* Atheros reference designs aim to boost bandwidth and coverage
Chipmaker Atheros has introduced reference designs for a hybrid technology that blends Wi-Fi, powerline carrier and Ethernet communications. The main intent is to allow consumers to receive high-definition TV signals anywhere throughout their homes without any setup fuss or muss.
Evolution of Ethernet
The problem behind the solution is extending HDTV signals everywhere. Ethernet jacks aren’t always available in all the places people might want to be. And Wi-Fi sometimes doesn’t quite reach the kid on the patio with his iPad. So to fill the gaps — or to add capacity to the home multimedia network — Atheros’ idea is to extend broadband to everywhere there are electrical cabling and outlets in the house.
At the head end, you install a hybrid router. The router supports Wi-Fi and Ethernet just like today’s wireless home routers do, but it also speaks the HomePlugAV powerline protocol. That, in effect, turns the electrical cabling in your walls into an optional network delivery system.
This can be handy if the connection types on the devices you want to use on the network differ from room to room. For example, you might plug a PLC/Ethernet adapter into your AC outlet if your flat-screen TV has an Ethernet jack. The HDTV (and other) signals travel from the Internet to your router, across your electrical cabling, and then the last few feet over an Ethernet cable.
Or, if your device is Wi-Fi-enabled (like a tablet or laptop or smartphone), you can plug in a PLC extender that operates kind of like an in-home distributed antenna system (DAS). You plug little Wi-Fi antennas into electrical sockets like you would a Glade PlugIn air freshener and suddenly your traffic is distributed across your electric “cabling plant” and across Wi-Fi the last few feet.
Atheros is supplying reference designs for all three of these products — hybrid router, PLC/Ethernet adapter and PLC/Wi-Fi extender — that home networking equipment makers can use to build products. Dan Rabinovitsj, VP and general manager in Atheros’ networking business unit, expects resulting OEM products to be forthcoming.
“We [anticipate consumer OEMs] launching soon after we launch the product. Excitement is pretty high,” he says.
