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New WiFi Standards, Double the Data?
morkeleb writes "According to the New York Times (free reg. req.), just when you thought it was safe to stock your home or office the 802.11x way, another possibility springs up. From Stanford and Bell Labs comes an approach using MIMO, which 'relies on taking advantage of huge amounts of computing power to send numbers of signals from closely spaced antennas', thereby enhancing range and throughput. Looks like Intel and Nokia are interested in the technology, as well as a number of highroller venture capitalist groups."
I just bought my 802.11g card/router and now this?!? Once you buy computer parts and accesories you should just cut yourself off from the rest of the world so you don't know what better/cheaper stuff has come out. Because I seriously almost get migraine headache when I realize something out now is 1/2 the price and 4x the performance.
GAH.
Google has this article, too. No reg required.
It's not enough for Airgo to just double the data rate. Other companies are doing that.
:)
Fortunately, that's not all they're doing! As the article states, they're also greatly increasing the range and reliability as well... and they're not going to stop at just double the data rate, either
I have had the honor of working with these folks, both briefly as a consultant for Airgo and with their previous work at Clarity Wireless/Cisco. They know what they are doing, and if anyone can innovate in an otherwise full and competitive market, they can!
I'm getting to that point now too- b is good enough for most home users seeing as their internet connection is probably crap anyway. Maybe we should hear more about range than speed- that's what I have problems with.
Proving Engineers are better at Math then English....
A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,.... X
What happened to half the alphabet?
More standards! Now it makes even less sense to me and my good old cat5 cable which persistently fail to provide me with 100mbit/sec speed!
Hate me!
I just bought a wireless g router. I always get screwed. Like when they came out with the Metro after I just bought a Pinto.
...as well as a number of highroller venture capitalist groups..."
But what of the venture communists? Equal time, that is what I say. Venture capitalism is man exploiting man, and communism is the same but reversed.
MIMO, which 'relies on taking advantage of huge amounts of computing power to send numbers of signals from closely spaced antennas'
If they're close enough, you can run an ethernet cable between the two, that's even cheaper.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
This has to be the single dirtiest-sounding technology I've come across yet. I like it!
Isn't it only for short distances?
I already have the house set up with 2 airports and still get dead areas less than two rooma away from the access points.
If this is geared for shorter distances, things like ceramic tiles in the bathroom, your granite countertop, springs in your couch and the your ventilation hood on the stove will get in the way of the signal.
If this is geared for shorter distances, than 802.11, I can't see how it will be anything less than a failure.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
This is getting silly - consumers aren't even close to adopting 802.11a and b in serious numbers.
It's more important to have consistent standards that work and that everbody understands than to get additional speed that few people will need.
Is there an open/shared NYT name and password so we don't have to make up fake ones or use Google just to read the news?
Instead of speed, lets do something about the reliability of the signal and I will be muchu grateful.
Who are you? The new #2 Who is #1? You are #617565. I am not a number, I am a free man! Muhahaha.
It seems to me that digital wireless has so much room for improvement and so many possibilities for conflict that perhaps we should just freeze the standards for a while to let the technology sort itself out.
Wonder how this compares to ultrawideband technologies? Those promised better, cheaper, simpler devices. And what about directional antenna technology? That would smooth things out considerably.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
...That probably won't amount to much. I don't see any real benefits. More range and bandwith are nice, but ubiquity is more important. I'd much rather see the spread of (secure) 802.11x. Also the fact that it "relies on taking advantage of huge amounts of computing power" makes be think it'll draw to much power. 802.11 products can hurt a laptops battery, and can cripple smaller devices. I hate to be a killjoy but this doesn't seem to offer much.
The article mentions longer distances "two to six times as far as current tech"
This means 200-900 feet.. Even if you say 500 feet, that would be insane.. Imagine that + a pringle can...
Personal Website
If Goatse was waiting for a killer app in order to catch on, perhaps MIMO is it.
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/business/6
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT
PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 17 -- Airgo Networks, a heavily financed Silicon Valley start-up, plans on Monday to introduce an alternative to the popular Wi-Fi wireless data standard for connecting to the Internet, capable of doubling Wi-Fi's already high speed and extending its range. Airgo's technology is just one example, industry executives said, of the continued emergence of new companies, undercutting recent fears that wireless technology innovation is slowing and is in danger of being dominated by a few large established concerns. "Just as the revolution starts to happen, some people are saying that it's over," said Craig Mathias, president of the Farpoint Group, a industry consulting firm in Ashland, Mass. "Clearly, we are in the early days of wireless data." Airgo's technology, known as multiple-in, multiple-out, or MIMO, relies on taking advantage of huge amounts of computing power to send numbers of signals from closely spaced antennas. By doing so, Airgo is able to squeeze in and out more data than conventional wireless data arrangements. But Airgo faces a big challenge in winning broad support for an approach that is not compatible with the existing Wi-Fi standards. The company said it hopes to create markets by seeking out consumer wireless equipment companies serving local area networks, hoping that in a hotly contested marketplace, a higher-speed, greater-range option will soon prove advantageous, even if it is not compatible with existing software. On Monday, Airgo will announce a chip set that extends the speed at which data can be delivered to a computer by wireless radio signal, to as much as 108 megabits a second. Current Wi-Fi standards are capable of data speeds ranging from 11 to 54 megabits a second. The company says the signal can be sent farther as well -- from two to six times as far as current Wi-Fi technology, which typically reaches only about 100 to 150 feet from a transmitter connected to the Internet. "We've created a new currency that is better range and better performance," Airgo's chief executive, Greg Raleigh, said. The industry is working to define a new generation of Wi-Fi that could take data rates to 200 megabits or even higher, and Mr. Raleigh said Airgo would propose its technology for the standard. In addition to computer communications applications, Mr. Raleigh said he expects new consumer uses for very high speed wireless, like data connections for HDTV television sets and other home appliances. Michael Kleeman, chief technology officer of Cometa Networks of San Francisco, which is installing Wi-Fi access points nationally, said: "People are beginning to realize that it is important to focus on the radio frequency side of the equation. Now, people are paying attention to antennas." Airgo's MIMO technology was pioneered at Stanford University, Bell Laboratories and other research centers. It is an example of the shift to what are known as smart antennas, an approach that is being widely adopted in the wireless networking world. Other companies are also striving to develop antenna technologies to improve wireless data service. These include Vivato, a wireless technology company that is using antennas to direct beams, and the leading chip maker Intel, which has acquired the intellectual property of another Silicon Valley MIMO company, IoSpan Wireless. Airgo, whose founders started and then sold Clarity Wireless to Cisco Systems in 1998, has so far raised a total of $52 million in venture capital from OVP Venture Partners, Sevin Rosen Funds, Nokia Venture Partners and Accel Partners.
This comment was randomly generated by a school of piranhas chewing on the PCB of a Microsoft Natural Keyboard.
While I certainly applaud the efforts of anyone working on increasing data rates and ranges of wireless communications, I also hope that some kind of compatibility standard emerges. I would hate to see wireless broadband go down the same road as mobile phones in the United States. I think everyone can identify with the frustration of several overlapping, redundant, and incompatible types of mobile networks.
Wake me when they invent something that doesnt require pringles cans and duct tape and hours of bullshit to be able to see my network from my driveway, mmkay?
I don't care! At those rates and ranges, if they can provide equipment at consumer market prices and linux drivers I'll buy their product.
They may be a logical jump for "private" networks still on 802.11b. Skip G all together, which last I knew had little to know Linux support.
Not only faster, but my whole house should be covered. Now w/ 11b, I have dead spots in the far reaches of my not so large house. 100m/b to boot!
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
Last time this happened, I'd just installed BSD when Bell Labs announced their work on Plan 9. Boy, was I left in the dust on that one!
Somebody get that guy an ambulance!
I suspect Airgo will have a tough time of it. 802.11b is really, really cheap and fairly ubiquitous. g is backward-compatible, and no consumer broadband connection can take advantage.
I suspect that the killer app for a standard faster than 802.11g will be a wifi DVR content server, and I don't think you'll see those rolled out in any significant way until Hollywood decides how they're going to keep earning money in an age when any 14 year old can steal their IP with little difficulty. I'd say 2-3 years at the earliest for a clear successor to g to emerge.
You could use just one 5-port switch and plug one access point for each standard into it!!!
For god's sake! RTFA
i said eom dammit
The new wi-fi "standard" can ben ten times as fast as "b" or "g" and I still wouldn't regret buying my Airport Extreme this year. I've got PCs and Macs and a printer all talking to each other quickly and wirelessly and I didn't have to upgrade a single thing I wasn't ready to upgrade (in terms of money or in terms of time--I can't count how many network cards--wireless and wired--caused system conflicts on my PCs and it took forever to get it working right. I'm not changing anything I don't have to until I have to). I got a performance boost (a more solid signal) without touching the network cards themselves.
Alex.
Great, another company that says "hey we have a better way to do it and it is using our PROPRIETARY non-open standard." This one is going to die on the vine guys, I hope. I am not sure who keeps doing this, but non-open standards are in today's world not going to fly (and there are tons of examples most recently Rambus). Wait for 802.11Z to replace this... :)
BobTheLawyer writes:
> This is getting silly - consumers aren't even close to adopting 802.11a and b in serious numbers.
If you zoom in far enough ssid and bssid will be displayed: Wigle map of the US and 802.11 access points.
Or right-click on the add and select "Block Images From This Server". Or, you could pay for a subscription. Or, it wouldn't kill you to see the ads.
If they wanted to, they could easily cut off anyone who doesn't load the ads. So, play nice.
Do you know what's soo great about standards?
There's SOOOO many to choose from !
(POOO! TANG!) Thank you thank you. I'll be here all night.
From the website... Full support for 802.11b/a/g standards and additional standards allows for an unprecedented level of backwards compatibility and performance at all data rates. Seems to me it is. Anyone know for sure?
The sending of this message pretty much inconveniences everyone involved.
i think extending the range is the critical bit that would make or break many business plans, compared to the less important higher data speeds .. The leverage that you get from the increased data speeds is not as much as it is in the gains of distance.
2 to six times increased range in radius means, 4 to 36 times in area coverage .. which is big enough to make currently dead plans alive and healthy. If I could get these sort of gains i.e. 4 to 36, in the potential of revenue generation with the same cost of initial deployment, I think the technology will be of very much interest to me ... just need to go back and crunch my numbers again
To see a world in a grain of sand, and then to step back and see the beach where the sand lies
Use the following link to generate random registrations ...
http://www.majcher.com/nytview.html
To see a world in a grain of sand, and then to step back and see the beach where the sand lies
Maybe we could *all* be antennae! Running around like Rolie Polie Olie, satisfied in the knowledge that you have enabled your neighbor to frag someone at blazing speeds.
The x is being used as a wild card. It probably would have made more sense to this audience if they used a "*" instead.
Considering how x is constantly used as a variable (haha, constant variable, I love that idea) in mathematical situations, I guess you're half right.
Matt Fahrenbacher
James Tiberius Kirk: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim."
sorry, ie (the browsing platform of 90% of slashdotters) doesn't do "block images from this server". wish it did.
what is the incentive for me to get a subscription? so i can get first post? not interested, thanks.
as for cutting off people who don't view ads: bring it on, motherfuckers!
"New York Times has gotten somewhat wise to the shenanigans going on here, and block registration requests coming from majcher.com."
According to this Infoworld article, Airgo Networks is working on enhancing 802.11a. This is not a new version of 802.11.
--- I'm Green Hornet's sidekick not Inspector Clouseau's!
Looks like Intel and Nokia are interested in the technology, as well as a number of highroller venture capitalist groups.
As it stands now with wireless products being dirt cheap and easy to deploy, companies have to come up with something that they can cash in on. Will this technology have a real world advantage to the average Joe over existing wireless solutions? Sure but at what cost?
higher-speed, greater-range option will soon prove advantageous, even if it is not compatible with existing software.
Spoken like a product and service that any venture capitalist would love.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
Isn't this just a dynamic software-controlled mini phased array system that can dynamically reconfigure as a very directional antenna (and if done right, you can even take advantage of multi-path signals too), similar to what Navini uses in their system?
So, to make this work, what you need to do is "Save As..." this page to your local machine, and just run it from there. Last I checked, that works fine.
To see a world in a grain of sand, and then to step back and see the beach where the sand lies
You get two, two, two WiFis in one.
Maybe we should hear more about range than speed- that's what I have problems with.
Did you RTFA? Of course not, since you would have seen that in addition to double the speeds, this new standard give two to six times the range of WiFi.
I wonder if they'll figure out a way to make a (drumroll, please) P-R-O-F-I-T with any of the companies they're likely to bankroll.
Companies built around a single technology in search of a profitable business model. It's gonna be just like back in the old days of '99!
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Wow, ground breaking! Will you be patending data aggregation now?
[the Airgo chip] extends the speed at which data can be delivered [...] to as much as 108 megabits a second. Current Wi-Fi standards are capable of data speeds ranging from 11 to 54 megabits a second
54 * 2?
how do they propose doing that with power limits already heavily regulated ? omni directional hi-gain antennas are incredibly difficult beasts especially when you get past 1 wavelength (as apposed to 1/4, 5/8th etc) sure they could go the yagi route but then its directional torch like beams which don't really help for walkabouts
Then we move onto the interference aspect, power levels and emitted radiation are heavily regulated for a reason (fire,medics,military,rds,taxis,radio,ham,tv) who pay heavy fees to use the band, will the FCC/DTI come down hard on this or relax the regs?, there is also tremendous scope for abuse if thats the case (think starbuks paid wifi jamming/overiding mr nice citizens free community wifi)
what about differing countries regulations of airwaves frequencies (some countries the band that wifi is on is regulated and licensed (military/satellite)) is there a worldwide agreement that wifi bands are unlicensed ?
this rush into wireless has plenty of legal complications (just like CB/walkie talkies) (ie: Italy can have 1000 watt+ cb's while the UK can only have 4W) all this talk of standards just seems a bit premature, anyone clear this up for us ?
There doesn't seem to be much in the way of details. My hunch is that this is a diversity antenna. I'm guessing that it does bit by bit comparison from 2 or more frontends.
this probably won't affect emergency vehicle radio bands.
jon
-- http://www.cerastes.org
yeah, make sure to mod down the AC dumbfuck
This I Gotta See.
Whoops, guess not. That rocks then.
Don't say 802.11x when you mean 802.11*. 802.11x is a wireless security standard. As far as I can tell, this article has nothing to do with 802.11x. I see this error a lot.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Increased range is great, but if you are covering 36 times the area somewhere like a collage campus I sure hope you can increase the total datarate the device can handle by more than 2x, cuz by the numbers that ends up being something like 15 times slower.
[Slightly off topic]
Anyone out there have any experiences (good or bad) with using a PCI or USB WiFi adapter with linux? My AP is 802.11b, so I don't care about cards any faster than that... just need to know if I can get wireless on my Linux based PVR running mythtv.
no comment
MIMO uses multiple antennas spaced more than half a wavelength apart on both transmitter and receiver. By doing so the signal recevied at each antenna experiences independent multipath fading. By using this information it is possible to send an independent data stream to each antenna on the same channel, i.e N antennas = N-times the datarate.
This is all done by linear algebra and matrix inversions which is probably the origin of the "taking advantage of huge amounts of computing power" claims in the articel. For more info check out this paper
If you're getting the extra distance and speed from the special MIMO antenna set, why would you want to replace it with a pringles can? Or, if you're going to use a pringles can, why are you buying the more expensive tech?
US Robotics is claiming 100mbit speeds with their 802.11g products. Which is 5 times 802.11g's rated speed of 20mbit.
Anybody done any benchmarks with one of these networks? I doubt you'd ever get 100mbit, but I'd consider it a success if it pulled 40-50mbit.
What Cringely will do with a couple of pringle can yagis and this technology - he could probably reach Chicago!
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
In 3 square miles north of my house, I've nailed 384 access points. 35 of them had WEP enabled. The rest... SSID "linksys" or "default".
It gets scarey when you find that ratio in a commercial / shopping district... and there's nothing you can do, because if you warn people why they shouldn't use their credit cards there, you go to jail.
To get longer range you can either crank up the power or use a better receiver, which is what AirGo is doing.
I have the Linksys WPC55AG notebook adapter and I'm using the beta driver for Atheros based devices with Linux kernel 2.4.20 connecting to my Linksys WRT54G 802.11g access point at 54Mb/s. I'm quite happy with it. You might want to take a look at the state of MadWifi development.
"Don't say 802.11x when you mean 802.11*. 802.11x is a wireless security standard. As far as I can tell, this article has nothing to do with 802.11x. I see this error a lot."
With entirely different standards that are really the same to the 1000th place, what can we look forward to in the future?
Probably we'll get replacements for DVD's with a name like Omnidisk. The read/write standards will duke it out: "Omni-" vs "Omni Minus"
Presumably this technology "triangulates" (or quadradulates, pentagonates, what have you) upon its target. An intelligent antenna array.
Presumably the range advantage would be much less when using directional antennas? The antenna's are already directional, right, so there's less to make up for with fancy sync'ing software tricks.
Myren
BoooooooooooooooooorrrrIIIIIIInnnnnng!!
SO BORING! You are all very boring people.
Talk about something else!!!
SURGEON GENERAL SUPPORTS NEW WIRE TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK - Over the past century, the health of humans has been
increasingly endagered by the radiation in the evironment. Ever since
we have had networks, we have had radiation, and in ever
increasing amounts.
Since the high amount of radiation in our environment has been
identified as the primary cause of death in modern society (radiation
is the cause of all cancers and mutations which are responsible for
41% of all deaths today), more and more voices are taking up the
call to do something to reduce the amount of radiation.
One novel suggestion has been to replace the radio transmitters
connecting devices with wires-- a technology which was once
prevalent according to technology historians. "100 years ago not
all information was radiated, the way it is today" explains tech
historian Mono Rudy of the New York Museum of Technology,
"In fact large quantities of inormation was transmitted using wire
technology resulting in much lower amounts of radiation to the
consumer. One wire, or something called a fibre-optic cable,
could reduce radiation exposure by many body-burdens, especially
where large distances are concerned."
The Surgeon General has lent his support to investigating this
new/old technology, declaring that "where the health of this
nation's citizens is concerned, we must make every effort to
adapt technology to our needs."
--30--
802.16a, or metropolitan networks would seem to be the future of wireless anyway. So this seems only like a stopgap kind of measure, much like DLinks proprietary 802.11b boosted speeds. Anyone who buys into proprietary solutions like this deserves what they get....
Yeah, thats why I used to buy SCSI disks: cuz they had longer cables. I like being as far away from the motherboard as possible. I really didn't care much for the extra speed, it just threw off the timings on the cutscenes in my games. But the range isn't there for me yet. I think ima gonna wait till it is 50 miles or so. Yeah, and using TDMA to parcel out data snipets ...
CONNECTION LOST, PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER, SJ DS1.
Yeah... I know I would have upgraded from telephone lines to Fibre just for the increased distance, even if the speed stayed the same.
</SARCASM>
Seriously though... there are already plenty of wireless technologies that have incredible ranges, so no business is going to sink or swim based on how 802.11 works out. Wireless (microwave) cable TV has been around for a long long time, and we all know how much bandwidth TV signals take.
The only place 802.11 makes any difference at all is where your business couldn't afford to either a) buy the equipment for better technologies, or b) license the spectrum.
Other than that, 802.11 doesn't have anything going for it. Obviously, for consumers' own personal networks, it works out well, since they don't want to pay licensing fees, or get licened.
Personally, I want some wireless computer technology to take modern wireless methods and use them on the CB-frequencies. They are public/non-commercial, low frequency, and have a range of dozens and dozens of miles. I wouldn't be surprised if the first PCMCIA cards came out with a range of 5 miles.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant