Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Start-Up Plans to Introduce Alternate Wi-Fi Technology

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 04:45:19 -0400

Start-Up Plans to Introduce Alternate Wi-Fi Technology

By JOHN MARKOFF

August 18, 2003

PALO ALTO, CA.

Airgo Networks a heavily financed Silicon Valley start-up, plans on Monday to
introduce an alternative to the popular Wi-Fi wireless data standard for
connecting to the Internet, capable of doubling Wi-Fi's already high speed and
extending its range.

Airgo's technology is just one example, industry executives said, of the
continued emergence of new companies, undercutting recent fears that
wireless technology innovation is slowing and is in danger of being
dominated by a few large established concerns.

"Just as the revolution starts to happen, some people are saying that it's
over," said Craig Mathias, president of the Farpoint Group, a industry
consulting firm in Ashland, Mass. "Clearly, we are in the early days of
wireless data."

Airgo's technology, known as multiple-in, multiple-out, or MIMO relies on taking
advantage of huge amounts of computing power to send numbers of signals from
closely spaced antennas. By doing so, Airgo is able to squeeze in and out
more data than conventional wireless data arrangements.

But Airgo faces a big challenge in winning broad support for an approach
that is not compatible with the existing Wi-Fi standards.

The company said it hopes to create markets by seeking out consumer wireless
equipment companies serving local area networks, hoping that in a hotly
contested marketplace, a higher-speed, greater-range option will soon prove
advantageous, even if it is not compatible with existing software.

On Monday, Airgo will announce a chip set that extends the speed at which
data can be delivered to a computer by wireless radio signal, to as much as
108 megabits a second. Current Wi-Fi standards are capable of data speeds
ranging from 11 to 54 megabits a second. The company says the signal can be
sent farther as well - from two to six times as far as current Wi-Fi
technology, which typically reaches only about 100 to 150 feet from a
transmitter connected to the Internet.

"We've created a new currency that is better range and better performance,"
Airgo's chief executive, Greg Raleigh, said.

The industry is working to define a new generation of Wi-Fi that could take
data rates to 200 megabits or even higher, and Mr. Raleigh said Airgo would
propose its technology for the standard.

In addition to computer communications applications, Mr. Raleigh said he
expects new consumer uses for very high speed wireless, like data
connections for HDTV television sets and other home appliances.

Michael Kleeman, chief technology officer of Cometa Networks of San
Francisco, which is installing Wi-Fi access points nationally, said: "People
are beginning to realize that it is important to focus on the radio
frequency side of the equation. Now, people are paying attention to
antennas."

Airgo's MIMO technology was pioneered at Stanford University, Bell
Laboratories and other research centers. It is an example of the shift to
what are known as smart antennas an approach that is being
widely adopted in the wireless networking world.

Other companies are also striving to develop antenna technologies to improve
wireless data service. These include Vivato, a wireless technology company
that is using antennas to direct beams, and the leading chip maker Intel,
which has acquired the intellectual property of another Silicon Valley MIMO
company, IoSpan Wireless.

Airgo, whose founders started and then sold Clarity Wireless to Cisco
Systems in 1998, has so far raised a total of $52 million in venture capital
from OVP Venture Partners, Sevin Rosen Funds, Nokia Venture Partners and
Accel Partners.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/18/technology/18WIFI.html

http://www.airgonetworks.com

http://www.signal.uu.se/Research/rdiversity.html 

http://www.ee.ualberta.ca/~schlegel/publications/Panelslides.pdf

http://www.stanford.edu/group/sarg/ 

http://www.iec.org/online/tutorials/smart_ant/

http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~rheath/research/mimo/

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From: Rick Parrish <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 04:16:48 -0500

[email-masked] wrote:

By JOHN MARKOFF

uh-oh, not him.

Airgo's technology, known as multiple-in, multiple-out, or MIMO relies on taking advantage of huge amounts of computing power to send numbers of signals from closely spaced antennas. By doing so, Airgo is able to squeeze in and out more data than conventional wireless data arrangements.

Yup, looks/reads like John's writing alrighty.

-rick

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