With vehicles communicating with embedded monitors alongside roadways to better route traffic, and home appliances connected to the smart grid to improve efficiency and reliability, the Internet of Things (IOT) may generate more than $14 trillion in economic activity by 2025. However, the concept cannot fully take off without sufficient frequency spectrum to connect the assorted devices. Many in industry believe that significant policy changes will be required to enable the needed connections while avoiding interference.
Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Draper are developing a new approach to assembling nanoscale hardware that could overcome this challenge by enabling devices to generate and receive purer signals to reduce interference with other nearby transmissions. This could free up spectrum by reducing the need for space between frequencies that the Federal Communications Commission now assigns to different users, explained Draper's Amy Duwel, technical director for the NanoLitz project.
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