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MIT Scientists Develop New Wi-Fi That's 330% Faster (msn.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the speed-racer dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from MSN: Scientists at MIT claim to have created a new wireless technology that can triple Wi-Fi data speeds while also doubling the range of the signal. Dubbed MegaMIMO 2.0, the system will shortly enter commercialization and could ease the strain on our increasingly crowded wireless networks. Multiple-input-multiple-output technology, or MIMO, helps networked devices perform better by combining multiple transmitters and receivers that work simultaneously, allowing then to send and receive more than one data signal at the same time. MIT's MegaMIMO 2.0 works by allowing several routers to work in harmony, transmitting data over the same piece of spectrum. MIT claimed that during tests, MegaMIMO 2.0 was able to increase data transfer speed of four laptops connected to the same Wi-Fi network by 330 percent. Paper co-author Rahul said the technology could also be applied to mobile phone networks to solve similar congestion issues. "In today's wireless world, you can't solve spectrum crunch by throwing more transmitters at the problem, because they will all still be interfering with one another," Ezzeldin Hamed, lead author on a paper on the topic, told MIT News. "The answer is to have all those access points work with each other simultaneously to efficiently use the available spectrum."

4 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Re:For the percentage impaired... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    4.3

  2. Re:Depends by dbraden · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes, the meanings can be different. Let's look at 100% faster: that would be the starting speed, plus another starting speed, giving you a 2x value. So 330% faster would be starting speed plus 3.3x, making it 4.3x.

    Whereas 100% "as fast" is saying the "the same speed", or 1x, and 330% "as fast" would result in 3.3x.

  3. Re:With such good Wi-fi... by EndlessNameless · · Score: 3, Informative

    I can run 10 Gbps on fiber over a distance of 40 km using 5 watts of power. I have zero interference and can run as many lines in parallel as I want. And this is with typical enterprise equipment---I assume the telco guys have better options.

    Call me when wireless can do that. Or not, as I'll probably be running 40 Gbps (or higher) by then.

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  4. Link to the paper by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here are direct links to the paper's download page and the paper itself.

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