A consortium of companies collaborating under the moniker "WWiSE" will submit a joint proposal to the IEEE 802.11 Task Group N (TGn), which is chartered with developing a next-generation Wi-Fi standard capable of sustaining data throughput in excess of 100Mbps. Backers of the proposal, which include Airgo Networks, Bermai, Broadcom, Conexant Systems, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments, said 802.11n is an especially important standard in the WLAN market because it will build upon and extend the capabilities of Wi-Fi. The contributing member companies of WWiSE have jointly agreed to specific IP licensing terms for their proposal. If the WWiSE proposal is selected as the 802.11n standard, these companies have agreed that reciprocal RAND-Z (Reasonable and Non-Discriminator licensing under Zero royalty) licenses to their essential IP will be available to any party upon request.
Technical highlights of the WWiSE proposal include:
- 1. Mandatory use of the approved, pre-existing, worldwide 20MHz Wi-Fi channel width, assuring immediate applicability and deployment in all regulatory jurisdictions.
- 2. Enhanced MIMO-OFDM technology is key to achieving a maximum data rate of 135 Mbps in the minimum mandatory 2x2 configuration and a single 20MHz channel to keep implementation costs low, while greatly improving upon simple antenna additions or channel bonding schemes.
- 3. Rates up to 540 Mbps, accomplished with a 4x4 MIMO structure and 40MHz channel width (where permissible by regulatory bodies), provide a roadmap for future devices and applications.
- 4. Mandatory modes affording backwards compatibility and interoperability with existing Wi-Fi devices in the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands to ensure strong support of legacy deployments.
- 5. Advanced forward-error-correction coding option to facilitate maximum coverage and range, applicable in all MIMO configurations and channel bandwidths.
