* Should you wait for "better" access points?
In the beginning, the wireless LAN industry focused on fixing security. More recently, it has been feverishly working to ease the deployment and management of large-scale access-point installations.
Now a number of companies are also striving to improve the range and throughput of WLAN access points, largely by circumventing interference. A few cases in point emerged at the recent 802.11 Planet show in Boston, where many attendees complained that their 802.11b WLAN connections die when they use their 2.4 GHz cordless phones or someone nearby uses a microwave oven, which also operates in 802.11b’s 2.4 GHz frequency.
Vendors involved in a “Wi-Fi on Steroids” panel discussion (hosted by yours truly) said they are determined to alleviate such interference issues. These vendors included Airgo Networks, Engim, Extricom and Smart Packets – companies that all make ingredients that go into third party vendors’ APs or WLAN switches. The technologies they use include multipath signal processing, channel collocation and packet fragmentation.
Airgo Networks, for example, makes chips that use multiple-antennae signal processing to mitigate the effects of multipath (the “bouncing around” of radio signals as they encounter obstacles). Director of marketing Carl Temme said the technology enables multiple antennas to sense radio signals to better cover all areas, which will improve WLAN range and throughput rates.
He expects the technology, then, to reduce the number of APs customers will need and, as such, should “lower the cost of capacity” for which users should budget. He said the technology would be embedded in APs later this year.
Chipset-maker Engim emerged from stealth mode in April with its Wideband Spectral Processing technology, which Vice President of marketing Scott Lindsay explained enables APs to support simultaneous communications over multiple 802.11 channels and multiple 802.11 bands. He said the company is currently selling its products to AP makers and that the capabilities should be available in commercial products in the first quarter of 2004.
Next time: A look at Extricom and Smart Packets.
