Atheros kickstarts Wi-Fi upgrade cycle with low end 11n

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Atheros kickstarts Wi-Fi upgrade cycle with low end 11n

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 28 October, 2008

READ MORE: Wi-Fi

There has been such high demand for Wi-Fi products based on the upcoming 802.11n standard that a whole market has been created around equipment based on the draft specification. The 100Mbps-plus system has mainly been targeted at high end digital media home networks, and is starting to penetrate the enterprise, despite the risks of pre-standard implementations. However, now the vendors are seeking to accelerate the upgrade cycle from older 802.11g networks, despite the likely squeeze on consumer spending, by introducing a cutdown version of 11n that can support lower cost products.

The main driver behind this is Atheros. Its Atheros Align family uses just one antenna, which means it can go into products priced similarly to current 11g items. Fully blown 11n uses MIMO smart antenna arrays, with two or four antennas at each end (and possibly more in future). Align comes in three models, geared respectively to PCs, embedded Wi-Fi for consumer gear, and high end routers. A handset chip is likely to follow next year.

The addition of 2x2 MIMO to Wi-Fi chipsets almost doubles device cost, on average, and so despite the high early interest in 11n, so far its total revenues are only about one-third those of the 11g sector.

The Wi-Fi Alliance insists there will be no problems of compatibility between equipment based on the two versions of 11n, but many observers think there is likely to be some market confusion. Atheros says that, even without MIMO, 11n does offer a significant boost - typically 2-4 times over the same distance, and with lower power consumption - and clearly its move is cancelling the 11g price advantage.