[StevePerlman]

A couple of clarifications and comments (new whitepaper is coming with a lot more info):

The iPhones (and dongles) we demoed have no software modifications at all, and there is no additional overhead beyond the standard LTE protocol. pCell works with unmodified Android LTE phones, too. (We had wanted to post a lab demo we did of the Galaxy S4 and an Xperia, but we just ran out of time.) Out-of-the-box compatibility is essential for rapid deployment. And, yes, we are meeting many of the core goals of 5G today (e.g. unlimited 4K UltraHD streaming) using Rel. 8 LTE devices in LTE spectrum.

pCell is indeed protocol agnostic, and can concurrently support different protocols in different pCells in the same spectrum. For example, we can support unmodified LTE phones in their own pCells, while concurrently supporting lower cost/lower power devices with far lighter protocols (that are lower latency), since we don't need all of the complexity of LTE. For example, there are no cells, no cell edges (and no need for CoMP), and no cell handoff.

I'm waiting for something to connect the dots and realize this is a vastly more efficient way to use white spaces than anything currently on the table. White spaces will be full overnight with current techniques. With pCell, they will never be full.

More data is coming later. Apologies. We have been utterly overwhelmed in incoming inquiries since launch.

But, I will confirm this: pCell is indeed a much bigger deal than anyone has yet touched on. The "tubes to transistors" analogy is not just marketing speak: Compared to cellular, pCell is far more reliable, enables much smaller and lower power device and can be continually extended in density. Tubes had physical constraints that limited their reliability and scalability. Transistors did not. Cellular (and other interference avoidance protocols like Wi-Fi and cognitive radio) have a physical constraints that limit their reliability and scalability. pCell does not (as far as we know). Cellular has stalled in scalability. There is an entire era of innovation in front of us with pCell. - Steve Perlman

[HowardMei]

Thanks for the clarifications but it's still hard to get it.

Is pCell an alias of Picocell?

What's the difference between a pCell and a Femtocell with cooperative MIMO and distributed antenna system (DAS)?

"pCell is indeed protocol agnostic" means nothing has been modified in LTE Rx/Tx physical layer or data link layer right? Then does that mean all the inventions are in the antenna system?

Without cellular, how do you handle the dead zone issue, because real time tracking & beaming will be blocked by walls?

[bestham]

I think the p stands for "personal" ie. it's so tiny that you can create one for each device.

[aidenn0]

From a technical point of view, it would be interesting to know how this performs near an airport. Multiple giant RF-reflective surfaces travelling much faster than 70mph must be very hard to deal with. Perhaps the lower per-transmitter power makes reflections at altitude less of an issue?

I've experimented with similar things in the past, and mainaining coherence for long enough outside the lab is Very Hard, so congrats on doing this.

[ksec]

Best thing since sliced bread? If Anything this fundamentally solve the Mobile TV problem. or Heck all Internet Connection problem with one go. No more silly ADSL Phone line or Cable Modem which are far worst then today's LTE. It would get rid of Home Router as well, as long as all of our Mobile Devices have LTE. I cant wait to pay for it.

And it seems we move the bottleneck to the cell backbone. Which could get saturated easily.

[kayoone]

Until a mobile connection will reach the speed and stability of my 100Mbps cable connection some time will pass i guess. It also would need to be unmetered as right now the max i can get for LTE in Germany is 30-50GB for home connections. I know its just a matter of when, but still...

[ksec]

It properly still wouldn't be unmetered ( Or it could be in less dense population ). But the Cap could be much higher then what we are getting now. The reason why we are all capped at this moment is exactly what pCell is trying to solve. Sharing of Spectrum. The current LTE could already do 300Mbps, and with the accuracy of pCell there is no reason not to believe you cant get faster then 100Mbps in real world. Which is like i said, you dont really need your Wired Internet Line anymore.

[marshray]

Thanks for the info! Seems like a neat system.

Really curious to hear how it's focusing into a 1 cm ball frequencies for which 1/4 wave is significantly larger than that.

[DonGateley]

Which leads me to wonder about it's possible application to audio. Headphone free ideal headphones with everybody in the room hearing a different source.

[tim333]

> "no cell handoff" I'm curious how this would work. Presumably in the pCell system the base station focuses the radio signals in something like a beam towards the device but this must have a finite range - I wonder how far - and when you go out of range the system must switch to another base station. Maybe you call this a different name than 'handoff' but presumably the switching base stations thing must happen some how?

[kristoffer]

The pCell is "synthesized" using all base stations in range I guess. Which base stations that are involved in your pCell changes as you move around ...

[tim333]

Ah - I see, thanks. I guess that's how they can focus the signal so narrowly to 1 cm or so. Looking at the numbers the wavelengths used for 4G are of the order of 1 ft so you wouldn't get much focus from a single aerial of similar dimensions.

[PeterisP]

Since multiple base stations are involved, there is handoff where the far away ones leave and new ones join - but unlike cellular systems, the end device doesn't have to do anything during the handoff, it's transparent.

[hershel]

Will this technique work for license free systems like WIFI ?

[KaiserPro]

802.11n already does this with MIMO

[marshray]

Answered in the article.

[Alphasite_]

I hope you can eventually find a way to work onlive (or its successor) into this (I imagine this is one of your reasons for approaching this problem?).