The new products also include a range of 802.11n options, including transmit beam forming, which can be thought of as narrowing and focusing the radio signal to increase its range and decrease the impact of interference. It's a development that emphatically makes sense, says Network World blogger Craig Mathias. Quantenna Communications has such a product in trials with a dozen carriers, aiming at multi-media applications within a home.

The new chips are Atheros' first to use three spatial streams, one for each antenna pair, boosting the rate to 400Mbps.Ītheros will offer the new 3x3 chipsets at a 'similar price range' to the previous generation chipset, says Tony Hsu, senior director of product marketing for Atheros' networking business unit.Ī couple of vendors are offering 4x4 MIMO radios. In the past, Atheros and most other Wi-Fi chip vendors have had at best a three-antenna configuration with two spatial streams, for a maximum data rate of 300Mbps. The impact of multiple antennas and spatial streams is also affected by other optional techniques the vendor may implement. Think of it as sending data in parallel: a lot more data in a given time or a given amount of data in much less time.

In addition, with multiple antennas on both ends of the send-receive chain, MIMO systems can recombine reflected signals to enhance them (otherwise these multipath reflections typically disrupt the signal).Īnother part of the 11n innovation is using what are called multiple spatial streams, or distinct, separately encoded signals within a single spectral channel. With multiple antennas tuned to the same channel, the radio uses spectrum more efficiently, increasing overall performance. Like earlier Atheros 11n silicon, the new AR938x and AR9390 chipsets also have three antennas, part of a technology called multiple input multiple output (MIMO).

Ar938x specs