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Frontier
Cities, at the frontier.

What is moving now in the technologies this industry runs on, each item traced to the specification or standard behind it.

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  1. Cities · Frontier

    The city, measured block by block

    Street-level flood depth, air quality and heat, mobility and noise, carried on a municipal sensing and connectivity layer, with twins of the streets they sit in and open data residents can read. Needs: street flooding, air quality and urban heat, structural condition of public assets, connectivity for municipal sensors and open data for residents.

  2. At the frontier

    Distributed and cell-free MIMO

    Many coordinated access points serving users jointly instead of separate cells. We design it. We take it to a real cities site under a written pilot plan before it becomes a release. Every reading and every change leaves a record that can be checked later.

    Specification
    Rec. ITU-R M.2160 (IMT-2030 framework)
  3. At the frontier

    Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces

    Programmable surfaces that redirect radio waves to fill coverage holes at low power. We design it. We take it to a real cities site under a written pilot plan before it becomes a release. Every reading and every change leaves a record that can be checked later.

    Specification
    ETSI GR RIS 001 (RIS use cases and deployment scenarios)
  4. At the frontier

    FR2-2 (52.6–71 GHz)

    Rel-17 extension into the 60 GHz range for short-range, very wide channels. We design it. We take it to a real cities site under a written pilot plan before it becomes a release. It is delivered and supported by Nexus Observatory Inc.

    Specification
    3GPP TS 38.101-2 (Rel-17) · 3GPP TS 38.300
  5. At the frontier

    Upper 6 GHz and 7–8 GHz candidate bands

    New mid-band ranges under study for IMT-2030 that would add wide channels with mid-band reach. We design and support it. We take it to a real cities site under a written pilot plan before it becomes a release. Service levels are written as numbers you can measure.

    Specification
    ITU WRC-27 agenda item 1.7 (Resolution 256 (WRC-23)) · Rec. ITU-R M.2160
  6. At the frontier

    Ambient IoT

    Battery-less, energy-harvesting tags read by the network for logistics and asset sensing. We design it. We take it to a real cities site under a written pilot plan before it becomes a release. It is delivered and supported by Nexus Observatory Inc.

    Specification
    3GPP TR 38.848 (ambient IoT in RAN, Rel-18) · 3GPP TR 38.769 (ambient IoT solutions, Rel-19)
  7. At the frontier

    Wi-Fi sensing

    Using Wi-Fi channel measurements for presence and motion sensing, with privacy controls. We design it. We take it to a real cities site under a written pilot plan before it becomes a release. Changes are versioned, tested and reversible. Service levels are written as numbers you can measure.

    Specification
    IEEE 802.11bf
  8. Trust

    Every node proves what it is

    A node joins only after its hardware root of trust answers an attestation challenge. Keys stay in secure hardware, software arrives signed, and every reading carries a signature, so its origin can be checked by anyone downstream without asking us.

  9. Time and place

    Every reading carries when and where

    Readings are stamped against a disciplined clock, from satellite time or a PTP grandmaster, together with the station position and its siting record. When time or position is degraded, the record says so instead of hiding it, and every analyst downstream sees the same warning.

  10. Updates

    Updates in rings, with rollback

    Software and configuration reach the fleet in rings: a canary site first, then a few, then all, each ring gated on health and data completeness. A failed gate stops the wave and returns each node to its last good release, without a site visit.

  11. Operations

    Every node watched, every incident closed

    The operations console shows every node with its state, its plan and its evidence. Alerts arrive with their data and a runbook; acknowledging one opens a work order, and an incident closes only when the cause is recorded and the fix verified.

  12. What you get

    Municipal sensing and connectivity layers

    City-wide LPWAN or private 5G as a shared layer for public sensors and services. Delivered as managed service, for cities, regional governments. Scale: City-wide. Service levels are written as numbers you can measure on your own dashboard. Changes are versioned, tested and reversible.

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  13. Next step

    Plan a cities deployment

    Tell us the sites, the measurements and the people who will use them. We reply with a design and a scope for cities. An engineer replies with a survey proposal and a scope, and the plan grows from one site to the network you need, at your pace.

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01Frontier

The technologies moving now.

Ranked by how closely each serves what this industry needs to observe. Each item names the specification or standard it is drawn against.

Frontier · Remote sensing and Earth observation · Radar, lidar and microwave sensors

GNSS reflectometry

Reflected navigation signals for ocean wind, soil moisture and flood extent from low-cost receivers.

WMO OSCAR/Space

Frontier · GIS, maps and GeoAI · 3D, BIM and digital twins

Sensor-fused live twins

Twins updated continuously from sensors, cameras and EO, with provenance on every change.

OGC SensorThings API 1.1 · OGC API – Connected Systems

Frontier · GIS, maps and GeoAI · 3D, BIM and digital twins

Geospatial augmented reality

Overlaying the twin on the real site for crews through located and oriented devices.

OGC GeoPose 1.0

Frontier · AI-RAN and Open RAN · AI/ML in the air interface and network management

AI/ML for CSI feedback

Learned compression and prediction of channel state information to improve MIMO precoding.

3GPP TR 38.843 (AI/ML for NR air interface, Rel-18)

Frontier · Core and transport networks · Fibre and optical transport

Distributed fibre sensing

Using telecom fibre as a sensor for vibration, temperature and strain along its route.

IEC 61757 (fibre optic sensors)

Frontier · Spectrum, timing and PNT · Spectrum monitoring and interference management

Distributed low-cost SDR sensor networks

Many inexpensive receivers at sites forming a continuous spectrum picture.

Rec. ITU-R SM.1880 · ITU Handbook on Spectrum Monitoring

Frontier · Spectrum, timing and PNT · Spectrum monitoring and interference management

Machine-learning signal classification

Models that recognise signal types and anomalies in monitoring data.

ITU Handbook on Spectrum Monitoring

Frontier · AI-RAN and Open RAN · AI-RAN: shared accelerated infrastructure

AI-and-RAN (shared GPU for RAN and AI)

Running the RAN and AI inference on the same accelerated servers, with RAN given priority when traffic needs it.

AI-RAN Alliance AI-and-RAN working group · O-RAN WG6 AAL

Frontier · AI-RAN and Open RAN · AI-RAN: shared accelerated infrastructure

AI-on-RAN (edge AI services on RAN sites)

Hosting third-party and site AI applications on RAN compute close to users and sensors.

AI-RAN Alliance AI-on-RAN working group · ETSI GS MEC 003

Frontier · AI-RAN and Open RAN · AI-RAN: shared accelerated infrastructure

Software-defined L1 on GPUs

Running the full physical layer in software on GPUs instead of fixed-function hardware.

O-RAN WG6 AAL General Aspects and Principles

Frontier · AI-RAN and Open RAN · AI-RAN: shared accelerated infrastructure

RAN-first workload scheduling

Schedulers that protect RAN deadlines and lend idle accelerator time to AI jobs.

O-RAN WG6 O2dms Interface Specification

Frontier · AI-RAN and Open RAN · AI-RAN: shared accelerated infrastructure

Isolation between RAN and AI tenants

Hardware and software isolation so AI tenants cannot affect RAN timing or reach RAN data.

O-RAN WG11 security specifications · IETF RFC 9334 (remote attestation architecture)

Frontier · In situ sensors and instruments · RF, acoustics, cameras and radar

Event-based and neuromorphic cameras

Sensors that report changes per pixel at microsecond rates with very low power.

EMVA 1288 (reference for characterisation)

Frontier · Remote sensing and Earth observation · Tasking, ground segment and access

Optical ground stations

Laser downlink terminals that relieve radio spectrum limits, with weather-diverse site networks.

CCSDS 141.0-B (optical communications physical layer)

Frontier · Core and transport networks · Network automation and intent

Network digital twins

A live model of the network for what-if analysis before changes go live.

ITU-T Y.3090 (digital twin network)

Frontier · Data, software and interoperability · Licensing, residency and governance

Data spaces

Federated sharing where each party keeps control and usage policies travel with the data.

Eclipse Dataspace Protocol · IDSA Rulebook

Frontier · AI systems · Time-series and sensor AI

Virtual and soft sensors

Estimating quantities that are not measured directly from other sensors and models, labelled as estimates.

W3C SOSA/SSN ontology

Frontier · AI-RAN and Open RAN · Testing, integration and security

RAN digital twins

Network and radio twins used to test changes and AI models before they touch the live network.

ITU-T Y.3090 (digital twin network)

Frontier · 5G and 6G radio access networks · 6G and integrated sensing and communication

IMT-2030 framework

The ITU vision for 6G: usage scenarios, capabilities and timelines that shape the next decade of networks.

Rec. ITU-R M.2160

Frontier · 5G and 6G radio access networks · 6G and integrated sensing and communication

3GPP 6G studies

Release 20 studies defining 6G use cases, requirements and radio and system design.

3GPP TR 22.870 (6G use cases and service requirements)

Frontier · 5G and 6G radio access networks · 6G and integrated sensing and communication

Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC)

Using the radio network itself to detect and measure objects and environment alongside data service, under privacy rules.

3GPP TR 22.837 (ISAC feasibility study) · 3GPP TS 22.137 (ISAC service requirements) · 3GPP TR 23.700-14 (sensing architecture study)

Frontier · 5G and 6G radio access networks · 6G and integrated sensing and communication

AI-native air interface

Air interface components designed around learned models rather than fixed algorithms.

Rec. ITU-R M.2160 · 3GPP TR 38.843 (AI/ML for the NR air interface)

Frontier · 5G and 6G radio access networks · 6G and integrated sensing and communication

Sub-terahertz links

Links above 100 GHz for very high capacity over short distances and fixed backhaul.

IEEE 802.15.3d (252–325 GHz)

Frontier · 5G and 6G radio access networks · 6G and integrated sensing and communication

Ubiquitous terrestrial and non-terrestrial coverage

6G designed from the start to include satellites and HAPS as part of the radio access.

Rec. ITU-R M.2160 · 3GPP TR 22.870

Bring us the site.

Survey, design, deployment and operation for cities. The form names who receives your details.

Talk to usPlan a deployment

Cities, at the frontier.

Reference design, drawn to scale · drag to turn