The exotic geometry of the sensors used to improve 5G and 6G networks: they look like doughnuts.

The researchers, who belong to the Smart and Wireless Applications and Technologies Group (SWAT-UGR), have carried out two scientific studies that attempt to answer a common question: understanding how electromagnetic waves propagate in the environment. The first work addresses the challenge of estimating two key parameters that characterise electromagnetic waves: the angle and the arrival time of the signals travelling through the medium.

To do this, it makes use of a ‘certainly exotic’ sensor geometry, as the researchers themselves define it, the so-called toric arrays, which are geometric figures in the shape of a doughnut. The second published work tries to understand the mechanisms by which electromagnetic waves propagate in an industrial environment, investigating how they are affected by such a scenario.

The research has in common the study of millimetre waves, the invisible messengers through which information travels in telecommunications services, such as mobile networks or wifi. Currently, these services usually work in frequency bands below 6 GHz. The problem is that, due to the exponential growth of users and devices, these networks are at risk of saturation. Therefore, one of the key proposals of the new 5G and 6G technologies is the deployment of services in higher frequency bands than the current ones, which translates into an increase in users' network speed and more stable connections, opening the door to new possibilities, such as robotic surgery or virtual reality services.