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2017 police suicides expected to exceed LOD deaths
Posted by: Jennifer Gomori Posted date: July 17, 2018
— By POJ Editor Jennifer Gomori with excerpts from lawofficer.com, Lansing State Journal & other media reports
A high number of suicides among law enforcement officers in 2017 has reversed what was hoped to be a declining trend. There were 102 self-inflicted deaths identified, but suicides for the year are really expected to be 140, according to a lawofficer.com article.
That means law enforcement suicides are anticipated to surpass the 128 reported 2017 line-of-duty deaths. Lawofficer.com uses a mathematical formula to calculate suicides that are hidden by agencies or misreported. Many cases are expected to be publicized as further reports come in 2018.
Tami Hough, of Hough Counseling and Assessments in Troy, said there are many reasons why officers don't seek help, but at the top of the list is fear of losing their jobs. So instead of getting help, officers often develop substance abuse problems to escape depression. Drugs and alcohol can be a quick fix alternative to counseling, she said, especially when they don't feel they can discuss mental health issues with co-workers.
"The problem that's happening is Police Officers are afraid to go to supervisors because the fear is that if they're having problem with alcohol or substance abuse … there's the possibility they'll be asked to go on disability or resign," said Hough, whose agency works with Cops Trust to provide members with confidential counseling services with no co-pays or deductibles. "They end up in depression, relationship problems, job stress and they don't want to look bad to other officers."
But department mandated counseling doesn't provide the confidentiality officers need to feel safe discussing their mental health issues, she said. "You want them to be able to trust their counselor," she said. "A work mental health evaluation will have information in there on whether they have some type of mental health issues and will go to the employer. If that's something that is ordered, they won't want to work with a therapist because they're concerned about losing their job."
It's ironic that the close-knit nature of law enforcement seems to exclude discussions about normal reactions to very traumatic situation they experience together. Seeing the aftermath of homicides, deadly accidents, and crimes in progress are among the events officers may experience multiple times during their career.
"They have the camaraderie, but there's definitely that stigma there if they ask for help, something is wrong. They don't want to be shunned by their peers if they're having trouble with something they've seen," Hough said. "It doesn't mean if you need help you're weak or you can't do the job necessarily."
When an officer is unable to save someone's life or the crime scene involves the death of a child, it's easy to understand the lasting impression on their mental health. "Officers have committed suicide if they were unable to save a life," Hough said. "They're in a constant state of adrenaline and wanting to save people and they see a lot of different things we don't see. Everybody reacts differently to situations too, especially when they're dealing with children. That's pretty intense if they can't save a child. Their job is to serve and save people and protect. If they can't do what they're trained to do, they're going to take that on as dire."
Like doctors, Hough said, "They have to understand sometimes you can't save a life."
The Badge of Life, a non-profit organization which has been tracking police suicides since 2008, reports an average of 130 deaths for each past year studied, according to lawofficer.com. Based on available figures, the average age for a police suicide was 42 years and 96 percent were males. Twenty of the 2017 suicides were Command officers and the rest were officers and deputies. Guns continue to be the primary means of committing suicide with three overdoses, one poisoning and two hangings reported.
The Badge of Life study includes only fully sworn "police officers," not other law enforcement, such as: retirees, separated officers, animal control, wildlife, reserve officers, prison/corrections, and more. Some of these occupations are studied and/or included by organizations like Blue H.E.L.P., which as of March 15, had listed 154 "verified suicides" in 2017 and 21 so far in 2018 on their website. The non-profit Blue H.E.L.P. works with Badge of Life to publicize suicides and has an online form by which families and associates can submit their cases.
Hough has counseled Police Officers and other public safety employees. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault, and depression affects many in these careers. "Police Officers actually experience PTSD in a similar way as military officers because of the things police encounter," Hough said. "They encounter the same kind of things in their career that soldiers do – deaths, shootings (even with automatic weapons). They are, in a sense, in a battle when out on the street."
CORRECTIONS OFFICERS SUICIDES
PTSD also likely affects more than a third of Corrections Officers in state prisons, according to a 2016 study commissioned by the Michigan Corrections Organization (MCO), the officers' union. About 5% of Michigan corrections officers were at a high risk for suicide, the study found, with problems more pronounced among those working in high-security facilities and longtime officers. At least 11 active or recently retired officers have committed suicide since 2015, according to the most recent reporting by MCO.
Some 34% of state prison Corrections Officers and Forensic Security Assistants at the state's Center for Forensic Psychiatry — the facility for criminal defendants incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity — met the criteria for PTSD. A quarter of Corrections Officers met the criteria for both PTSD and depression.
Corrections Department officials have partnered with MCO to address PTSD and suicide risk. Spokesman Chris Gautz said the department's director talks about the risk at every Corrections Officer school graduation, encouraging officers and their families to help one another. "One (suicide) is too many; I know we've had several already this year," Gautz said in a May 2016 Lansing State Journal article. "It's definitely an issue that we're very mindful of."
MCO wants PTSD coping mechanisms to be part of officers' and supervisors' yearly training. "We are working to build awareness of corrections PTSD with MDOC administrators and other policy makers," said Anita Lloyd, MCO Communications Director. "We're continuing the conversation with corrections staff in other states because it's a nationwide problem. We need to speak in one voice to move the needle on corrections PTSD."
MCO's 2017 Officer of the Year Cary Johnson said in a Lansing State Journal article that she takes new recruits to the Fallen Officers Memorial outside MCO's Lansing offices to remind them of the physical dangers they'll face working inside prison walls. However, she said, "There are more ways this job can kill you."
Corrections Officers must stop fights and sexual assaults and are assaulted themselves. Inmates throw bodily fluids at them. However, they must not show their emotions so as not to appear weak to inmates. Like police, they aren't likely to deal with mental health issues arising from job-related stress because of concerns about being fired, Johnson said.
MAKE A SAFE CALL FOR HELP
Hough said the best thing public safety agencies can do is to provide peer support and encourage confidential mental health counseling. Hough is hoping to do her part by traveling around the state visiting public safety departments in the near future with Sean Riley, Founder & President of Safe Call Now, a 24-hour confidential, comprehensive crisis referral service for public safety employees and their family members nationwide. "What Sean and I are going to be doing is to put out a message that it is OK to ask for help," Hough said.
Helping departments develop a peer support system so officers can talk to co-workers "safely" is key to getting officers the help they need. "The stigma in departments is that it's not OK to ask for help," Hough said. "They're already living the pressure on the streets. They need … peer support -— to not be so judgmental, to be supportive of each other."
"It's healthy for the department to offer the options. If they ask for help, provide them with coping skills they can utilize on a daily basis," Hough said. "Our recommendation is for peers to stick together."
Law enforcement and other public safety officers can call Safe Call Now to be connected with confidential help. The organization, based in Washington, was started in 2009 after legislation passed guaranteeing confidentiality for all who call Safe Call Now crisis line, which is staffed by current and former first responders including Riley. He was a law enforcement officer from 1987 to 2005 when his police career ended due to alcohol and drug abuse. He was headed toward suicide himself. Instead, Riley got a degree in substance abuse counseling and worked as a supervisor at a local treatment center where he witnessed many public safety employees coming in and out of treatment.
"With Safe Call Now, they provide them with emotional armor — teach them how to deal with these day–to-day things that they see," Hough said. "You need self-care — you're human and there's nothing wrong with asking for help. It's important that they have these programs in place… instead of telling them to just suck it up."
Peer programs and support also help officers spot the signs of a co-worker contemplating suicide so they can take action before it's too late. "That's the ultimate," Hough said. "It's important to have that without having that judgment — and not expect to have your peers report what you say to them. This is a very honorable job they're doing and we need them to feel good and be healthy."
SUICIDE WARNING SIGNS
• Acting withdrawn or noticeably more angry or agitated.
• Not being as sharp on the job.
• Not enjoying things they used to.
• Not acting like they normally do, behavior changes.
• Drinking more alcohol than normally do.
• Not sleeping much.
• Problems in their marriage, not wanting to go home.
• Verbalizing thoughts of suicide.
"With depression you start to not enjoy things you used to — you're not real happy, not yourself," Hough said. "It's important for peers to recognize. Alcoholism and substance abuse is a quick way to cope. Notice any difference in their behavior — are they sleeping, are they having problems in their marriage, are they going home?"
If an individual has expressed they're thinking about taking their life, they should go to a hospital and have a professional help them, she said.
DEALING WITH SUICIDES
Public safety agencies often don't want to call attention to job-related suicides. But sweeping them under the rug doesn't help other officers deal with loss and prevent future suicides, Hough said. "They see their peers taking their own lives because they couldn't cope and they didn't get the help they needed. There is this constant cycle," Hough said. "It definitely has an impact. It makes them more afraid to speak about their problems. They know for a fact they can lose their job, or be given a leave of absence. They would rather commit suicide than do that."
In Massachusetts, state Representatives Jim Lyons, R-Andover, and Timothy Whelan, R-Barnstable sponsored a bill, which would require mandatory training in mental wellness and suicide prevention for police officers. The legislation proposes a two-hour course in all police training schools to teach officers ways to develop healthy coping skills. It also would help them recognize post-traumatic stress disorder, signs of suicidal behavior in themselves and others, and teach them about finding mental health resources. "Suicide prevention awareness training would be a definite benefit," Hough said. "We need to help Officers deal with this."
Visit Hough Counseling and Assessments online or call (248) 528-0157. Cops Trust members will receive waivers of co-pays and deductibles.
Visit Safe Call Now, a confidential, comprehensive, 24-hour crisis referral service for all public safety employees, all emergency services personnel and their family members nationwide. Make a Safe Call Now at (206) 459-3020.
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360 degrees of tech
Photo: Matthew Gilson
I am like the guy in the Circuit City ad who is gleefully running around the store, much to the disgust of his spouse. I can spend hours looking at new electronics without buying anything. I like to say I am informed, not obsessed.
I developed a reputation around the office for promoting different gadgets. People have actually accused me of being paid commissions by companies whose products I've recommended. I swear I'm not. It's just that if I like something, I can't help but tell people how it will make their lives more enjoyable. I know four people who have bought TiVo because of me. At least 10 people around here have an iPod who didn't before.
People are surprised that I will go out of my way to find products for them. Someone in my office is going on a trek to Base Camp at Mount Everest. I asked her what kind of camera she was going to bring. She mentioned one brand, and I told her she should buy another because she could reuse lenses from her old camera. Another employee had trouble with the phone connection for his TiVo machine. I helped him buy a wireless transmitter. I really enjoy being able to share what I've made the effort to learn.
TIVO'S TRICKS
Cost: $169.99 to $219. May be cheaper with a service contract.
• The technology allows consumers to freeze live television and control recording.
• TiVo and its competitors are expected to sell 41 million set-top boxes in 2009, up from 11 million in 2004.
TiVo is one of my favorites. It has cut the amount of time I spend watching TV by 50% and has enabled me to put programs on my iPod so I can watch them in the airport or when I am waiting in line. Lately, I've been watching "The Office" and "The Sopranos."
I also have the Treo 650, which I use for my calendar, e-mail and address book. I keep it in my breast pocket or my briefcase. It's with me all the time.
I get a lot of use out of the global positioning system in my car. It's connected to my iPod and to a satellite radio and navigation system. The system will tell me if there's traffic or an accident ahead and recommend the fastest route. It's incredibly accurate. My wife gave me all those devices for my birthday. She jokes that they double the value of my car. The system allows you to be more spontaneous. You can type in the name of a restaurant and it will tell you how to get there. There are no phone calls. It's just easy.
I am just as enthusiastic about household appliances. My wife and I are redoing the kitchen right now. She was trying to be practical about appliances, but I want as many features as I can get. There's a stove that goes so low you can leave a pan of chocolate chips there all day to melt and it won't burn. Am I going to melt chocolate chips? No, but it's a level of flexibility I might some day need. I also had to have the silent dishwasher. The salesman told me it was the first time he had ever seen a husband try to upgrade the appliances.
Sarah A. Klein
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Back to EDP
See how the owners of a shooting lodge for sale have turned it into an amazing home
Caroline Culot
The Shooting Box, for sale with Sowerbys. Pic: www.sowerbys.com
See how the owners of this Victorian shooting lodge for sale at Bylaugh Park have turned it into a fantastic home, hidden away in 10 acres of parkland with only the birds as neighbours.
If you are looking for a property tucked away in its own 10 acre setting, with only the wildlife to disturb you, The Shooting Box at Bylaugh, could be for you.
How many properties boast this kind of setting in grounds including large private woodland, a walled cottage garden and lawns?
It is situated in the corner of Bylaugh Park Estate, where Bylaugh Hall itself sits, currently undergoing a programme of renovation.
The Shooting Box dates to 1850 and it has been extended to create a unique home.
It would have been the lodge where the shooting party from the hall would have enjoyed food before going out into the woodland - and then retired to afterwards.
But look at it now; inside are three lovely reception rooms, a kitchen, a lobby with a study area, a utility, four bedrooms, two shower rooms and a bathroom.
Outside is a spacious outbuilding within the grounds which offers a superb opportunity for development into a detached annexe, holiday home, office, workshop or stabling (subject to obtaining the usual planning permissions) and it should be noted that high speed broadband (via BT) is available.
In addition to the ample parking available, there is also a timber garage, an open fronted cart lodge, a summerhouse, greenhouse and enclosed garden.
The Shooting Box, Bylaugh Park, near Dereham; for sale for £750,000 with Sowerbys on 01362 693591.
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Q: Jekyll copying md files instead of processing them I have a directory full of markdown (.md) files I want to render into a website so I can see what it will look like. I installed Jekyll which I've used a number of times, cd'd into the directory and executed Jekyll serve.
Jekyll created the _site directory and instead of processing my .md files into .html files, it just copied them into the _site directory.
I'm at a bit of a loss as to why it's not processing the markdown. Anyone know why?

A: Jekyll only processes files with Front Matter.. otherwise, those files are designated as "static files" and simply copied verbatim to the destination directory.

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The iSeries 20118LENS Case (3i-20118LENS) case is the perfect companion case for the professional photographer. This case will hold six lenses such as the Canon Cinema Prime Lenses or Schneider Kreunznach Xenon FF Prime Lenses. Each lens slot has a diameter of 125mm and the base depth of each lens slot is a total of 120mm. The useable lid depth is 35mm creating a maximum length of 125mm per lens. There are two removable foam discs provided to change the internal base lens height to 97mm instead of the 120mm when needed. This case is the maximum approved size for airline carry on travel.
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5G: The Internet of the Future
By Hardik Singh | Published 16 Mar 2016 12:47 IST
The race for 10 Gbps speeds is the next big step towards the evolution of 5G. So, before the internet of the future arrives, let us delve deeper into what it entails.
As India progresses towards a pan-India 4G network rollout, the research behind the fifth generation of cellular broadband technology is rapidly moving towards completion, called 5G at it's current state. 5G simply stands for 'fifth generation', and it's the upcoming standard of mobile communications which suggests that it will revolutionise how we interact with technology, moreover how technology interacts with us. So, what is 5G? Well, to be exact, it is not defined yet. It is rather, a very complex topic at the moment, since the properties and ingredients of the technology are still under consideration. However, currently, industry experts have chalked out some of its goals in the early stages of the conceptualisation of this upcoming technology. According to various organizations and research teams working on 5G, it will take at least another half a decade to become a global standard. 5G is supposed to bring lower latency, better and wider connectivity and best of all, super speeds of up to 10 Gbps. This is just the tip of the 5G iceberg as it is being conceptualised to be way bigger than the current 4G standard. It will not only help internet penetration in remote areas, but if the required goals are met, it will be an essential part of mission critical industries such as medicine and autonomous vehicles. 5G is also supposed to be a new chapter in security and a likely nurturer of big and small scale industries, which are likely to mushroom as we move towards a utopian, connected future.
But first, a history lesson on the "G"
To understand how mobile wireless technology works, we need to dive into the genesis of the technology. We need to get into the past of the technology, we need to understand why today's technology won't be enough to sustain the outgrowing demand of data and why 5G could be the solution which may enable us to be more connected and the world to be more automated. This will also help us understand why 5G is a much bigger deal than the existing 3G and 4G networks.
Let's start with 1G, the true first generation of mobile networks or wireless systems, which enabled consumers to connect with each other on a global level. Before this, there was IMTS (Improved mobile telephone service), which was severely expensive and extremely limited. A whole IMTS unit was as big as a briefcase and required a separate large antenna, plugged to a power source to place calls. This analogue technology evolved into 1G or AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System), which came into existence in the late 1980s. This carved the cornerstone for mobile telephony, reducing the briefcase size telephone to a handheld device. However, it had its set of problems. 1G had low capacity, poor voice links and no security. Voice calls were played back in radio towers and anyone with a radio scanner in the vicinity of the phone signal was able
to eavesdrop.
Fact: Bell Labs developed the AMPS or 1G standard and Motorola came out with the device to support it. This became the first commercially available mobile phone, the DynaTAC 8000X.
To overcome the problems of 1G, a new standard 2G or GSM (Global Systems for Mobile communications) was introduced in 1991. Offering digitally encrypted phone calls, this standard was more secure and efficient than its predecessors, hence it was adopted world-wide. A few years later in 1995, SMS services were integrated within the technology which made it an even better standard. With 2G, phones became much smaller, battery efficiency was improved and voice clarity was better. But the times were changing and the internet was at the cusp of booming. Sadly, 2G with its 64Kbps theoretical speed of data transfer was not up for the task. This was the main hurdle in the research and development of the third generation.
Fact: The original iPhone featured cellular connectivity using GPRS and EDGE bands.
2.5G and 2.75G
Between the second and third generations, lies GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) which are otherwise known as 2.5G and the 2.75G standards respectively. These transitional standards were later developed over the older 2G standard and basically provided more data speeds than 2G which was good enough to check email or load a webpage, but still fell considerably short of the network speeds 3G could achieve.
In 2001, the age of 3G dawned. It was a big upgrade from the 2G standard but it was an upgrade. Nonetheless, the new standard had upgraded audio codecs and some part of the older GSM architecture. 3G also brought a new standard called the IMT-2000 (IMT – International Mobile Telecommunication). With the introduction of 3G, things got complex because there are many technologies which are compliant with the IMT-2000 standard, but the one most important is UMTS. UMTS, otherwise known as the Universal Mobile Telephone System, is the widely used 3G standard offering global roaming as it is globally recognised by a majority of countries. The upgrade in audio codecs saw enhanced audio and video streaming, higher browsing speeds, faster data speeds, GPS support, video conferencing support and support for IPTV (TV through internet).
3.5 and 3.75G
Things started to evolve rapidly afterwards as the demand for faster internet speeds emerged. Soon, the 3.5G and 3.75G standards came into existence. These two standards otherwise known as HSPA and HSPA+ offered peak theoretical downlink speeds of 14Mbps and 168Mbps respectively. This was more than the 2Mbps downlink speeds 3G used to offer. While HSPA was metaphorically 3G on steroids, 3.75G was able to achieve much higher speeds and lower latency due to a new technology called MIMO (Multiple-input and Multiple-output), which set the ground for the 4G and LTE standards.
Fact: Some mobile operators are selling the 3.75G or HSPA+ plans as 4G because the real life speeds of the two are very close.
4G, otherwise known as IMT Advanced, is a complete overhaul from the earlier standards. 4G is currently deployed in two forms, one is WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) and LTE (Long Term Evolution). Out of the two, LTE, has a better adoption rate across the globe. It is also due to the fact that WiMAX supports voice calling via VoIP only and requires new deployments, whereas LTE is made to work with existing deployments. LTE is also slightly faster than WiMAX.
Key point: LTE is the long term evolution of UMTS which was upgraded over the 2G standard.
LTE-Advanced is the latest chapter in 4G. It's faster than 4G and offers theoretical peak download speeds of upto 450Mbps over the theoretical peak download speeds of upto 300 Mbps achievable by LTE. This was a good enough reason to be excited about 4G finally coming to India. Although, you won't get the theoretical speeds due to various physical and technical factors, it is still good enough to be excited.
5G = 2G + 3G + 4G + Wi-Fi + ?
By now you must have realised one thing. Every new generation is better than the previous one, and not by a small margin. With 5G, the theoretical download speeds are expected to hit 10Gbps, making it 100 times faster than 4G. Also, like all previous generations, 5G will incorporate all its previous generations within itself. Additionally, it will also include specific new technology architectural changes that haven't been defined yet. Wi-Fi technology is also part of this heterogeneous equation and will play an important part in it. Wi-Fi derived technology will help the standard achieve that higher data transfer rate. While none of the main organizations working on the upcoming standard haven't set a proper set of rules about what 5G should be, there is a wish list which is slowly gaining industry acceptance. These are some of the standards 5G is expected to meet:
1. 5G based technology is expected to handle a large amount data in tens of megabytes, catering to a group of thousands of people, without dropping or lowering network speeds. This would mean efficient and faster connectivity with speeds of upto 10Gbps.
2. It is expected to offer latency of less than 1 millisecond end-to end round trip delay. This could mean a sublime VR experience over network. It is also important for mission critical tasks. for example, a doctor operating remotely on a patient via the help of a surgical robot.
3. Supreme bandwidth of a 1,000 times per unit area, which can support a hundred thousand simultaneous active connections. For this, 5G could harness or evolve upon the current and previous gen technologies such as 2G, 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi.
4. It is being perceived that 5G could bring 99.999% availability which could effectively mean the highest connection rates between the cell towers.
5. 5G is also suggested to cover 100% of the geographical area. This could essentially offer better connectivity over remote terrain and rural areas. If the upcoming standard is able to achieve this goal in real life scenarios, it will become the most important factor in the growth of developing nations.
6. One of the drawbacks with 4G is that it is not battery efficient, but 5G may change that. Research teams are working to reduce the power consumption by up to 90% at the terminal end, which will in turn make the whole process cost effective. The power consumption at a user's mobile level is also expected to go down which will make cellular devices last longer.
It is not guaranteed that these set requirements will be matched perfectly even by 2020, which is the expected year we might have some concrete technologies to support the above mentioned requirements. Albeit, early tests and studies in the field suggest that we are close enough.
Fact: 4G is likely to evolve and give us its transitional standards. 4.5G or as it is unofficially called LTE-Advanced Pro. In November 2015, HKT and Huawei successfully demoed the world's first 4.5G network offering 1Gbps of speed.
Why do we need 5G?
The answer to that is quite simple. 5G is vital to solve critical technological problems and keep up with future innovations. Another factor is the exponential growth in the user base, which is predicted to balloon beyond the seven billion mark by 2020. The current generation technology is not powerful or efficient enough to handle this massive growth, comprising mostly of traffic generated by video consumption these days.
Beyond that, 5G could be the key to seamless integration of technology within our daily lifestyle, in a more automated world, where we strive to achieve by the end of this decade. Automated vehicles, IoT devices, 4K and 8K streaming, fast and responsive health care and emergency services, are just some of 5G's countless use-cases. To accommodate all these varying needs, 5G is required. It's benefits are far stretched out than any of the previous generations. From connecting billions of people to offering faster internet speeds, it has to do it all and do it well.
How will it be different from 4G?
First, the speed. Yes, if boffins in the research lab are able to crack the mentioned wish list, we might get 10Gbps connection speeds by the end of 2020. This means a Full HD movie of around 8GB in size will take just six seconds to download instead of the 6-7 minutes it would take over normal 4G connections. 5G also brings the promise of better coverage, meaning lower call drop rates and more connected devices, currently a major problem in India. On top of that, 5G is expected to be quite flexible in terms of its infrastructure, making it easier to be deployed under low-costs. If this becomes a fact, India will be able to connect at a more rapid pace than ever.
We can expect, that by 2020, technology will progress enough to make a bigger leap in remote computing and VR. It's also safe to presume that communication will become extremely real-time, offering a tactile internet, where you would be able to not only see and listen to it but touch and feel it as well. Also, IoT and connected devices such as wearables, smart home appliances and even connected vehicles will become a more intrinsic part of the future. They will obviously require faster and more reliable networks to accommodate the surge in growth.
On a technical level, 5G is likely to use higher frequency bands which are currently being used by radar, satellites and military systems. This is the 30Ghz to 300GHz frequency band which is also called the millimeter-length wavelength. These waves are given consideration since they are open to huge amount of bandwidths and this spectrum is relatively less occupied compared to other spectrum bands in use. These can carry a large amount of data at higher speeds. However, millimeter waves are not perfect, their coverage is less than 300 metres, they don't penetrate walls and become woeful with changes in atmosphere such as rain.
Many researchers are working on newer technologies based on Wi-Fi and other waveforms such as FBMC (Filter Bank Multi-Carrier), UFMC (Universal Filtered MultiCarrier), GFDM (Generalised Frequency Division Multiplexing), f-OFDM (Filtered - Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing). Besides these, there are other waveforms under consideration as well.
Currently, no single waveform can support the wish list 5G is vying for and it is to be believed that in the end, a combination of wavelengths or an adaptive wavelength will be able to provide the required results. This also means, that scientists will have a to develop a whole new receiving and transmission architecture to accommodate all the features of the 5G standard. However, at the moment it's still under development.
While companies like Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei are hosting demos of what they have achieved so far, it is still the early days for the technology. As years go by and 5G comes to life, it will fall to service providers to push and adopt the technology further. This will require new infrastructure at every stage. After all, 5G mobile communications are supposed to handle almost 1,000 times more traffic, 10Gbps of speed and super low latency of under 1ms.
How is the research going?
It all comes down to the research of the various aspects which will shape the mobile broadband of the future. As discussed, higher frequency bands are likely to be used and to counter the problem of smaller coverage, a new technology called 'beam-forming' has been widely accepted. The concept behind it is quite simple. Instead of broadcasting the signal in a wide area, concentrate the signal directly to the target device. Some new Wi-Fi routers use this technology and we might see an evolved variant of the technology in the upcoming 5G standard. This technology proposes to focus radio interface into beams which will make them usable over long distances. These beams must be directed towards the end user and since the service is required to be mobile and available to many, the corresponding combination of hardware and software has to track and stay connected to each individual in the vicinity. This is quite a task, keeping in mind that each cell can only support a certain number of beams at a time and that too, without dropping the quality of the network.
Fact: A cell is simply a geographical area covered by a cellular telephone transmitter. It can vary from 1KM to 30KM in diameter
The other technology which is being worked upon is MIMO (Multi-Input, Multi-Output). This technology requires the devices to be fitted with an array of antennas via which multiple radio connections can be made between the device and the cell tower. However, high-order MIMO has an issue, it causes radio interference. Hence, a new method or technology is required to transfer data via MIMO. This needs a new kind of radio network which can adjust its beam to take into account the specific orientation of the antenna at any given time. The idea of 3D MIMO is also being researched, which will allow beam-forming in 3D.
To counter the massive demands for data, an easier solution of dense networks is being considered. This means reducing the cell size. By reducing the cell size, and lowering the range, spectral efficiency can be improved as the capacity increases. However, this will also mean more number of base stations will be required, again increasing the cost incurred on the operator. So, research is being done to improve that.
Currently, the existing cellular communication uses two full-duplex form, FDD (frequency Division Duplex) and TDD (Time Division Duplex), which essentially means using two different frequencies to transmit and receive. In FDD, the network uses different frequencies to receive and transmit and in TDD, the transmission and reception is done at different times. However, both these methods are not completely efficient. So, a new full duplex method is in the works which will allow simultaneous transmission and reception on the same channel at the same time.
Work is also going on Multi-Radio Access technologies which will essentially allow devices to talk to the various radio interfaces and access points at the same time. It is likely to involve Wi-Fi, higher frequencies and currently used frequencies into the mix.
As mentioned earlier, 5G is likely to work on a higher spectrum using millimeter waves but our current research is inadequate to make the system work. Beyond this, there are other goals such as "1ms latency" which needs to be achieved and for that, the technology needs to evolve. There are multiple research teams around the world trying to solve that issue and are going forward towards different research paths. We just hope that by 2020, they actually make it a reality.
Hardik Singh
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About Me: Light at the top, this odd looking creature lives under the heavy medication of video games. Read More
Tags: 5G 4G 3G mobile-network evolution-of-mobile-network


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Essay: A Natural at the Game - 2.28.11
Both Governor Rick Snyder's friends and enemies often refer to him as a "non-politician." Michigan Radio's Jack Lessenberry has been thinking about that.
Governor Rick Snyder is not a "politician." He would tell you that himself. I first heard he wasn't a politician from a bunch of political reporters more than a year ago, who felt he was wasting his money on what they felt was a catchy, but ultimately silly commercial.
This was, of course, the famous "tough nerd" commercial that first aired during last year's Superbowl. Tim Skubick, the dean of, Lansing political reporters, thought it was likely to backfire.
This is a tough, blue-collar state, he said. Not a place where people voted for guys who called themselves "nerds."
I didn't know what to make of all this myself, till I saw Snyder skillfully and with scalpel-like precision, separate himself from the rest of the pack during the primary campaign. Like a veteran racehorse he ran third much of the way, then shot ahead in the final stretch, winning by nine lengths and a hundred thousand votes.
The general election wasn't even a contest. But there was a lot of skepticism as to how the new governor would actually do with the hurly-burly of governing.
Jennifer Granholm had been a crashing failure, something she herself attributed to having never served in the legislature. But she had at least been attorney general, and one of many cogs in Wayne County boss Ed McNamara's political machine.
Snyder was a venture capitalist and former computer executive without a day's worth of practical politics in his past. When he revealed during the campaign that he had no idea who was the chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, some sneered.
But I felt otherwise. Being a political analyst is one of the few jobs for which age is an advantage. I remembered the scorn and disdain the experts felt when a washed-up movie actor ran for governor of California. Turned out he did a pretty fair job.
Republicans in places like Michigan, however, felt that their party would be committing suicide if they ever nominated him for president. "He'd be another Goldwater," one told me in the late 1970s. Too right-wing, too extreme, too generally ignorant of the world. When the man did run, I myself asked him a question that revealed he had no idea on which side of Pakistan Afghanistan was located.
Yet he won forty-four states the first time he ran, and all but one the next. The man people feared might start World War III wound up ending the Cold War. I've been talking about Ronald Reagan, of course, and today, some people talk about adding him to Mount Rushmore.
Now I am well aware Governor Snyder has yet to even get his first budget through the legislature, or prove he can compromise if need be. But this non-politician got a President of another party to agree to count Canadian dollars as our matching highway funds.
And this governor has wisely avoided plunging this state into turmoil by starting an ideological war, as his counterpart in Wisconsin has in trying to abolish collective bargaining.
We've got a way to go before we know how successful a governor Rick Snyder will be. But up to now, he's defied the experts -- and for a non-politician, has had one heck of a non-political year.
Posted on February 28, 2011 at 01:30 PM | Permalink