Chip vendor claims wireless breakthrough

A startup is sampling a chip set that it says will improve dramatically the range and performance of wireless LANs and eliminate current security problems.

Airgo Networks' chip sets blend advances from several technologies. The result, CEO Greg Raleigh says, will be WLAN access points with two-and-a-half to five times the range of existing products and at least two to four times the throughput of existing WLAN products. They also will maintain throughput at longer distances, he says.

Airgo chips for 802.11a could reach 300 feet or more and support a minimum throughput of about 34Mbps. The maximum 802.11a data rate is 54Mbps, with a range at that rate of about 100 feet. (It can reach further but the rate drops.) Actual 802.11a throughput typically is in the 17Mbps to 22Mbps range.

Those kinds of numbers, if proven, could dramatically lower WLAN installation costs by sharply cutting the number of access points that have to be installed and, most importantly, wired into the existing cable plant.

Airgo has achieved its advances by turning chief weaknesses of radio technology into a strength through something called multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology. The weakness is a characteristic of radio: When you transmit a radio signal from one antenna, the energy bounces off various items, such as cabinets and walls, creating multiple signal paths to a receiver that's not in a direct line of sight.

This is called multipath propagation, which distorts the overall signal. The receiver takes the best signal path and processes it.

Airgo's chips send and receive via multiple antennas: client cards would have two, access points would have three. The antennas collect all the signals, and Airgo's algorithms combine and process them to create the best possible reception.

"We've taken what had required $100 worth of silicon and reduced it to tens of cents," Raleigh says.

The chips contain the full range of security standards: Wired Equivalent Privacy, Wi-Fi Protected Access, VPN termination, 802.1x authentication and Advanced Encryption Standard.

Airgo is not alone in trying to advance wireless silicon. Aether Systems, Broadcom, and Intel are major players, and all are working with MIMO. Other rivals are startups such as Engim.

The company has signed contracts with electronics makers, and is in talks with WLAN hardware vendors that take the boards and incorporate them into finished access points or client adapter cards. Raleigh declined to name these companies. He expects the first Airgo-powered products to be available by year-end.