Wireless networking 'can keep up with broadband speeds'

 

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Posted on 9 Jan 2009 at 02:37

Wireless chip maker, Broadcom, believes that wireless networking can keep pace with ever-increasing broadband speeds, through a variety of different methods. Key to this is an increased intelligence in wireless networks to reduce interference with nearby networks.

One of the main areas where more intelligence is needed is with channel-bonding, where 802.11n networks use two wireless channels to increase throughput; the downside is that using two channels doubles the wireless traffic and increases interference.

"There's no way around bonding channels [to get the fastest throughputs], but we have to make best use of how we use those channels," said Richard Ybarra, technical marketing engineer at Broadcom.

The company also stated that current wireless speeds were more than fast enough to cope with the fastest UK broadband, Virgin Media's 50Mbit/s service, with 802.11n speeds capable of sustaining 150Mbit/s. When pushed for more information on this, though, it was revealed that this speed was measured in a 3,000m2 home in California.

The problem of interference is something that Broadcom believes can be solved by using dual-radio routers operating at 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

"Most Broadcom chips are 2.4GHz and 5GHz," said Richard Ybarra, technical marketing engineer at Broadcom. "5GHz doesn't have as much interference and there are more channels available. It's a good medium for high-bandwidth applications, such as streaming high definition video."

The company was bullish about other networking technologies, such as powerline networking, playing a bigger part. While it admitted that a mixture of technology could be used it cited the growing number of WiFi-enabled products as contributing to wireless playing an even big role in people's homes.

As for dealing with even faster broadband speeds of 100Mbit/s or even 200Mbit/s, Broadcom believes that the technology will easily cope.

"When broadband first was launched we had G networks running at 54Mbit/s, now we have 802.11n on clock at 200Mbit/s," said Ybarra.

Broadcom believes that wireless network speeds of up to 600Mbit/s are possible, and that this bandwidth will be utilised as and when there's a call for it.

Author: David Ludlow in Las Vegas