Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Yes, even thermal background noise (the noise level that exists even in complete absence of RF) would be expected to be above -140dBm. It scales with channel size and temperature.

As near as I can tell, the smallest subcarrier 5G can use is 15kHz, the thermal noise floor for a 15kHz channel at room temp (300K) would be -132 dBm.

My guess is whatever chip doing the measurement simply couldn't measure that low accurately, or it reports "nothing detected" as -140 dBm.



GPS receivers can go down to around -160dBm, but that's a very low bitrate signal. Nonetheless it is possible to receive such signals via CDMA techniques.


Reminds me of "The Hunt For Red October" and the sonar consoles "magma displacement" reportings...




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: