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| Wireless networking is about to get a whole lot faster. While it may only seem not long ago since the last super speed upgrade in Wi-Fi networking technology--the move from 10-megabit 802.11b to 54-megabit 802.11g--the people at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers are at it again. They're already cooking up a new standard they intend to call 802.11n, which will push the transmission speeds to between 100 and 150 megabits per second. And though the standard isn't yet fully ready companies are already starting to bring products to market that use what some expect to be the basic technology underpinning the shift. Belkin Corp., using designs from a Silicon Valley startup called Airgo Networks, are the first to do it. |
| Belkin's "pre-N" wireless router : |
Belkin unveiled a preview for what it calls the first "pre-N" wireless router and companion notebook network card. (Pre-N means that it's being released before the 802.11n standard has been ratified ;) Belkin says the routers have four times the coverage area and four times the speed when compared to gear running on the 802.11g standard. They do this through a combination of smart antennas, which have been used to improve performance in Wi-Fi networks in the past, and Airgo True MIMO technology, which hasn't.
MIMO (pronounced MY-moh) stands for multiple input/multiple output and uses multiple antennas to break a single fast signal into several slower signals at the same time. The slower signals are sent using a different antenna using the same frequency channel. The receiver then reassembles the signals using complex mathematical algorithms to sort out the jumbled radio waves so that they can be read easily. The result: clear, unbroken wireless Internet access over a large area, and fast as all get-out.
From the 16th-floor, penthouse suite of Manhattan's Royalton Hotel, a Belkin company representative streamed the "Spiderman 2" trailer using a Dell laptop to the bustling, sun-drenched, ground-floor plaza outside the hotel. The signal was transmitted hundreds of feet through the window to the router in the dining area, then to a flat-screen Panasonic LED television, without a break in the action. In another demonstration, the Belkin router and network card were put to the test directly against Netgear’s 802.11g products. When the laptop was moved into the mirrored, chrome-filled bathroom, two rooms away from the access point, the stream from the Netgear network card broke easily, while the Belkin Wi-Fi system kept playing.
Ixia's IxChariot network performance evaluator also showed that the Belkin system had greater throughput throughout the suite, and the difference only grew as the laptops were moved farther from the access point. Though both signals were degraded in the far reaches of the suite, the Belkin system still performed reliably enough to watch the movie. This all happened within range of as many as 124 other Wi-Fi networks found in the vicinity of the hotel. During the demo the laptop detected several nearby networks, including Verizon hot spots, as well as several networks using gear from Cisco's Linksys subsidiary. While it's hard to measure range accurately due to interference and other factors, the company says four times better performance is a conservative estimate. Company-sponsored, third-party validation from The Tolly Group showed that throughput was actually six times better, and the coverage area was eight times larger than 802.11g broadband routers from D-Link, Netgear, Linksys, Belkin and US Robotics. |
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