Communication

Posts on communication as a part of electrical engineering

FPGAs for Innovating Digital Communication Interfaces

symonmkCommunication, Engineering, Programming, Research

It’s 11th May, and we just arrived at a client’s studio at 11:45pm. I assure my colleague that we’ll get it right this time. Our job that night was to link two studios over an Ethernet connection. Simple enough despite the fact that neither of us had done it before. We had gone through the manuals over and over again, 4 different manuals in fact, that’s why I felt certain, at least 80% certain it would be possible. In the end, we achieved connecting two LAWO audio engines over a VLAN network that could send and receive digital audio channels over MADI (AES 10). More on that later. After our 5 hour stint, I couldn’t help wonder how even such an interface was achieved. In this post I cover what it takes for hardware and communications engineers to prototype, test and innovate such interfaces using FPGAs.

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Off-Grid Communications For The Masses: Smart Metering

symonmkCommunication, Engineering, Programming, Projects, Research, Signals

In East Africa, a large percent of the population still does not have access to electrical energy and its benefits. To address this, several companies have developed micro-grids to provide AC power to rural East Africa. In order to sustain these grids, a remote, robust communication system has to be developed for purposes of metering and billing. In this post, I propose several efficient designs of a communication system that could be used to monitor and manage off-grid customers. Specifically, it proposes the technologies that can be used, the hardware and software implementation of such as system and how it can make business sense addressing equipment and operation costs.

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Simplification in Design of Wireless Systems: 5 Useful Steps

symonmkCommunication, Engineering, Programming, Research, Signals

As we all know, wireless is the preferred method of connectivity between most of our devices. This is going to take more precedence in coming years. The number of connected devices per person and the demand for fast, reliable content delivery within a network is rapidly increasing. Add that to the already ongoing craze of developing IoT devices and the super-scaling of server farms to support them. In my view, RF, DSP and embedded systems engineers will have a lot going on. This shift is largely dependent on the wireless systems we build. In this post, I try to figure out the best way forward in design of wireless systems.

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Easy Ways to Simulate the Strongest Microwave Links

symonmkCommunication, Engineering, Research, Signals

Having recently been involved with several microwave link installations and servicing, I have gathered several best practices to installing digital IP microwaves and obtaining the best PtP (point-to-point) links from them. A PtP link is simply a directional link between microwave antennas with a clear line of sight. During installation, several prior calculations have to be made to ensure the best possible link as well as mitigate the chances of link failure. With the recent development of online geographical maps, these calculations have been even more simplified and in this post we will dive into using these tools.

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5G and the War for Supremacy: The 4 Key Technologies Involved

symonmkCommunication, Conferences and Seminars, Engineering, Research

Fifty years from now, when you’re aged and wrinkled (assuming we won’t have discovered the cure for aging) you’ll be sure to tell your grand-kids of the war for the rise of the 5G cellular network from 2016 – 2020. You’ll explain to them how the differences in spectrum efficiency, power efficiency and performance in connectivity were used to decide the ultimate victor. The challengers being MU-MIMO, D2D, NOMA and mmWave technologies. How the battles were fought, not on the ground or sea, but through the electromagnetic spectrum led by top research scientists all over the globe. You’ll remember to tell them that the puppet-masters were the telcos giants while us, the wee subscribers, could only hope for the best outcome. Better yet, direct them here for a simplified description of the technologies currently involved in the 5G revolution.

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Quick Guide To Radio Broadcast Transmission

symonmkBroadcast, Communication, Engineering, Work

Your studio is already set up and it’s now time to go LIVE! Right? Well, there is the issue of how to get that audio to your audience. In Kenya, FM radio is the most common, and profitable, form of broadcast. This is why most of the infrastructure to support it has been set up across the country. Installation might be a grueling task for a small team (such as ours about a month ago), but the outcome becomes far more rewarding than I expected. In this post I go over the technologies that make radio broadcast transmission possible.

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Working as a Broadcast Systems Engineer

symonmkCommunication, Engineering, Work

It is mid-August 2017 and I have been working as a broadcast engineering intern at Byce Broadcast and Technologies Kenya Limited, a system integrator company that offers turn-key solutions for TV and radio broadcasting. This business has a steep learning curve and I am required to learn real fast. Thankfully, the work is interesting and the fast changing technologies in this industry means that I’ll never stop learning.

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