strategy: “We hope to develop what we call ‘RadioWeaves’ technology — antenna structures that can be installed in any location at any size — for example in the form of wall tiles or wallpaper. So the entire surface of the wall can act as an antenna radiator.”

For early mobile standards, such as LTE, UMTS and now 5G networks, signals were sent through base stations — the infrastructure of antennas, which are always deployed in a specific place.

If the fixed infrastructure network is denser, the throughput (the percentage of data that can be sent and processed within a specified time window) is higher. But today, the base station is at an impasse.

If more wireless terminals are connected to a base station, data transmission becomes slower and more erratic. Using RadioWeaves technology prevents this bottleneck, “because we can connect any number of terminals, not a certain number of terminals.” Klaus Witrisal explains.

According to Klaus Witrisal, the technology is not necessary for homes, but for public and industrial facilities, and it offers opportunities far beyond 5G networks.

For example, if 80,000 people in a stadium are equipped with VR goggles and want to watch the decisive goal from the goal’s point of view at the same time, they will be able to access it at the same time using RadioWeaves, he said.

Overall, Klaus Witrisal sees a huge opportunity in radio-based positioning technology. This technology has been the focus of his team from TU Graz. According to the team, RadioWeaves technology can be used to locate cargo with an accuracy of 10 centimeters. “This allows for a THREE-DIMENSIONAL model of the flow of goods — augmented reality from production and logistics to where they are sold.” He said.

First and foremost among the issues the REINDEE project plans to conduct experimental testing of the RadioWeaves technology with the world’s first hardware demo in 2024.

Klaus Witrisal concludes: “6G will not be officially ready until around 2030 — but when it is, we want to ensure that high-speed wireless access happens wherever we need it, whenever we need it.”