beam forming
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Google completes buyout of Magnolia Broadband patents, puts a little extra protection under its belt
Magnolia Broadband revealed that Google was buying some of its patents at the start of June, but to say that its confirmation was brief would be an understatement. It's being more verbose now that the transaction has been cleared: Google now owns over 50 patents for beamforming wireless signals. Magnolia characterizes the techniques as important to making the best use of cellular connections, which could well be helpful to a company that just bought Motorola. Having said this, we can't help but think that the various patent battles of Google's recent acquisition may play a part; obtaining cellular-specific patents would give potential attackers a reason to think twice.
Multi-gigabit wireless broadband within our grasp, capped data plans laugh in our face
Bring it on, LTE-Advanced. In case you've been looking for ways to eat up your capped data plan any faster, a researcher from Samsung proclaims that speeds up to 5.5gbps (yes, with a g) might be reachable within the next five years -- as long as all the stars align, that is. Jerry Pi demonstrated the idea, which involves the use of millimeter wave spectrum that lies between 3GHz and 300GHz. If -- and that's a big if -- the spectrum can be secured, the next hurdle will be the engineering challenge of deploying a wireless broadband network at such high frequencies; even tiny oxygen molecules, let alone walls and trees, would easily break up a signal at that range. Pi mentions that he and his fellow researchers are working on a few ideas to get around these obstacles, and outlines everything in significant detail in his 100+ slide presentation, which can be accessed below. Don't get us wrong: the idea of broadband data speeds hitting 5.5gbps makes us salivate, but it would definitely need to come with an unlimited plan. Just sayin'.
Marvell unveils Avastar 88W8797, first wireless SoC for mobile devices with 2x2 MIMO
The days of the shotgun modem live on with MIMO -- multiple-input and multiple-output adapters that offer numerous antennas to aggregate numerous parallel connections. Marvell just became the first to put such a solution on a tiny SoC, debuting its Avastar 88W8797 with dual 802.11n connectivity for transmission and receiving. This allows for 300Mbps transfers along with Bluetooth 4.0 and even FM transmission and reception, all built into a single chip with "advanced power management designed specifically for handheld products such as smartphones and tablets." You know what that means: shotgun WiFi in next-gen mobile devices. Yee haw!
Ralink debuts suite of networking hardware to form your beams and transmit your HD
Ralink has been hot on the high-definition streaming content front since this past summer and is now introducing networking hardware that'll make it easier to get all those lovely pixels from disk to display wirelessly -- plus a bevy of other high-speed networking goodies to boot. The RT3572 is a 300 Mbps 802.11n-enabling chip designed for inclusion in high-end displays and media players, including wireless streaming of Blu-ray playback, DLNA content, and IPTV. For general networking the company is introducing the RT3883 and RT3593 chips, which enable 450Mbps 802.11n connectivity and feature beam forming, meaning the transmitter can locate receivers and modify "various transmission parameters" to optimize connectivity. Finally, there's the RT3090BC4 combination 802.11n and Bluetooth Half MiniCard adapter, and a "world's smallest" USB 802.11n adapter, little larger than the USB port you'll plug it into. You know what that means: no unsightly protrusions.
