LAS VEGAS - Beyond the high-end home theater speaker systems, paper shredders, advanced sewing machines and electrical adapters, the Consumer Electronics Show 2005 last week was, at least in part, about taking networks to the next level. CES is a gigantic laboratory of 2,400 vendors trying to figure out what you can do with a world of digitized information.
The keynote speech by Microsoft Chief Software Architect Bill Gates unintentionally revealed a theme familiar to network executives: Experiments don't always work. In a mock episode of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," Gates talked about his vision of a "digital life style." Interviewed by O'Brien, Gates said Microsoft can enable that lifestyle with products available today, such as Windows XP Media Center Edition, Portable Media Centers, MSN online services and the Xbox game console.
But minutes later, a Windows XP Media Center Edition PC repeatedly failed while showing a slide show of digital photos of O'Brien and Gates out for a night on the town.
But that didn't stop other CES vendors from demonstrating an array of network and client technologies.
Some of the most advanced wireless network technologies were on display, including multiple input multiple output (MIMO) and ultrawideband (UWB). MIMO is the basis of the next IEEE WLAN standard, 802.11n, which will have a minimum throughput of more than 100M bit/sec. UWB will appear later this year in products that create a wireless USB connection among a plethora of devices such as PCs, flat plasma screens and media servers.
Samsung Electronics and Athena Semiconductor demonstrated the effects of their just-announced jointly developed MIMO product: a single integrated circuit that incorporates three transceivers. The demonstration transmitted two high-definition TV streams and one standard-definition videostream over a link that maintained a consistent throughput of more than 50M bit/sec.
Cisco's Linksys announced a wireless 802.11g router and client PC card based on Airgo's MIMO chipset. The chipset package uses two radios, three antennas and Airgo's algorithms to boost 802.11g range by up to three times, and throughput by up to eight times.
A conventional 802.11g access point has a data rate of 54M bit/sec but useable throughput in the range of 18M to 24M bit/sec. It reaches about 300 feet, although throughput drops as distance increases.
Nearly two dozen companies showcased the rapidly evolving UWB wireless technology. UWB transmits data at very low power, at an optimal range of about 12 feet, with throughput of about 400M bit/sec. One of the first uses likely will be to replace USB cables with a UWB wireless connection between PCs and peripheral devices. Another use is a wireless version of the FireWire 1394 standard, which defines a method for high-speed streaming video applications.
The Multiband OFDM Alliance - which includes chip makers, software developers and a pack of name-brand consumer electronics vendors - is promoting one version of UWB. Members say they expect products out by year-end, initially for wireless USB. Freescale Semiconductor, a Motorola spinoff, is promoting a rival UWB version. The two groups are fighting it out in the IEEE 802.15.3a task group, but both plan to go ahead with products whether or not the IEEE standard advances.
Start-up Video54 Technologies unveiled a wireless beam-steering technology, dubbed BeamFlex, that uses software and multiple antenna arrays to direct standard 802.11 wireless LAN (WLAN) signals around radio interference and physical barriers.
The company, headed by Selina Lo, former marketing executive at Alteon WebSystems and Nortel, says that BeamFlex creates a threefold boost in WLAN throughput and range. The technology is intended to optimize WLAN signals for streaming video. WLAN vendor Netgear is building BeamFlex into its RangeMax line of WLAN products.
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