power consumption

Broadcom moves into enterprise WiFi market

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:59:55 -0400

Broadcom believes it can leverage its success in the consumer 802.11n WiFi market to move into the enterprise WLAN market. The company announced a new 802.11n enterprise solution the combines its Intensi-fi silicon and its Fastpath networking software that it says will extend the enterprise-critical features from the company's StrataXGS enterprise switches to create an end-to-end solution for business-grade 802.11n WiFi networks.

Broadcom said this integrated platform provides significant cost and time-to-market advantages for manufacturers compared with other silicon solutions that do not include the software features that IT managers require. The solution also successfully addresses power consumption issues, said Broadcom. Broadcom claims that APs built using its new chip use half the power of competing 802.11n chipsets, allowing access points to operate simultaneously on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands while being powered by a company's existing Power over Ethernet infrastructure.

"Broadcom is building on the great success we have achieved with consumer 802.11n solutions to serve the untapped enterprise wireless market," said Michael Hurlston, vice president and general manager of Broadcom's Wireless LAN line of business, in a press release. "By marrying the industry's leading WLAN solutions with proven switch hardware and software, Broadcom is well-positioned to pursue the $2.3 billion enterprise wireless market with an end-to-end solution."

For more about Broadcom's foray into the enterprise market:
- read this release

Related article:
Broadcom: 802.11n won't usurp 802.11g yet Report on 802.11n

Aruba jumps on 802.11n bandwagon

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 06:59:55 -0500

Enterprise WiFi infrastructure provider Aruba Network, the last major 802.11n holdout, announced its is entering the 802.11n access point game. The vendor announced a new generation of multi-service mobility controllers to enable unified communications such as FMC, along with 802.11n access points.

Earlier this year, Aruba had said that 802.11n wasn't ready for the enterprise since the standard wasn't finished. Cisco also warned that the draft 802.11n product had no guarantee of working together. But Cisco jumped into the 802.11n space in September.

What has changed? Michael Tennefoss, director of strategic marketing, told FierceBroadbandWireless that the draft 802.11n standard is far enough along that the company is convinced the final standard won't deviate much from the draft standard. Secondly, the company was sitting on its new 802.11n access point since June, but it was waiting for the second generation of chips that showed improvement in power consumption.

My how things can change in the matter of months. Cisco and Aruba, the two biggest vendors in the enterprise WiFi space, had earlier declared that most customers didn't need the throughput of 802.11n. Now many enterprises are pushing video services and looking for strategic replacement of of the wired Ethernet in certain areas of their businesses. 802.11n significantly improves data throughput and coverage of existing 802.11-based technologies.

"We're now at a point that customer can choose which is better: copper or wireless," Tennefoss said. "N has leveled the playing field with copper with respect to connectivity and performance."

For more about Aruba's 802.11n plans:
- check out this release

Wavesat, IBM to develop mobile WiMAX chipset

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 06:59:53 -0400

Wavesat and IBM are working together to develop an 802.16e WiMAX chipset targeting consumer electronic devices. As part of the agreement, Wavesat's UMobile TM 802.16e chipset will be manufactured by IBM. The two are also collaborating on power-saving techniques such as voltage islands, aimed at lowering chipset power consumption and maximizing power efficiency for different modes of operation. This is IBM's first official WiMax chip deal.

To read more about the chipset pact:
- take a look at this press release

NextWave ships WiMAX chipset samples

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 06:59:53 -0400

NextWave Broadband said it began shipping samples of its NW1000 Series WiMAX chipset that includes a baseband system-on-a-chip (SOC), multi-band RFIC and associated system software to consumer electronics and mobile device manufacturers. NextWave said chipset incorporates numerous innovations to improve performance, reduce power consumption, lower manufacturing costs, enable advanced mobile-multimedia applications, and allow seamless operation and roaming across worldwide WiMAX frequencies and profiles.

For more about NextWave's release of the NW1000 Series WiMAX chipset:
- check out this release

ALSO NOTED: WiFi media player to give Ipod a run for its money; Trusted computer group offers podcast; and much more...

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 20:01:31 -0400

> Trusted Computer Group is offering a useful podcast on securing mobile devices on converged networks.

> iPod has another rival: It is the 604 portable media player with WiFi from Archos. Report

> BT has selected Novell to manage the digital profiles and identities of customers of BT's 21st century network (21CN). The Novell directory and identity technology will be used to build the profile capability of 21CN and provide common identity information required to integrate voice, data, broadband, mobility, on-demand video and ICT services. Report

> Small is beautiful: Broadcom is showing a family of WLAN products which integrate single-chip WiFi transceivers and radios and a software architecture which reduces the WiFi subsystem's total power consumption. The result: 54 Mbps full-rate active receive power consumption of less than 270mW. Report

> Lilliputian is even more beautiful: SDIO specialist Spectec has developed a WiFi card that sits in your device's microSD slot and is 802.11g compatible. This is one tiny WiFi card. Review

> A Living Picture (this is the name of the company) is showing the Vista-certified Momento WiFi photo frames with SideShow. Review

> In Canada some colleges refuse to allow WiFi on campus for fear of the technology's yet-to-be-determined effect on health. U.S. colleges are not as worried, and the annual survey of educational institutions found that 35.9 percent of campuses are totally wireless, up from 29 percent this time last year. Report

WiMAX Roundup

> Aeroflex and AT4 Wireless (formerly known as CETECOM Spain) have released a Development Test Mode for 802.16e protocol conformance test solution on behalf of the WiMAX Forum. Report

> A new Cree GaN HEMT is optimized for North American WiMAX applications. If you must know: Model CGH27015 15-watt packaged gallium nitride high electron mobility transistor (GaN HEMT) produces 2.5 watts of average output power and 24 percent drain efficiency over frequency range of 2.3-2.9GHz. The device features 14.5dB of small signal gain, and 2 percent error vector magnitude (EVM) under OFDM modulation when operated at 28 volts. Review

> Siemens will supply equipment to Russia's New Telecommunications for the company's WiMAX network in the city of Ryazan. Report

> When young and dashing Fernando Collor de Mello ran for the presidency of Brazil in 1990, he described the Brazilian economy as "socialism without planning, capitalism without markets." Brazil may have the largest Latin American economy, but endemic corruption, suffocating bureaucracy and haphazard business practices are now contributing to the fact that it may be lagging behind other countries on the continent in WiMAX implementation. Report

And finally...We are up to over 1000 votes cast in our Fierce Favorites top wireless industry blog awards. Click here to cast your vote!

Sharp shows world's smallest WLAN module

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 20:01:35 -0400

Small is beautiful. Sharp says it is now offering what it describes as the world's smallest WLAN module. It is not only small--it also consumes less power than any other WLAN module currently available. The unit measures only 8.0 x 7.6 x 1.3 mm. When sending data, the module's power consumption is a mere 654mW. Moreover, power usage drops even lower, to 165mW, when the module handles inbound data. The drain on the battery in stand-by mode is an infinitesimal 0.3mW.

Sharp will begin shipping a sample next month. And, yes, the unit may be small, but the price tag is not: At $170, it is not likely that phone or camera manufacturers will be falling over each other to include it in their products.

For more on Sharp's tiny offering:
- see Mobile Magazine's report

Wi-Fi Alliance to certify battery-saving tools

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 19:01:39 -0500

Not a moment too soon, the Wi-Fi Alliance will address one of the main problems with WLAN phones by certifying features which extend battery life. In addition to the organization's interoperability certification, the industry group will add a label it calls Wireless Multimedia (WMM) Power Save, which identified products that had reduced the power required to use multimedia applications over WLANs. This is a good and necessary move. Using a WLAN for VoIP, streaming video and other multimedia applications increased the power consumption of WiFi, which is already power-hungry because of the technology's ongoing searches for nearby APs.

Equipment certified for WMM Power Save should extend battery life under multimedia use by 15 percent to 40 percent. WMM Power Save included improved signaling capabilities and mechanisms for fine-tuning power consumption. It uses some elements of the IEEE 802.11e specification, a standard for improving multimedia on WiFi which was approved in September. Most of the rest of 802.11e would be included in the WMM Scheduled Access certification which would be introduced in mid-2006.

For more on the Wi-Fi Alliance's WMM:
- see this PC World report