Tim Higgins
Broadcom has announced a single-chip 802.11ac device.
The BCM43460 is a switchable dual-band (2.4/5 GHz) IEEE 802.11ac draft- compliant SoC incorporating MAC, PHY and radio. Its 3 X 3 (three transmit, three receive) MIMO design supports link rates up to 1.3 Gbps on the 5 GHz band for 802.11ac operation.
The BCM43460 is sampling now with production volume slated for the "second half of 2012".
AirMagnet today announced the latest version of its wireless security and performance troubleshooting solution. Laptop Analyzer 7.0 PRO's key features include a new user interface and ability to analyze sources of interference and troubleshoot devices that utilize the 4.9 GHz public safety band.
SmallNetBuilder has discovered a hole in the Wi-Fi Alliance's 802.11n Draft 2.0 test suite that can allow Wi-Fi Certified products to interfere with existing wireless networks, in direct violation of a mandatory Certification requirement.
A long-running battle in the standard has been whether to allow the use of "wide-channel" operation in the 2.4 GHz band that is used by the majority of Wi-Fi products. The mode, also referred to as "channel bonded" or "40 MHz bandwidth" mode, uses up two of the available three non-overlapping channels in the band, making it impossible to avoid interfering with other wireless networks operating in the center of the band.
Interference from draft 802.11n channel-bonded networks can, at worst, render 802.11b and g wireless networks inoperable and, at minimum, cause slowdowns and unreliable connections.
Amped Wireless has previewed its first draft 801.11ac products.
