noverview.ppt

802.11n – An Overview What is it? Next Gen of Wireless – more speed Still a draft standard; is expected to be complete by 2008/2009 802.11n is much more than MIMO WiFi alliance draft-n certification available by 3rd Quarter, 07 Uses multiple antennas on both AP and client side 802.11n – What do we get? Increased throughput 802.11 a/g – 54mbps [15-10mbps] 802n – upto 600 mpbs [100-200mbps] Uses Multipath to its advantage, resulting in: Better coverage More reliable connection 802.3at or POE+ Needed to address higher power requirements of 802.11n enabled APs Still in works Expected to provide at least 30W which may go up to 60W in comparison of 802.3af which is limited to max of 15.4W approx. Current use of Multiple Antenna Diversity Line of Sight Otherwise Multipath – Impact on RF Multiple signals may arrive on receiving end These signals will get time / phase shifted as they travel different paths Imagine a sine wave and draw an analogy These will tend to cancel each other and degrade signal quality MIMO – Multiple In Multiple Out In example below – each receive antenna receives its dominant signal from different transmit antenna. Effective signal received at Antenna 1 is combination of A1 A2; likewise of Antenna 2 MIMO …… contd. When hardware is intelligent enough it can take advantage by transmitting different signal from each antenna It is difficult to predict effects of multipath as all enviroments are unique. Hence the need to tune xmit signals / characterize channels at different antennas for optimum performance; more like auto-negotiation in case of ehternet Implicit feedback: rcvr transmits long training symbols which are rcvd by xmitter Assumptions – RF characteristics are reciprocal transmit/receive antennas are similar at both ends Explicit feedback: Xmitter sends training symbols MIMO rcvr analyzes for each antenna and spatial stream rcvr then sends back info to transmitter which can optimize its transmit signals