Wifi Revolution

Ruckus Wireless, a Wireless-Fidelity (Wi-Fi) technology specialist, praised networking provider Cisco Systems for validating the value of beamforming in improving Wi-Fi performance and outlining future systems enhancements.

The applaud came following Cisco’s (News - Alert) efforts to outline necessary advances to make beamforming in order to deliver special performance that enterprises expect from next- generation 802.11n Wi-Fi technology.

Beamforming is a general signal processing technique used to control the directionality of the transmission and reception of radio signals. It is an optional part of the Wi-Fi 802.11n standard.

These activities of Cisco are beyond implementing beamforming chips, which are essential to realizing the performance and reliability expected from next-generation 802.11n technology.

 

Beamforming, implemented using on-chip digital signal processors, is an optional part of the 802.11n standard and it is not currently implemented in commercial client chips.

 

"Achieving adequate signal gain and coverage from transmit beamforming requires a number of systems-level complements, not the least of which is feedback from receiving clients and agile control of the signal beams over real time interference," said Steve Martin, vice president of Engineering at Ruckus Wireless (News - Alert), in a statement. "Simply implementing a beamforming chipset without systems level optimization is like having a sports car driven by a robot - it works until another car swerves in front of it."

 

As part of its ongoing strategy to step up initiatives, Ruckus Wireless has introduced a beamforming system utilizing smart antenna arrays at the physical layer and intelligent antenna control software that adapt the antennas to optimize systems performance in an ever-changing RF environment.

 

In contrast to chip-based beamforming, Ruckus Wireless has developed BeamFlex, a patented, pattern-agile antenna technology. BeamFlex combines beamforming at the physical layer, using smart antennas, with client feedback mechanisms without requiring any modification to clients.

 

The Ruckus-patented BeamFlex Smart Wi-Fi antenna system is the first to use real-time client feedback inherent to the 802.11a/b/g/n media access control (MAC) layer protocol to continuously optimize performance.

 

In addition, the Ruckus beamforming antenna arrays, composed of many directional antenna elements, are configurable in real-time without human intervention to give access points complete control over the direction and form of Wi-Fi signals along with ability to actively avoid and reject interference.

 

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