Why is it difficult?

Many different standards have been developed for wireless technology for different applications. For instance, 4G or 5G network provides a long-range cellular mobile connection, while WiFi provides a short-range indoor connection. Moreover, several other devices such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc., are also proposed for low-power internet-of-thing applications. Today, most wireless-capable devices such as our cell phones implement the hardware and firmware for all of these standards. Ensuring such compatibility requires a complex cell phone design with multiple antennas and other RF components, which increases the cost and complexity of the technology integration. This brings us a challenge: can we design a transceiver that understands most standards with a simple and unified hardware design?

What is the impact?

Having a hardware design that implements multiple standards on the same platform could lead to a simple and cost-effective implementation of modern wireless technology. The cell-phones could become cheaper and light-weight while supporting all the wireless standards. This could lead to scalable and future-proof solutions for many more wireless technologies that would be invented in the future.