NEC shows Wi-Fi at 205mph

TOKYO -- Researchers at NEC Corp. have taken Wi-Fi wireless connectivity to new levels by successfully demonstrating handovers between access points while traveling past them at bullet-train speed.

In a test earlier this month at a automobile test track north of Tokyo the company says it successfully demonstrated in-house developed software that allows for a fast sign-on and hand-over between standard access points.

The test involved four IEEE802.11b access points placed at 500-meter intervals along a portion of the Japan Automobile Research Institute Inc.'s test track in Ibaraki prefecture, said Yasuhito Jochi, a spokesman for NEC in Tokyo. The access points were connected to a router and it is in this router that NEC's high-speed handover software was installed.

A Porsche car traveling at 330 kilometers per hour (205 miles per hour) sped past the access points while software managed the switch from one access point to the successive one, he said.

The uninterrupted session was confirmed by a notebook computer and camera in the car that remained connected to a NetMeeting server as the car drove through each of the access point coverage areas, according to Jochi. The test also included the downloading of a file to the PC in the car from a Web server.

The software that allows the fast handover has been developed for use in intelligent transportation system (ITS) applications and could be used to keep an Internet connection with cars running along a highway or high-speed trains, said NEC. The speed attained by NEC falls around the average speeds achieved by super-express trains such as Japan's Shinkansen (bullet train) and France's TGV.

With the successful test of the system NEC is ready to begin sales, said Jochi.

The company will provide details of the software and test at the 10th World Congress and Exhibition on Intelligent Transport Systems and Services in Madrid, Spain, from Nov. 16 to 20.