Netgear announced the Nighthawk X4S ($399), a DOCSIS 3.1 cable modem-router available at retail. The router supports the fastest internet speed tier offered by Comcast Xfinity and other ISPs, said the company. Its beamforming-plus technology is said to boost speed, reliability and range for Wi-Fi mobile devices operating in the 2.4-5GHz bands. The Nighthawk has four active antennas with a patent-pending design said to enhance weak signals and reduce interference, along with two SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports.

Renesas Electronics announced a USB power delivery controller that supports USB Power Delivery (PD) Rev 3.0 and USB Type-C Authentication Rev 1.0, it said Tuesday. The R9J02G012 is the first single-package solution that supports both, said the company, citing growing demand for fast-charging mobile devices and the need for a “safe ecosystem” of USB PD-compatible products. The R9J02G012 supports specifications standardized by the USB Implementers Forum for unified and interoperable technologies covering simpler cable connections; higher power delivery with safety and upgradeability features; and device-to-device authentication, Renesas said.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai didn't want to close the set-top docket in its entirety because the commission had “teed up certain issues that were not related to my predecessor's flawed set-top box scheme,” he said in an April 13 reply to House Commerce Committee Republicans, released Thursday. “In particular, the FCC sought comment on eliminating the current CabIeCARD reporting requirement, and I do not want to impede our ability to take appropriate action with respect to this regulation in an efficient manner by immediately closing this docket.” Doing so would be "premature," he said. He mentioned removing former Chairman Tom Wheeler’s set-top box order: “As such, it is no longer pending before the Commission, and I do not intend to resurrect it.” The lawmakers wrote Pai in January.

Rand McNally launched a Bluetooth tracker called Highlight that helps consumers keep track of personal items. The 1-inch diameter disks -- $20 for a two-pack -- stick to items such as keys, wallets, laptop PCs and TV remotes to help consumers locate them when they’re misplaced, said an announcement. Personal items are "highlighted" once the disks are attached with an adhesive pad or lanyard and the Highlight app has been downloaded on an Android or iOS smartphone. Owners can then locate the items via app within Bluetooth range. In reverse mode, pressing a button on the Highlight disk triggers a phone to emit a sound even when it’s in silent mode, said the company. When the disk leaves Bluetooth range, the app notifies the owner. When outside of range, Highlight can use a community network to help locate misplaced belongings, it said.

Valens used the Integrated Systems Europe show in Amsterdam to announce a reference design for HDBaseT transmission of 18 Gbps HDMI 2.0, including 4K 60 4:4:4. The design uses Lattice Semiconductor’s video connectivity technology to enable Ultra HD video transmission using visually lossless compression, while limiting latency to a few microseconds, said Valens in a Tuesday announcement from ISE. It combines Valens' Colligo chipset and Lattice’s low-power HDMI 2.0 transmitter and HDMI 2.0 receiver to create what Valens calls a turnkey reference design to enable long-range transmission of 4K 60Hz HDMI 4:4:4 and HDR-enabled content. Gabi Shriki, head of Valens’ AV business line, called it a precursor to the future HDMI 2.1 spec, which will use “visually lossless” compression to support higher format resolutions. Also at ISE, the HDBaseT Alliance and contributor member UL announced a certification program for Power over HDBaseT (PoH) cables. The program evaluates the ability of a cable to carry DC power of up to 100 watts over the four pairs of the cable, per the PoH standard, and to maintain HDBaseT data transmission performance, the groups said. The PoH standard is based on the IEEE 802.3at standard (power over Ethernet -- PoE), with the necessary modifications to enable safe delivery, they said.

Amtrak asked the FCC to change the rules under which its Wi-Fi network operates so it can offer more robust service along its key Northeast Corridor (NEC). To keep up with customer demands, Amtrak is building a private trackside network along the NEC providing dedicated capacity in the UNII-3 band for Amtrak's Wi-Fi and other broadband-related services, Amtrak told the FCC in a petition. The network could achieve download speeds “measureable in hundreds of megabits per second,” but only if it can use the 5.1 GHz U-NII-1 band in addition to the spectrum it's using, the 5.725-5.825 GHz U-NII-3 band, Amtrak said. “The UNII-1 band could provide Amtrak with a second 80 MHz channel that takes advantage of the IEEE 802.11ac standard and that also assures consistency of coverage in a cost efficient manner,” the railroad said. But under FCC rules non-fixed operations in the UNII-1 band are limited to an output power of 250 mW with antenna gain up to 6 dBi. “Were Amtrak to operate at this power level, it would have to construct three times as many trackside stations to achieve the coverage it already achieves in the 5.8 GHz band,” Amtrak said. “This would dramatically increase Amtrak's capital costs, delay network deployment and otherwise undermine the business case for Amtrak's” network. Amtrak asks instead that it be allowed to operate in both bands under the same technical specifications. The requested waiver “poses no meaningful risk of aggregate interference to Globalstar's satellites in U-NII-1 band,” Amtrak told the FCC. “Even without the requested waiver, Amtrak estimates that it will need to construct less than 800 trackside stations to cover the entire NEC, which is de minimis when compared with, for example, the thousands of outdoor Wi-Fi access points that are or will be deployed in the U-NII-1 and U-NII-3 bands across the entire country.” Globalstar didn't comment.

The NFC Forum announced availability of one candidate specification and three adopted technical specs that will enable communication with a broader range of devices and tags, it said in a Monday announcement. NFC Controller Interface (NCI) spec version 2.0, published as a candidate spec in June 2015, is now adopted after comments from stakeholders. Additions enable more flexibility for near-field communications devices with multiple secure elements, the option for NFC controllers to emulate NFV Forum tags autonomously, and a high-level radio-frequency interface allowing IoT devices to support communication with NFC Forum tags, it said. NFC Activity Technical Specification Version 2.0 defines the building blocks (activities) to set up the RF protocol for different roles inside an NFC device. NFC Digital Protocol Technical Specification Version 2.0 defines the digital part of the RF protocol used by NFC devices.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group officially adopted Bluetooth 5 as the latest version of the Bluetooth core specification this week, setting a path for longer range, faster speed and broader broadcast capabilities (see 1610130054). Whole-home and building coverage is a major upgrade in the latest Bluetooth spec, said a Bluetooth SIG announcement. Longer range provides whole home and building coverage for more reliable connections, it said, and higher speed enables more responsive, high-performance devices. Increased broadcast message size increases the data sent for improved and more “context relevant” solutions, it said. Bluetooth 5 includes updates that help reduce the potential for interference with other wireless technologies, said the SIG. Of the 48 billion internet-enabled devices expected to be installed by 2021, a third will include Bluetooth, it said, citing ABI Research data.

Ahead of the expected release of Bluetooth 5 next year, ABI Research forecast Monday that Bluetooth Smart and Smart Ready devices will top 5 billion shipments by 2021, fueled by technical enhancements that open new opportunities, use cases and device types. Key IoT growth areas will include the smart home, smart lighting, beacons and wearables, said an ABI report. Bluetooth is becoming more attractive for low-power applications, said analyst Andrew Zignani. The technology still faces stiff competition from other standards, but mesh networking will enable new opportunities in the smart home, building automation, and emerging IoT markets, due to robustness, low latency, scalability, low power consumption and “strong security,” said Zignani. The imminent standardization of mesh networking will take device capabilities to a next level, said ABI. Bluetooth-enabled smart lights will be able to control lighting across an entire smart home or smart building from a single gateway or controlling device, such as a smartphone, it said. “This puts Bluetooth on a more even playing field with other mesh networking technologies, such as Z-Wave or 802.15.4-based ZigBee and Thread.” Beacons represent “an enormous opportunity” for Bluetooth through personal tracking tags, retail, and advertising, ABI said, with Bluetooth shipments of beacons projected to grow by a compound annual rate of 133 percent between now and 2021. Increased broadcast messaging capacity in Bluetooth 5 will help drive the markets, “as beacons will be able to provide much higher quality content and richer contextual information than ever before.” Apple’s removal of the headphone jack from the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will help drive adoption of Bluetooth wireless headsets, headphones, and still emerging hearables, said the research firm. Mobile accessories are projected to account for 13 percent of Bluetooth device shipments in 2021, while Bluetooth will continue to be important in audio, said ABI. Upcoming speed and bandwidth enhancements with Bluetooth 5 will build on audio enhancements delivered by Qualcomm’s aptX HD and Sony’s LDAC for music streaming, it said.

The Thread Group is looking to expand beyond the smart home and into commercial building and professional sectors via extensions to the existing specification for its IPv6 protocol, it said in a Wednesday news release. The extensions will address use cases including enterprise security and commissioning options and enabling and managing Thread subnets, it said. Thread is built on open standards for low-power 802.15.4 mesh networks that can connect hundreds of devices to each other and directly to the cloud, said the group.