Anatech Electronics Newsletter - August 2014

What's New

Fiber: Too Slow for Wall Street

Microwave links are becoming the choice of traders for whom a microsecond advantage in timing can generate additional profit. Optical fiber might seem the logical choice but microwave transmission is actually faster, even though it can't handle as much data and can be hampered by signal attenuation from precipitation. Fiber speeds can be reduced by obstructions and light travels more slowly through cable than it does in free space. "It really comes down to defending your position," Peter Nabicht, a senior adviser to the Modern Markets Initiative trade group told Bloomberg. "If one person goes to microwave, they have a distinct advantage, so other firms have to go to microwave, too, to maintain their relative speeds. It's like bikers who are in a fight to be at the front of the pack." The move to microwave has been gaining stream in the U.S. and now in Europe. For example, a Chicago company called Jump Trading LLC bought a former 800-ft. tower in Belgium last year through an affiliate, as reported at bloomberg.com.

NASA Examines Microwave Propulsion

Roger Shawyer, a British scientist who has spent years promoting his research on a highly controversial space propulsion technology called EmDrive, says NASA has begun testing his technology, according to ibtimes.co.uk. EmDrive is based on the theory that electrical energy can be converted into thrust as electricity is converted into microwave energy within a cavity, which pushes against the inside of the device, pushing the thruster forward. If it works, it would be a lot less expensive thruster technology, according to Shawyer. His critics, of which they are many, say that the law of conservation of momentum dictates that his theory can't since for a thruster to be propelled forwards something must be pushed out of the back. Shawyer says that's exactly what his technology does.

Report: Northeast Has "Fastest" Broadband

The Northeastern states have the fastest Internet speed in the U.S., a report from Akamai Technologies. Virginia has the fastest speed (13.7 Mb/s) followed by Delaware, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Washington. The internet speed in Alaska was only 7 Mb/s. Average speed was higher than 10 Mb/s in 26 states while Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, Mississippi, New Mexico and Montana have the lowest average speed. In contrast, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Israel, and Japan have peak speeds above 50 Mb/s. The company also tracked 164 major organizations that faced Distributed Denial of service (DDOS) attacks in the first quarter of 2014. Of the 164 events, most originated from China-based IP addresses.

Report Says Ukraine Asked U.S. for EW Systems to No Avail

Ukraine asked the U.S. and NATO for electronic warfare to jam Russian anti-aircraft systems, according to a report in thedailybest.com. The report says these radars were "almost certainly used to shoot down Malaysian Airlines MH17, which goes on to say that Philip Karber, a former strategy adviser to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, conducted detailed assessments of the country's military since the crisis began this year and told The Daily Beast that "I was told in June by the Ukrainians that one of their top five priorities that they had conveyed to the United States and NATO that month was to get help in electronic warfare."

Mikheil Saakashvili, the former president of the Republic of Georgia, confirmed that in meetings with Ukraine's leadership he was told "they desperately needed electronic warfare capabilities from the Americans." Karber said that "they have some jamming capabilities now, but it's all compatible with Russian systems. That means the Russians know exactly what they can do and therefore they can use alternative frequencies and do other things to offset it." He continued that even if the U.S. had quickly provided Kiev with the equipment it would not have arrived in time to protect MH17 or the other Ukrainian aircraft that rebels have shot down since March.

Wi-Fi's Changing the Wireless Playbook

By Sam Benzacar

There seems to be no end to the growth of Wi-Fi.

It's been only about 15 years since the "wireless LAN" transcended its roots as a replacement for enterprise wired data connections, hardware prices dropped like a stone, Wi-Fi became as ubiquitous as TV. Today almost 70% of homes in the U.S. have Wi-Fi, an increasing number to stream Internet video to TVs as well as phones, every flavor or computer--and TVs as well.

There are currently more than 250,000 Wi-Fi hotspots deployed by the major cable MSOs alone throughout the U.S. They're joined through the CableWi-Fi Initiative, so that Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Cox Communications, and Bright House Networks customers can roam on any of them. Comcast has even conjured up a way to increase the total number of its hotspots into the tens of millions with its Xfinity X1 set-top box/router. By adding a second line in the home (with the user's permission), the extra access point becomes a public hotspot.

If this sounds a like competition for carrier wireless (4G) you'd be right, except that the carriers are ecstatic, as the enormous amount of traffic generated by video streaming and other data-hungry applications have tapped-out all of their available spectrum, even after resorting to carrier aggregation at the front end and fiber and microwave links for backhaul. It also offers an entire new advertising venue opportunity for the cable MSOs as well as wireless carriers and even millions of multinational, national, and local merchants. Cisco, the de facto source for data usage, predicts that 88% of all data traffic on mobile and portable devices in the U. S. will travel over Wi-Fi by 2018. Offloading it to Wi-Fi is a gift that keeps on giving as more and more hotspots are deployed.

There is of course the nagging issue of effectively dealing with interference, which is a big enough problem already and will unquestionably get worse in the coming years. Assuming Wi-Fi hotspots have adequate filtering they aren't likely to present massive problems: they already must share the 2.4-GHz spectrum with Bluetooth and other unlicensed services, which they do admirably well. It's that Wi-Fi and carrier wireless are inexorably joined at the hip, as every new distributed antenna system has both, and "small cells" are being added to fill in coverage gaps and may also have Wi-Fi capability. In short, the spectrum is filled to the brim, so there's likely to be shortage of interference problems that high-performance will be asked to remedy in the coming years.

Anatech Electronics has been solving interference problems in new and existing wireless systems for nearly 25 years, and our solutions combine all of the performance requirements required to meet the challenges facing Wi-Fi and carrier wireless systems indoors and outdoors.

You can view our wide range of standard products for Wi-Fi applications as well as legacy and 4G systems by clicking here. 

Our library of more than 5,000 designs also allows us to meet specific customer needs extremely fast – and without the huge charges for "re-engineering" that is so common these days. So please give us a call at (973) 772-4242 or send us an e-mail today!

Dr. Norman Abramson: Founder of ALOHAnet

We all ought to send Dr. Norman Abramson a thank-you note. If you, like most people, have never heard of this gentlemen, it's probably because unlike so many visionaries these days he didn't spend his career tooting his own horn. Others did it for him: The IEEE Fellow has many IEEE (and other) awards including the Alexander Graham Bell Medal, the IEEE's highest honor.

In 1968, while a professor at the University of Hawaii, Dr. Abramson, now 83, began work with others to create an inexpensive network that employed amateur radio and other commercial radio equipment to connect all of Hawaiian Islands using a time-sharing computer on the university campus. The result was the world's first wireless packet data radio network, demonstrated in 1971.

Appropriately named ALOHAnet, it operated at UHF frequencies using a protocol the researchers dubbed ALOHA random access, which was so robust that it was used in early wired Ethernet networks and by Inmarsat. When the ISM band was allocated in 1985, Wi-Fi as we know it became possible -- using the ALOHA random-access scheme. It's also been used in three generations of carrier wireless networks.

Wi-Fi today may bear little resemblance to the Abramson's original – but it always takes someone with a great idea to take the first step.

Why You Should Buy from Anatech Electronics, Inc. (AEI)

Unlike other Supplier/Vendors, Anatech Electronics, Inc. (AEI) is also a manufacturer that designs, and makes those products. While most supplier, and distributors are selling their products "as is", AEI has the flexibility, and technical knowledge to modify many of its products to better match the customer’s requirements.  For example:

Changing the connectors from one type to another. Shifting the frequency to meet the exact frequency requirement. Possibility to build the filter in a smaller package, should size is a problem. Modifying the bandwidth to closely match the customer’s requirement. Modifying the package from an indoor version to an outdoor (weatherproof) one. Slight modifications to the design to get sharper transition from pass band to stop band. Adding brackets, or mechanical elements for mounting requirements, such as mounting the filter on an antenna pole. Propose different design options, based on size, cost, and performance.

and more..

AEI will typically bend over backwards to provide you with first rate customer service, and being a manufacturer/Supplier, we cater to small quantities as well as large. After all AEI has a personal interest in ensuring fast quote, quick custom/ new designs feedbacks, and excellent service before and after the sale is made.

But these are just some of the reasons why you may want to use AEI for your RF filters and related RF products requirements. Flexibility, ability for quick changes in requirements, before and after sale customer service, quality, and cost are good reasons to buy from a manufacturer/supplier versus non-manufacturer suppliers, vendors or distributors. 

Choosing from a large database of products, and the ability to custom design almost any product, enables AEI to recommend products and solutions that most closely meets your requirements needs, pricing, and corporate objectives.

Purchasing products from AEI can provide the customer with expertise, flexibility, cost saving, and of utmost importance continuous professional relationship.

Proof is the redesign of our website where our customers or potential customers have the option to request a quote for specific standard products in multiple quantity levels, or request a quotation for a custom product with the ability to enter your own specifications.

Please visit us at  www.anatechelectronics.com and find out how easy it is to request a quote on either standard or custom products.