Can the wireless communication devices co-exist with the smart grids for a long duration in the future?
As we know the energy levels used by wireless communication equipment and power electricity grid devices are hugely variant, do you think the clash in the energy levels will hamper the future of this co-existence. #technology
3 answers
Sen’s Answer
Hello Tamseel,
very futuristic question indeed. Since I have had long experience with Wireless/Wireline technologies as a practitioner (soldier) who have have to depend a lot on Wireless systems (ranging from LHF to SHF frequency bands and power consumption were from mili watts to few KWs by the transmitters from Valve Radio to modern day nanotech based system ). When mobile technology (CDMA) came to couple of armed forces in early-mid eighties after two decades of development/trial phase, a common soldier had a transmitting device on the move which came with two riders,: Size/weight of the handset (upto 2 kgs) powered by a full size 12v/170 AHC Lead Acid battery mounted on Jeep which could barely last overnight operations. From that kind of system, it has matured to present mobile of less than 100 gms with minimum 8-12 hours of Talk Time and if connected with a 5k mAH kind of power bank it will sail you through the week .
With this preamble, I would like to attempt your question in two parts:
Part1: A small wireless system (laptop/tablets/pads/pods and mob phones) all depend on mobile power system and they have different charging requirement. With the changing power infrastructure, like development of smart grids etc and there is no common protocol in terms of power banks(capacity/weight/voltage requirement alongside physical layer issues) for the wireless systems till date. As the saying goes: "Need is the mother of invention", and certainly there is a requirement to think about this and work to develop a common standard/protocol. As computers were/are of multiple types (earlier days some were Macs, Apple and other Windows based systems having no common protocol or inter-operability but later on world bodies found some common platforms/protocols and today what you see is the convergence of many technologies) but they are still being powered with different sized power banks and connectors along with different power supply systems (AC/DC, 110/ 220V and even on frequency in case of AC) So we need to have a common protocol/standards in this segment as well.
Part 2: Wireless technology based systems will remain relevant for many years to come and specially so till the world has nuclear weapons which will wipe out all the infrastructures (if at all used) in that area/zone/nation, so the world will have to dependent on wireless systems and powering them would be critical. Up-gradation in technology in power sector such as smart grids, solar power charged battery banks and corresponding miniaturization in transmission system will go hand in hand. So far as duration of coexistence is concerned, it would be prophetic if someone gives a timeline but it is expected that present systems ( wireless technology and powering systems) will continue to evolve and be more smart and continue the journey together for some more time to come.