Ottawa’s tech corridor is all about telecom

Last week, I visited the Center for Research and Development of Ericsson in Ottawa with the intention of learning more about telecommunications infrastructure, and I did. But what surprised me was that I left with a greater assessment of the hidden technical sector of the capital.

Built from the shadow of Northel, Ottawa, in particular, in the suburbs of the ropes, for many years was a focus for innovation in telecommunications. For those who do not know, Nortel was an advanced telecommunication company for a short window, but it became stagnant. Nevertheless, people continued to invest in the company, which leads to the price of shares of about $ 124. This made him one of the largest Canadian companies at that time, but since it was no longer aware of the pace of innovation, she crashed, leaving many in Canada with empty wallets.

However, at one time, thousands of people worked in the norm, and when the company left, many remained in the area and went to work for competitors such as Ericksson, Huaweiand nokia. The head of the Ericksson operation in Ottawa, Marcos Kavevetti, the former Norer worker himself and told me that the company is still working in the company who is still working.

He also shared that for 70 years Ericsson has been in Canada, the company has created more than 6,000 patents related to telecommunication technologies. He even explained that the Center for Research and Development still usually submits an application for at least two patents per week.

The company and others in the technological zone of the rope are also working to contribute to the creation of new talents through partnerships with nearby universities and colleges in Ottava, Toronto, Montreal and others. During my tour, they told me about various internships and other opportunities. In addition, there are also places around the building for more experiments with free -style with new technologies such as AI, therefore, although it is mainly focused on communication technologies, there is still a place for injection all types of modern approaches. In addition, the company also runs the new 5G laboratory in Ottawa, which is open for startups To come and check their products using advanced mobile radio technologies.

The head of the operation in Ottawa, Marcos Kavevetti and some of the 5G radio, which were developed on this site.

While Ericsson produces various types of transmitters, some of the main points that he mentioned to me included the use of AI to implement more intellectual sleep schedules (that is, improved power saving) for its radio stations during periods with low traffic. On the scale of the national carrier, this can lead to great savings at the hydroelectric power station. The company is also working on a new way of separating parts of the spectrum so that the companies allow companies to have its own private 5G networks. One of the examples that they brought to me was more reliable and seamless lighting in large buildings, such as factories. Although this may seem a little ordinary, anyone who has a mesh-fi system knows that some things simply do not play with this.

To manage these innovations in the 5G room, Ericsson works with construction companies to install network equipment for connecting and playing in their buildings. Thus, carriers can appear and get their network in the building without additional infrastructure.

To build and check all this equipment, the company showed me its laboratory, which, perhaps, was the coolest room in which I was liba. However, I was not allowed to take any photographs, as there were active projects. Believe me, these were the ranks and ranks of Workbenches covered with high -tech equipment, such as spectrum analyzers, oscilloscopes and other cool things. A large room was associated with massive cable runs that connect all hardware. Honestly, it looked like a set of films.

One interesting thing that I could see was the interior of one of the medium -sized transmitters. I was surprised when I saw the metal design of the honeycomb, which was told to me that it was physically helping to turn off some radio outputs. I assumed that all this was done using software, but this is a much more complex process called Cavity filterField

In addition, they use several other test premises and one giant Aneho chamber to check the signal strength and other various network components. The massive room should sit six feet of concrete, because it is so heavy. As you can see, there is a giant metal flower on one wall, and this will help to dispel the signal for emulating real conditions. Inside, they checked one of their internal points 5G, which is the equivalent of 5G access. They are fully designed in Canada and implemented all over the world.

The company does not stop there either. Last year, he allocated more than $ 600 million for research and development in the country. Of course, this will be aimed at such things as improving your ideas on how to attract companies to private 5G networks and other projects that we do not even know about.