Multiradio

Multiradio is a term used to describe systems, devices, or networks that incorporate more than one radio transceiver, operating across different frequency bands, standards, or communication protocols. The goal is to enable simultaneous or coordinated use of multiple radio links to increase capacity, improve reliability, or support diverse applications.

In consumer electronics, typical multiradio setups include smartphones and tablets that integrate cellular modems, Wi‑Fi radios, Bluetooth, and sometimes NFC or GPS, as well as home routers that combine Wi‑Fi with Zigbee or Bluetooth for smart home ecosystems. In automotive and industrial contexts, multiradio configurations may combine cellular connectivity with dedicated short-range radios for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications, Wi‑Fi for in-vehicle hotspots, and low-power wide-area networks for sensors.

In telecommunications and networking, multiradio platforms are used to perform carrier aggregation, radio access network offloading, and network reliability through diversity, as well as to support multi-operator or multi-technology access. Software-defined radio and virtualized network equipment often manage multiple RF frontends to adapt to changing spectrum availability.

Advantages include higher throughput through parallel links, improved coverage via diverse paths, and resilience to a single-radio failure. Challenges involve increased hardware complexity, higher power consumption, RF isolation and coexistence between radios, thermal constraints, and regulatory compliance for multiple bands and technologies.

See also: carrier aggregation, software-defined radio, multi-technology wireless, Internet of Things, converged access networks.