Sunday, February 12, 2012

Broadcom Launches First 802.11ac Silicon

Broadcom launched the first "5G WiFi" chips based on the new IEEE 802.11ac standard, which promises more reliable coverage and gigabit speeds compared to the legacy 802.11a/b/g/n technologies,


Specifically, the new BCM43460 system-on-chip (SoC) is 3x faster and 6x more power efficient than previous generation 802.11n solutions while remaining interoperable with the legacy 802.11 technologies. The 2.4/5 GHz single-chip MAC/PHY/Radio SOC is aimed at enterprise and carrier class access points, branch office routers and business class integrated services routers.


The BCM43460 is a dual-band (2.4 and 5 GHz) IEEE 802.11ac draft 3 x 3 compliant MAC/PHY/Radio complete SoC. The fully integrated dual-band radio transceiver supports 3 x 3 antennas for date rates up to 1.3 Gbps.


Broadcom is offering a number of new capabilities in the SOC, including an explicit and implicit transmit beam-forming technology that significantly extends the range, coverage and network efficiency of enterprise wireless networks, particularly in single antenna devices such as smartphones. Broadcom is introducing an airtime fairness feature that enables better performance through its support for a denser environment of mixed speed Wi-Fi devices. Advanced spectrum analysis features combine in-depth RF analysis with real-time WLAN information for real-time trouble�shooting of performance problems. This feature is critical to Enterprise operators for deep monitoring of interference in the network, resulting in more reliable, consistent wireless service.


"Enterprise networks are on the cusp of a new mobile computing era in which tablets and smartphones will be ubiquitous in the workplace," said Rajiv Ramaswami, executive vice president and general manager of Broadcom's Infrastructure and Networking Group. "Broadcom is at the forefront of developing the latest wireless technologies for the enterprise, delivering the connectivity capabilities needed to meet the growing demands of an unwired workforce."http://www.broadcom.com
http://www.5gwifi.org

  • 802.11ac. leverages 80 MHz channel bandwidth that is 2 times wider than current 802.11n solutions.