Definition

Advantages

Disadvantages

ShareWave Offerings, Platforms

IEEE 802.11a

General market expectancy:

Products potentially available Fall 2001; more likely 1H 2002. 

High-performance IEEE wireless LAN (WLAN) standard.  Operates in the unlicensed 5GHz frequency band.  Delivers up to 54Mbps data transfer rate.

Radio, or Physical Layer (PHY), based on an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation scheme.  Media Access Controller (MAC) based on the standard IEEE 802.11 MAC architecture (consistent across 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g). 

Can also use a Whitecap or 802.11e MAC for quality of service (QoS) and multimedia support (see below).

Best in Class Speed:  High throughput (up to 54 Mbps) to support heavily loaded networks and rich multimedia content like HDTV and multiple MPEG-2 (DVD quality) video streams.  

Interference:  5GHz band is relatively uncrowded today, so there is less interference than in the 2.4GHz band. 

Availability:  At this time no 802.11a products are available on the market.

Cost:  Expected to be more expensive than 802.11b.

Range:  Will deliver significantly less range than 802.11b.

QoS/Multimedia support:  Standard 802.11 MAC is Ethernet-based, and does not support multimedia streams (particularly concurrent streams) well.

Interoperability:  802.11a products will not be directly interoperable with the large and growing base of 802.11b networks.

ShareWave expects its “Hermosa” platform to be one of the first 802.11a solutions on the market. The expected schedule is as follows: samples Q3 2001, production Q4 2001, end products 1H 2002.

ShareWave is partnering with Cisco on 802.11a solutions.  Joint reference designs will utilize ShareWave’s MAC silicon and software and Cisco’s PHY chipset.

ShareWave also expects to be first to market with multimedia-enabled 802.11a solutions.

IEEE 802.11b

General market expectancy:

Products On shelves

IEEE WLAN standard.  Operates in the unlicensed 2.4GHz frequency band.  Delivers data throughput of 11 Mbps.

PHY is based on a Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) modulation scheme.  MAC is based on the standard 802.11 MAC architecture. 

Can also use Whitecap or 802.11e MAC for multimedia support.

Features an interoperability mark called Wi-Fi™, which is earned via 3^rd party interoperability testing.  Wi-Fi certified products will communicate with each other.  

Availability:  Solutions are widely available, from a broad group of companies and in a variety of forms. 

Interoperability:  Large and growing installed based of 802.11b networks in businesses and public areas; beginning to emerge in the home as well (802.11b has won the battle with HomeRF). 

Cost:  Price points for technology and products are rapidly declining.  Prices are below $150 per node, and should drop below $100 by year’s end.

Adequate Speed:  Although not as fast as 802.11a, 802.11b offers data rates of 11 Mbps, equivalent to 10BaseT Ethernet.  With a multimedia enabled MAC, this enables high-speed internet sharing, CD-quality audio, and single MPEG-2 streams.

Range:  Offers superior range versus 802.11a; up to 150’ depending on product and operating environment.

Lack of QoS and Multimedia Support:  Designed for the enterprise, 802.11b is limited in its ability to support rich multimedia.  Cannot support concurrent media streams well.

Interference:  Susceptible to interferers in the 2.4GHz band, such as microwave ovens and cordless phones

Complexity:  Most 802.11b products are hard to install and reconfigure. 

Range Degradation:  Generally, offers ranges up to 150’, much more than 802.11a.  In most cases, however, data rates begin to drop back (to 5.5 Mbps, then 2 Mbps, then 1 Mpbs) far in advance of this, and many products can’t reach 150’ at any speed.

ShareWave recently unveiled its 2nd generation 2.4GHz platform, called “Bodega”.  Bodega features the Whitecap2 network protocol, which combines 802.11 (Wi-Fi) MAC functionality with home-oriented features such as multimedia support, ease-of-use and reliability.  Bodega will be fully Wi-Fi compliant.  The Bodega schedule is estimated as follows: samples Q2, full production Q3, end products Q4.  

ShareWave also expects to be first-to-market with a 802.11e compliant version of Whitecap2 running on a 2.4GHz 802.11b radio.

IEEE 802.11e

General market expectancy:

Standard pending; products expected in 2002.

MAC layer specification that adds multimedia and QoS support to the current 802.11 WLAN standard.

IEEE 802.11e is a MAC enhancement that works with both the 802.11b and 802.11a PHYs, as well as the upcoming 802.11g PHY specification.

The current 802.11e draft specification is based in large part on a joint proposal from ShareWave, Lucent, and AT&T.

QoS and Multimedia Support:  802.11e adds these capabilities to 802.11 products (a, b and g).

Universal Standard:  802.11e is a watershed development because it adds home-focused features to the current business wireless LAN standard, creating a universal specification for home, enterprise and public environments, such as airports or hotels. 

Availability:  Currently a draft specification.  Final approval expected late this year or 1H next year, and products sometime following that.

ShareWave expects to be first-to-market with an 802.11e solution.

Significant elements of ShareWave’s Whitecap™ network protocol have been incorporated in the IEEE 802.11e draft specification.  

ShareWave played a key role in the formation of the 802.11e task group, and in the overall development of baseline and draft specifications.

IEEE 802.11g

General market expectancy:

Standard pending; products expected in 2002.

2.4GHz physical layer specification that will offer faster data rates than 802.11b (equal to or exceeding 22 Mbps).  Specification is currently under development and has not been ratified.  

Uses an OFDM PHY operating in the 2.4GHz band.  MAC based on the standard 802.11 MAC architecture.

Can also use Whitecap or 802.11e MAC for multimedia support.

Can interoperate with 802.11b nodes.

Speed:  802.11g’s higher data rates versus 802.11b enable both richer content to be sent across the network, as well as enabling more concurrent streams.

Interoperability:  802.11g is interoperable with the large and growing installed base of 802.11b networks. 

Lack of QoS, Interference, Complexity, Range Degradation:  802.11g presents the same disadvantages as outlined in the 802.11b section above. 

ShareWave’s Whitecap architecture will work with 802.11g PHY implementations, and address some of the key disadvantages, including multimedia/QoS support, interference immunity, ease of use, and extended range.