IEEE Spectrum

Large language model (LLM) hallucinations are becoming a profitable side business for cybercriminals. They prod the AI models to answer prompts with nonexistent but plausible-looking URLs, registering the domain names that recur often. Then the criminals set up malicious websites on the fake domains. In June, the Santa Clara, Calif.–based security firm Palo Alto Networks reported that it had prom…

Weather forecasting today runs on rivers of data. But there’s almost no data available from vast stretches of the planet—open ocean, polar regions, and remote sections of the world. That’s a problem WindBorne Systems , based in Redwood Shores, Calif., aims to tackle with its long-duration weather balloons . The company’s CEO, John Dean , wrote for IEEE Spectrum last year about the AI models (call…

Today’s advanced 5G networks, and tomorrow’s 6G networks, are now moving toward an increasingly AI-centered future. This September in Madrid , the global telecommunications standards body, the 3GPP , will meet to decide how present-day 5G networks migrate to the emerging 6G standard, slated to begin rolling out by 2029 . On the docket for Madrid are important decisions that will set the direction…

Modern battlefields are bathed in radio waves for communications, radar , remote control of drones, and signal jamming to disrupt those functions. The ability to rapidly locate their source could provide considerable tactical advantage, and a new quantum sensor the size of a paper clip promises to work as an “electromagnetic compass” to determine the 3D direction of a wide-range of radio signals.…

An examination of how satellite vulnerabilities, modern wideband waveforms, and automatic link establishment are driving renewed military and government investment in HF communications. What Attendees will Learn Why HF (High Frequency) declined — and what has changed — How satellites overtook HF for global communications from the 1970s onward, and why growing awareness of satellite vulnerabilitie…

A practical educational guide to common and uncommon VHF propagation modes, covering the physics, range implications, and real-world behaviors engineers need to understand. What Attendees will Learn 1. Why “line of sight” fails as a practical VHF planning model. 2. How refraction, reflection, diffraction, and scattering deliver or destroy signals where geometry alone cannot predict.3. How troposp…

Global demand for high-capacity, low-latency wireless connectivity continues to grow, and the 6-gigahertz band of radio spectrum has emerged as a particularly vital chunk of wireless real estate. Both the cellular and Wi-Fi industries consider this contiguous block, which covers frequencies from 5,925 to 7,125 megahertz, critical. The cellular industry believes the spectrum can provide anchor cap…

5G telecommunications, according to industry hype when 5G first launched in 2019 , was going to be all about buzzy applications like mobile augmented reality and autonomous vehicles . But the surprise plot twist came when replacing home cable internet turned into 5G’s most widely adopted new application. Fixed wireless access (FWA) now serves over 14 million U.S. customers , and contributes 28 pe…

A man raises his phone as police move into a crowd. The video is shaky, loud, immediate. Within minutes, it is online. Within hours, it is everywhere. This is how accountability works now. Something happens, someone records it, and that footage can show what really happened, sometimes contradicting official accounts. It can empower citizens and create consequences for officials. But the footage’s…

The decades-old “ satellite-IoT” race , in which Internet of Things devices connect to satellites in orbit, has reached an inflection point in 2026. Satellite-IoT is growing in response to a rising need for connected devices in applications including livestock tracking , wildfire detection , global supply-chain monitoring , pipeline and grid sensing , and other industries where network connection…

The IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) ’s Research Collaboration Pitch Session initiative is proving to be a catalyst for meaningful engagement between academic researchers and industry innovators. Launched last year, the program connects promising researchers with industry leaders who can offer them funding, mentorship, and connections to bring interesting ideas closer to real-world deployment…

For 10 days last month, Artemis II astronauts sent live HD video back to Earth using experimental laser links that cost a fraction of what ground stations might normally run. The connection ran through a telescope on a hillside near Canberra, Australia , which complemented two traditional receiving telescopes in the United States. Compared with radio communications, infrared laser light packs up …

Given how integral the Internet has become to everyday tasks such as shopping, paying bills, and holding virtual meetings, it’s interesting that nearly 30 percent of the global population still has no access to it. More than 2 billion people are still offline, according to a report released in November by the International Telecommunication Union . More and more people are being connected, though…

Last month, Cisco released its State of Wireless Report , revealing Wi-Fi’s limitations for companies who are now expanding their use of AI. The report outlined a discrepancy between companies’ ambitious AI plans and their reliance on aging Wi-Fi standards from before the current AI era. Other highlights include an uptick in AI-driven cyberattacks targeting wireless networks, while AI workloads a…

A comprehensive guide to error vector magnitude (EVM), the primary metric for quantifying modulation accuracy in Wi-Fi, LTE, and 5G NR systems. What Attendees will Learn What error vector magnitude is and how it is calculated — Understand EVM as the distance between ideal and measured constellation points, learn the difference between peak and RMS normalization, and see how EVM is expressed in bo…

When Ana Inês Inácio goes to work at the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) in The Hague, she thinks about signals most people never notice: radio waves moving between satellites , sensors , and future wireless networks. The integrated circuits the research scientist designs lay the foundation for next-generation RF sensor systems critical to advancing radar technologi…

Conventional semiconductor lasers are compact and efficient—but also dim and dependent on bulky, complex optics. However, a new generation of semiconductor lasers that use photonic crystals are bright enough to melt steel and require simpler optics to transmit data. And now a startup in Scotland has for the first time used the new lasers outside the lab for data transmissions capable of carrying …

Transforming a newly discovered software vulnerability into a cyberattack used to take months. Today—as the recent headlines over Anthropic’s Project Glasswing have shown —generative AI can do the job in minutes, often for less than a dollar of cloud-computing time. But while large language models present a real cyberthreat, they also provide an opportunity to reinforce cyberdefenses. Anthropic r…

A practical guide to designing log-periodic dipole array fed parabolic reflector antennas using advanced 3D MoM simulation — from parametric modeling to electrically large structures. What Attendees will Learn How to set design requirements for LPDA-fed reflector antennas — Understand the key specifications including bandwidth ratio, gain targets, and VSWR matching constraints across the full ope…

Picture a highway with networked autonomous cars driving along it. On a serene, cloudless day, these cars need only exchange thimblefuls of data with one another. Now picture the same stretch in a sudden snow squall: The cars rapidly need to share vast amounts of essential new data about slippery roads, emergency braking, and changing conditions. These two very different scenarios involve vehicle…