WEBVTT - The Spectrum Crunch 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.240 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:15.280 Forward Thinking Either and welcome to Forward Thinking, the podcast 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:17.720 that looks at the future and says I just called 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:21.520 to say I love you. I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:24.919 Joe McCormick. So, guys, you know, we've talked a lot 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:28.000 about the concept of the Internet of things, right, it 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:30.960 sounds great. Yeah, it's fantastic. This idea of an environment 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:33.640 that's able to sense with what you are doing and 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:36.080 who you are, and be able to respond in real time. 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.400 My car and my toaster oven coordinating with each other flawlessly. 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:43.560 Fantastic future that we're all really excited about. This idea 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.960 that we could have a reality that's defined by our 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:49.960 own needs and wants and desires so that we just 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:54.880 live in hedonistic pleasure forever. Sounds great unless you've seen 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:58.080 the movie Maximum Overdrive. Yeah, that there is a downside 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:00.880 to this. If the machines do decide to crazy where 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.920 when they can coordinate, Yeah, they're extremely well organized. But 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:08.520 now also there's a there's there's a disclaimer. I don't 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:12.279 think there's much chance. Yeah, I think self aware machines 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:14.680 are quite a long ways away, let alone self aware 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.920 of very ticked off machines, and selfware toaster evans are 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:19.880 pretty far down on the list of machines that would 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.720 be ticked off. I think. Yeah, well, so I've got 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:26.600 a question about the Internet of things. Sure, ask away. 0:01:27.080 --> 0:01:30.240 All of these things need to talk to each other, right, 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:32.600 that is correct. And so if you imagine that you 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:35.600 have a house in which you have fifty or maybe 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:39.480 even a hundred electronic devices that are communicating, Yeah, it 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.440 really doesn't make sense to try to wire them together, 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.800 even if they're stationary devices. Right. Yeah, you wouldn't want 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:48.240 all those cables all over the place or you know, 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:50.680 have to drill into your walls every time you get 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:52.800 a new toaster evan. Right, And a lot of these 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:54.680 things are things that you're going to want to be 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:56.680 mobile anyway. You want to be able to carry them 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:58.680 around with you or move them to a different place 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:01.320 and still have them communicate eight with all the things 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:04.880 in your Internet of things, realizing my permanent dream of 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:10.400 mobile test exactly right, So how many things can talk 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.359 to each other all at once before that cross talk 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:17.880 becomes a problem. Yeah, this is a this is an 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:21.000 issue that we need to talk about because in order 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:23.480 for the Internet of Things to become a reality, we 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:28.160 have to have the the foundation, the infrastructure that allows 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:32.400 them to communicate with one another without interference, without clogging 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.440 the system. And this is where we get into the 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.240 concept of a spectrum crunch or data crunch. This idea 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.079 doesn't sound nice. It's not good. It's not good. No, 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:44.840 it's not like. It's not like delicious crunch with a 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:47.600 new Gady Center, not like Captain crunch. No no, well, 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:49.080 I mean it will cut up your mouth if you 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:50.880 try and eat enough of it. But no, it's more 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:53.360 like the crunching of putting a part of your body 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:56.239 and advice. Yeah, it's the crunch of too much stuff 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:58.880 trying to fit through too narrow and opening. So like 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:01.440 you know three who just style, everyone's trying to get 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.040 through the door at the same time. Very much like that, 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.560 except with data with zeros and once. So what we're 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:12.680 talking about here is the actual physical infrastructures capability of 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:16.760 uh handling that much information, as well as the physical 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:23.120 limitations of frequencies to hold data in the first place. Okay, 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:25.880 so we're going to focus today on wireless communication. Right, 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:27.799 we got we got all those chords out of the way. 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:30.440 We don't want all the future just cluttered with chords 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:34.280 like Brazil, there is not the country. There is that 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:37.920 element as well. Right, the Internet, the Internet backbone does 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:41.400 have a limited bandwidth, and we can add to that. 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:44.800 We can keep adding capacity by adding essentially more tubes 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:47.880 to the series of tubes that is the Internet. But 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:50.800 that's not what we're focusing on here. We're focusing on 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:54.320 that wireless communication. And really a lot of what we're 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:57.440 going to talk about is really gonna focus on cellular 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:00.880 communication because that's the one that's probably the closest to 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:05.080 hitting capacity. But all of these things kind of bleed 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:08.920 into one another, right, Okay, so how do wireless devices 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:13.720 communicate with each other over the electromagnetic spectrum? Joe, ain't 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:16.120 that a great spectrum? It's it's one of my favorites. 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:19.800 Full of photons, Yell. The photons are definitely part of 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:23.960 the electromagnetic spectrum. Yes, so this is a spectrum is 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:27.520 of course an entire range here. We're talking about a 0:04:27.600 --> 0:04:31.320 range of frequencies of waves and wavelengths. Right, it includes 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:34.720 the stuff that we see light. Yes, visible light is 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:38.400 in fact a tiny slice of the overall electromagnetic spectrum, 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.159 but it also includes the X rays that you get 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:43.440 at the doctor's office or the dentist's office, or the 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.240 gamma rays that are radiating your body when someone does 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:52.960 experiments on you, microwaves, radio waves that end up carrying information, right, 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.000 and so this is all the same stuff. It's just 0:04:56.080 --> 0:05:01.480 a question of how long is the wave in that transmission. Yeah, 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.280 the wavelength is a big part of it. The frequency 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:08.920 is directly correlated to that. So the long wavelengths are 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:12.719 low frequency. So that means essentially what frequency we should 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:15.920 define as it's how often particles of the medium. So 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:20.000 whatever the wave is traveling through vibrate when a wave 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:22.920 passes through it. Uh. This is different from the period 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:25.880 of a wave, which is where you would take one 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:30.040 point along the waves form and say how long how 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:32.080 many times can that pass through in a second at 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:35.960 least a little bit difference to two very closely related concepts. 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:41.760 But we menasure frequency in hurts. So one hurts refers 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:46.800 to one vibration cycle per second. Alright, So one killer 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:49.680 hurts would be one thousand vibration cycles in a second, 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:52.359 and so on and so forth. Okay, so so on 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.880 the electromagnetic spectrum. If you start from what radio waves 0:05:56.920 --> 0:06:00.560 are the longest wave? Yes, yeah, we're talking about the 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:03.600 lowest frequency. Yeah, you get to radio waves that are 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:08.599 kilometers long, right, they are incredibly long wavelengths until you 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.599 get down to the flip side, the opposite end of 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:16.159 the spectrum, where you're talking about wavelengths that are incredibly 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:18.640 incredibly short. Okay, so what what are they? In order? 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:22.799 Radio waves are the longest, microwaves. Microwaves are the second longest. 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:26.760 Then you have infrared, then visible light, then ultra violet light, 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:31.560 then X rays, and then gamma raise and favorite and 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:36.240 then unobtainium or whatever. It is not part of the no. 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:38.680 But if you are ever writing science fiction and you 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:40.200 realize that you have to come up with some sort 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:43.160 of energy that is not reflected on the electromagnetic spectrum, 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:46.920 you can only really go up because the past gamma waves. Yeah, 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.159 it's the reason turning the dial to eleven exactly. The 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:53.520 only reason we don't know about is because our instruments 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:56.760 are incapable of measuring it. Yeah that's inaccurate. Okay, But 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:59.320 so these different parts of the spectrum we've talked about, 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:03.000 they're not like a single isolated value. Within each of 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:07.040 these ranges, there are a whole lot of values. Absolutely. Yeah, 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.920 So you can have radio waves of much different frequencies. Yes. 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:14.480 In fact, anyone who's played with a radio at all 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:19.360 knows this because the radio station that corresponds to the 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.400 frequency of that radio wave. So, for example, in the 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:26.160 A M spectrum, you go from five five killer hurts 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:30.560 to one point six oh five mega hurts, So station 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:34.640 five thirty five to six five. That's a reflection of 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:37.400 the frequency of those radio waves, all right, And that's 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:40.360 how we can have so many radio stations floating around 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:43.000 in the air around us without having them interfere with 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:46.000 one another. Your radio is a is a specific instrument 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:49.480 that you tune to one of those frequencies and pick 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:52.400 that one up. Absolutely. So, if you ever enter an 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:56.280 area where two different competing radio stations have the same 0:07:56.480 --> 0:07:59.920 or very similar frequencies, you might get that interference from 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:02.000 get that static kind of overlap. Yeah, you get you 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.080 can hear two things going on at once and it 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:06.160 sounds like you know that you really need to change 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:09.040 the station. Or perhaps you might hear secret messages only 0:08:09.080 --> 0:08:12.680 you can decipher, and that gets scary. So on the 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:15.440 FM side, same sort of thing. From eight point eight 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.280 mega hurts to ten point eight mega hurts. That's where 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:22.280 you get the FM stations two and eight. Uh, that's 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:27.600 they correspond again to that range of frequencies. So that's 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:31.360 just in you know, broadcast radio here in the United States, 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:36.200 radio waves encompass a much broader spectrum even than that. 0:08:37.160 --> 0:08:39.760 And this is this is where we're looking at using 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:44.320 electromagnetic radiation to carry data. And the problem is is 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:48.959 that not all wavelengths are ideal for carrying lots of data. 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.560 Some some are great at carrying small amounts of data. 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:53.880 But in order to carry a lot of data, you 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:56.760 need a lot of time. So we're really talking about 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.559 throughput here, you know, because the speed is still the 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:01.880 speed of light, right, It's gonna it's going to carry 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:04.960 a single bit of information the same speed, no matter 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.240 what the frequency of the wavelength is. But the amount 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:11.240 of information how many times can it send a signal 0:09:11.440 --> 0:09:14.200 in that in that span of time, right, or or 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:17.360 how many bits can it carry along in that span 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:20.200 of time? All right, So the higher frequency the wavelength, 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:24.560 the more information it can carry. Generally speaking, generally speaking, 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:27.000 it gets a little complicated because it also depends upon 0:09:27.040 --> 0:09:30.840 the implementation a little complicated. We're talking about wireless here. 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:33.560 This is really difficult stuff. Yeah, we're actually not going 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:37.000 Engineers who design this are crazy smart people. Yeah, we're 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.560 not going to go too deeply into the physics and 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:43.120 technology because to do so would require a suite of episodes. 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:45.520 I mean, these, what we're talking about right here, would 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:49.720 constitute an entire semester's worth of courses on the in 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:52.719 the university level. Yeah, we're simplifying, Yeah, we are. We are, 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:55.400 for the purposes of this discussion, simplifying so that we 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:57.760 can talk about what the problem is. But in order 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:01.040 to talk about the problem, we have to lay the ground. Okay, 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:05.200 so who decides who gets to use what parts of 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:08.560 the radio spectrum? Right? You can't have two different radio 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:11.640 stations in the same place broadcasting at the same frequency. 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:16.640 I imagine that applies to all different kinds of radio transmission. 0:10:17.400 --> 0:10:20.120 A cell phone tower, if you're whatever you are that 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:22.880 needs to be sending data back and forth, you've got 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:26.360 to know who can use what frequency, Yes, because otherwise 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:28.520 you do have this interference problem, and you have to 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:32.199 avoid those interference problems as as best as you possibly can, 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:36.360 so uh it depends upon where you live. But in general, 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.760 most places in the world your local, as in your 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:43.640 national government. When I say local, I mean nationally. Yeah, 0:10:44.400 --> 0:10:48.880 nationally local, because not everyone listening to the show. Everyone 0:10:48.920 --> 0:10:51.240 listening to the show is from the United States. So 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:55.920 but generally speaking, the government decides which parts of the 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:59.960 spectrum go to which applications. So, for example, in the 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:05.840 United States, there are large, large UH bands frequencies that 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:09.160 are dedicated to things like military use, and no one 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:11.840 else is allowed to touch that, even if the military 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:13.960 is not making full use of it. It is reserved 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:17.520 for military use. And then there may be narrow bands 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.400 that are that are reserved for specific cell phone carriers, 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:24.520 so no other cell phone carrier can use that specific 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:27.960 band of frequencies. They might operate in a similar band 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:32.280 of frequencies, but they won't have overlapping ones necessarily. So 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:35.120 this gets really really complicated. You have to be able 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:37.920 to legislate this and say this goes to you, this 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.760 goes to you, this goes to you, and you you're 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.240 limited by this, and it's of course only gotten more 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:46.240 complicated in the past couple of decades as cell phone 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:50.200 use has zapped crazy out of the stratosphere. Well, yeah, 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:53.559 things like smartphones have put such a huge load on 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:57.360 the cellular networks because with smartphones, you're not just using 0:11:57.360 --> 0:11:59.960 those radio signals to carry your voice. You're trying to 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:04.360 download pictures of cat videos and cat videos and and 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:07.720 get Axl Rose on your phone and yeah, singing to 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:11.520 your cat. Everything is cat relating face time with Axl 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:15.640 Rose and his cat. Yeah, exactly. We have to keep 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.760 the cats in this or else they will overthrow us. Well, 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:22.199 at any rate, Like you were saying, Lauren, the cell 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:24.839 phone use has definitely complicated matters. And then on top 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:27.880 of that, we have all the different wireless technologies they 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:32.200 debuted over the years, everything from WiFi to Zigby to Bluetooth. Uh. 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:37.280 These are different protocols that use wireless communication, usually in 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:41.280 the two point four or two point five giga hurts range. 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:43.000 A few of them are in the five giga hurts 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:48.640 range um, and that complicates matters more. Now we've got 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:53.520 some big, big issues here, like the idea of the capacity, 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:57.400 like what is the capacity for wireless communication. It's actually 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:01.160 really complicated to answer because if we were to say, 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:04.920 all right, this one frequency band within this one geographic 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:07.800 region can carry x amount of data and no more. 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:12.040 That's not entirely accurate. One thing that is helping is 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:15.760 that we have devices that have really good error checking algorithms, 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:18.640 and those error checking algorithms what they do is they're 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:22.440 able to help separate the signal from the noise. So 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:26.120 the noise would be all the different UH transmissions that 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:28.480 don't have anything to do with what you are actively 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:32.000 trying to do. It's a fine frequency tuner basically, right. 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:35.360 And on top of that, the actual infrastructure, the the 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:39.760 the things that receive messages and route information have a 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:43.400 limitation on how many connections they can actively handle at 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:46.800 a given time. That's largely based upon the state of 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:48.720 the art of the technology at the time, as well 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:52.520 as the density of those things within whatever geographic region 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:54.800 you're talking about. Yeah, it's due to our capacity to 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.760 program um a device to handle a certain number of 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:02.199 incoming connections. Has it? You know, computers get confused when 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:04.479 you have too many things trying to go on at once. Yeah, 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:06.240 if you if you think of it in the old 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:08.520 wired terms, that makes it a lot easier. Right. Let's 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:10.680 let's talk about like if you had an old router 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:13.240 that was not a WiFi router. It was just it 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:14.920 was a router that hooked up to your modem and 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:18.520 it allows you to physically plug Ethernet cables into that router. 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:22.680 I used to have. Yeah, they looked like a big 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:25.600 one looked like a harmonica. Yeah, it really did. Just 0:14:25.640 --> 0:14:27.960 wanted to see if I could play a tune on it. 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:30.360 But yeah, well you can download tunes using them. But 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:33.200 because it's got all those parts, and it has a 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:35.960 finite number of parts, right, and once you reach that 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:39.040 finite number, you ain't plugging anything else into that router. 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:41.960 That's it. You would have to unplug something else before 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.680 you can plug a new thing in. And it had 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:48.000 a very easy to understand physical limitation of how many 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:51.280 devices could plug into that router. Well, when you get 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:55.680 to WiFi, uh, those those connections become invisible if you're 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:59.480 not hard wiring stuff to your router. I still hardwire 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:01.840 a lot stuff to matter what, because I like to 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:05.440 game and like to watch things on gaming consoles. But 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:08.480 at any rate, you have more connections than what you 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:10.960 can see, right, And so the thing is that the 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:14.560 limitation is still there. These devices have a capacity that 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.520 they can't really go beyond If they try to, then 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:21.280 they're shuffling, They're they're juggling all of these different tasks 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:23.680 and trying to respond to them as quickly as possible, 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:27.400 which slows everything else down. If you have ever been 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:31.160 in a high density area during a big event when 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:34.239 people are using their phones a lot, like a concert 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:39.120 or dragon con ce s something like that, then you've 0:15:39.160 --> 0:15:43.360 had the experience of your phone not making a connection. 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:44.920 You might not even be able to make a phone 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:49.560 call in extreme circumstances, and that's really when the network 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:53.000 is starting to get overwhelmed. It's it's getting more requests 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:58.120 from devices than it can actually process simultaneously, and that's 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:01.400 where we start to see the real spectrum crunch. It's 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:04.240 not just the physical limitation of the spectrum, although that's 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:07.160 a part of it too, It's also a physical limitation 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:10.920 of the actual hardware that we're making. So the question 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:13.520 is what happens when you hit that And the answer 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.960 is that scenario I was talking about where suddenly everything 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:19.560 is slow or you can't make a connection in the 0:16:19.600 --> 0:16:22.920 first place, which is a really frustrating I mean, I'm 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:25.400 sure you guys have had that example, right where you've 0:16:25.440 --> 0:16:27.720 got it says you've got full bars on your phone, 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:32.080 but you can't call failed here. I often get that 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:36.000 in this building where we work. Yeah, so that may 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:39.680 just be a structural interference. I don't know, it could be, 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:42.200 but it's also something that if you go to one 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:44.960 of these big events, you'll see you'll have full bars 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:48.200 and you think, I've got complete four G service here, 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:50.760 I can't wait to download my schedule for the day 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:52.760 so I know where I need to go next, And 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.120 then you just get that little circular waiting you know, 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:59.880 icon and nothing ever happens. And it's because again, the 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:03.000 whole network has been jammed up by the way. Quick 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:05.520 word of advice to people who are attending something like that, 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:08.639 you can always try to switch to two gene networks 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:11.919 because often those are underused compared to the faster ones. 0:17:12.640 --> 0:17:15.080 It doesn't always work, but sometimes it does. It's been 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:17.960 a lifesaver for me. Hit ces nice. Yeah, I mean 0:17:18.119 --> 0:17:20.080 it takes it takes longer to get data than it 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:23.760 would on an unencumbered three G or four G network, 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:29.120 but it works so so it does have its advantages. Um. So, yeah, 0:17:29.200 --> 0:17:31.800 this this ended up being real issues also in places 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:35.080 like London during the two thousand twelve Olympics, and this 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:37.200 was where we started to see it as a real, 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:43.399 like citywide issue, not just something that's located to sports 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:45.960 arena like that. Yeah, well, because I mean the city 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:49.200 of London was basically already at its capacity for for 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:53.080 cellular use at the time before millions of people are 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:54.640 I don't know how many, like like a whole bunch 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:56.600 of people came into the city, right and and not 0:17:56.680 --> 0:17:59.480 just people, but like all the different news outlets that 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:02.760 are using all that data to wirelessly send stuff back 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:05.439 and forth between journalists. I mean, it was just an 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:08.800 incredible demand on the system. And so what London ended 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:11.879 up having to do what the UK did was for 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:16.240 a temporary basis, they ended up reallocating some bandwidth that 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:19.560 normally would be reserved for the military to go to 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:23.560 this wireless communication use for the general public and for 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:27.480 really for for media outlets in particular, to alleviate some 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.359 of that demand. So it spreads the demand out a 0:18:30.359 --> 0:18:32.080 bit more and makes it a little more manageable. But 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:36.280 it's not something that they could necessarily do perpetually unless 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:40.639 they were too uh to look at the full spectrum 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:44.240 and say, which parts of these are of the spectrum 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:46.560 are really necessary for what they're doing right now, and 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:50.360 which ones can we repurpose so that we can uh 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:53.800 stave off the spectrum crunch. Keep in mind, if we 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:58.120 keep building more and more Internet connected devices, specifically cellular 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:02.639 connected devices. This, even if we alleviate it by adding 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:06.280 in more more spectrum, we're still we're still heading toward 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:09.159 that problem. We're just heading towards it. You know, the 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:12.479 problem is a little further out than it was before. Well, 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.400 and also it's not necessarily easy to just, for example, 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:18.639 build a whole bunch more cellular towers, right. Yeah, so 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:22.680 you guys know the whole nimby not in my backyard thing, right, 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.480 I mean that this applies to all sorts of things, right, 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:29.440 anything that, uh, that you think will end up affecting 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:33.159 the property value of your home or a quality of 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:35.920 life issue. Uh. It's one of those things that people 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:38.800 react very strongly too. So the idea of erecting more 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.919 cell towers is not really that attractive to a lot 0:19:42.960 --> 0:19:46.879 of people. It's something that could potentially help alleviate the 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:50.240 problem a little bit. The idea being that with cell phones, 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:53.320 you have these cell sites that represent a certain geographic 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:57.720 area of service. You could divide those cells into smaller 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:01.240 units so that they're servicing smaller areas. That means you're 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:05.080 gonna have more handshakes between towers whenever you have people 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:08.200 moving through the area. But it also means that you've 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:12.120 spread out the service capacity and you've increased it as 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:17.119 a result. But because it's so hard, both financially and 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:22.080 politically to get these things built, it's not really seen 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:25.719 as an attractive solution to spectrum crunch. And also again, 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:27.600 it's one of the things that you can only keep 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:30.879 doing for so long before you have reached you know, 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:34.480 like I can't move because all the cell phone towers right, 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:38.760 I'm wearing one as a hat. My environment is responding 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:41.440 to me in real time, but I can't go anywhere. 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:43.880 So I guess it's a good thing that it gets 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:46.080 to be all things to me all the time. I 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:51.040 haven't seen a person in years. Yeah, So we are 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:55.080 talking about an issue that tends to be regional, not global. 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:59.159 So this is something that tends to affect densely populated 0:20:59.160 --> 0:21:03.720 areas that have a high population of people with connected devices, 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:08.119 specifically cellularly connected devices and so that's really where we 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:09.920 would expect to see this, and it tends to be 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:16.520 um something that that has peaks and valleys as well, right, 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:19.000 because there are times of the day when there aren't 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:21.400 as many people on the network, and on those times 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:25.040 things might seem perfectly fine, but at peak performance it 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:27.160 may suddenly seem like you can't get a call out 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:31.800 at all, and in moments of extreme circumstances like what 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:35.119 we saw post nine eleven, where you had a lot 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:37.960 of people trying to use the network in order to 0:21:38.040 --> 0:21:41.679 check on one another understandably, so then it's going to 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:43.920 overload the system to the point where it doesn't work 0:21:43.960 --> 0:21:48.399 at all. So it is regional, not necessarily global. But 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:50.960 that doesn't mean that we shouldn't work on some sort 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:53.600 of solution just because it's not going to affect the 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:57.520 entire world simultaneously, at least not until we get to 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:00.439 a point where the Internet of Things is ubiquity across 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:03.200 the entire globe, we still need to worry about it. 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:06.080 So if we can't just build more cell towers and 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:09.600 divide up those cell sites, then what can we do. 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:12.520 One of the things is that reallocation. So you guys, 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:15.880 remember a few years ago when the United States made 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:19.720 that switch from analog TV to digital TV, and anyone 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:23.320 who was getting their television service over the air, uh, 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:26.720 and they were relying on old antenna had to get 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:29.720 a new converter box so that it could convert digital 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:32.399 signals to analog signals so they could watch it on 0:22:32.440 --> 0:22:36.639