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December 01, 2009

In-Stat Study Predicts Rise in Demand for Better Wi-Fi Performance

By Jai C.S., TMCnet Contributor

In-Stat has released a new report which shows that as the use of smartphones with advanced applications spreads, customers are soon going to demand better Wi-Fi performance.

Consumers are now accessing more bandwidth-intensive apps on their mobile phones – thus Wi-Fi performance will have to improve.

The new 802.11n standard is an amended standard to improve network throughput over previous standards, such as 802.11b/g, with a significant increase in the maximum raw OSI physical layer (PHY) data rate from 54 Mbit/s to a maximum of 600 Mbit/s with the use of four spatial streams at a channel width of 40 MHz. But mobile has been the domain of 802.11b/g solutions and only a few phones now have 802.11n capability.




In a release, In-Stat (News - Alert) analyst Victoria Fodale said the installed base of 802.11n networking equipment is growing to support demand. The penetration of 802.11n is dependent on the form factor, i.e., standalone access points, residential gateways, and SOHO/consumer routers. Overall, in 2Q09, the penetration of 802.11n in SOHO/consumer routers was about 40.6 percent.

Wi-Fi silicon vendors are also anticipating the demand for 802.11n from customers soon and are developing new 802.11n chipsets that facilitate better Wi-Fi performance in mobile devices.

Broadcom’s new BCM4329 chipset combines several proven wireless technologies onto single silicon die enabling mobile devices to support the toughest media applications and features integrated 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz WLAN CMOS power amplifiers, which reduce BoM costs while maintaining superior performance. The BCM4329 also integrates Bluetooth, which is used for hands-free communications with wireless headsets, data synchronization and stereo music streaming to headphones and speakers. The company had recently begun shipping of this chipset in volume.

Atheros had launched ‘Align’ technology that leverages 802.11n 1-Stream specification to offer upgrade from legacy 802.11b/g networks. Its newly released Align AR6003 and AR6133 wireless 802.11n mobile chipsets are designed to offer better energy efficiency, more bandwidth, longer range, and a much smaller footprint than other ‘b/g’ solutions.

Mobile devices that are built with 802.11n will get to enjoy greater bandwidth which enhances battery life in normal usage such as web surfing by powering up quickly, transmitting the data, and then quickly powering down into a sleep state, minimizing the transmit or receive time of the radio.

In-Stat has opinioned that ‘n’ is a compelling technology that cannot be ignored and smartphones, in order to support the rise in bandwidth intensive applications, require more powerful processors, better battery technologies, more competent web browsers and multitasking capabilities. Consumers are also willing to pay more for devices that offer them better performance and have longer useful lives and OEMs will soon find it hard to ignore the benefits of 802.11n.

In-Stat recently reported a sign of maturity in PND market and stated that the Wi-Fi hotspot market is staging a revival.

Jai C.S. is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Jai's articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Patrick Barnard


 







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