TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: New Version of Wi-Fi Expands Both Range And Speed of Networks

New Version of Wi-Fi Expands Both Range And Speed of Networks

Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)
Fri, 7 Jan 2005 23:06:20 -0500

New Version of Wi-Fi Expands Both Range And Speed of Networks

By WALTER S. MOSSBERG

As Wi-Fi has grown more popular, users of the wireless networks have
yearned for one improvement above all: better range. Wi-Fi base
stations can typically cover all of a small apartment or house. But in
many larger homes, there are dead spots.

Instead of trying to solve the range issue, the computer and
networking industries initially focused on increasing Wi-Fi speed.

This year, however, coverage problems will finally be addressed.
Several makers of Wi-Fi gear are expected to offer wireless routers --
base-station transmitters -- and matching add-on cards for laptops
that sharply increase range and speed simultaneously. These products
are based on a new technology called MIMO from Silicon Valley chip
maker Airgo Networks.

MIMO -- which stands for Multiple Input, Multiple Output -- is likely
to be the basis for the next major flavor of Wi-Fi, now under
development, which goes by the technical name 802.11n. It's intended
to replace the most common flavors used in homes today, which
engineers call 802.11b and 802.11g. But MIMO is so good that makers
are rushing it into the market even before the new standard is
complete.

http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20050106.html

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