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There are an increasing number of wireless networking products becoming available on the market today. Unfortunately they all suffer from problems associated with operating in the same allocated frequency space, the narrow 2.4 GHz ISM band. As a result, there are a number of bandwidth, compatibility and interference issues that degrade performance and their adoption in the market.
Why is bandwidth so important?
Bandwidth defines the speed at which data can be transferred between devices. This directly impacts the individual user as additional users share a wireless network. As the number of users increase, the demand on the bandwidth also increases, and the performance degrades. More bandwidth can therefore support more users reliably, which is important for the enterprise and office environments. Also, today's rich media applications, such as streaming audio and video, take up a considerable portion of the available bandwidth. In addition to slower access times, the user could experience reduced data integrity or be dropped all together. Higher bandwidth ensures increased quality for rich media and provides a robust solution to these concerns.
What is the coexistence problem?
The allocated 2.4GHz spectrum is narrow and must be shared not only with other wireless networking devices, but also with microwave ovens and many other ISM devices. It can be a very crowded space that is prone to interference. As the population of these 2.4GHz devices increases, the user can expect to experience a degradation of system performance, reduction in available bandwidth and loss of data integrity.
What is ANADIGICS' response to these issues?
ANADIGICS is focusing its efforts to capitalize on the available spectrum in the 5 GHz band. There are two current standards that are operating in this area, the IEEE generated 802.11a and the ETSI backed HiperLAN2. Both deliver data rates at 54 Mbps and at 5 GHz provide as much as three times the space of the 2.4 GHz band. In addition, the spectrum is free from the interference that plagues the 2.4 GHz band and the data rates now approach that of wired systems.
ANADIGICS is creating a migration path from the 11 Mbps 2.4 GHz 802.11b standard to 54 Mbps 5 GHz 802.11a standard, allowing users to take advantage of the higher data rates and improved connectivity. ANADIGICS' first WLAN products will enable interoperability between high speed IEEE 802.11a compliant networks operating in the 5GHz band and current generation IEEE 802.11b compliant networks operating in the 2.4 GHz band.
Won't these solutions be more expensive?
ANADIGICS' design expertise, coupled with our multichip module technology and flexible foundry strategy, provide improved functionality and increased integration to RF wireless transceiver designs. Our solutions offer higher performance, while greatly reducing component count, cost and size.
Where will these broadband wireless networks be used?
Enterprises and offices can support a much higher number of users on a single wireless network, offering a valid alternative to wired Ethernet. Supporting mobile workers with handheld terminals, sectors such as health care, warehousing and retail will all benefit from improved reliability as well as increased throughput.
- In public areas, such as airports and hotels, where there are a high concentration of users demanding mobile high data capability and where connecting with wires is simply difficult.
- In-home wireless distribution of DVD quality video and other data rich media applications.
For further information about how ANADIGICS could work with you to enable innovative next generation wireless networking systems, please contact us directly at 908-791-6000
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