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| EMagazine Volume 5 Issue 6 Dec 2000 / Jan 2001 |
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802.11a theoretically offers a five-fold increase in data rate over the 11 Mbps offered by 802.11b. This means that it can handle more simultaneous users in the enterprise setting, and that it is better suited to handle multimedia-intensive communications. Navin Sabharwal is Director of Residential & Networking Technologies with Allied Business Intelligence, specializing in residential connectivity. His latest study is titled "Bluetooth: More Than A Cable Replacement." |
Just when it seemed that the wireless local area network (WLAN) space could not get any more crowded, yet another technology, IEEE 802.11a is emerging onto the scene. 802.11a is an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard that specifies the operation of a WLAN technology in the unlicensed 5 GHz frequency band. The 802.11a physical layer specification is based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) and will allow data rates of 6 Mbps to 54 Mbps. 802.11a will reuse the quality of service (QoS) and media access control (MAC) enhancements currently being developed as part of the IEEE 802.11e specification, and that will be used with 802.11b.
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The conventional wisdom as recently as 8 months ago was that 802.11a-compliant products would not be available before the end of 2002. However, recent events have raised expectations as to the availability of 802.11a chipsets and hence end-user products. Two start-ups, Atheros and Radiata, have announced that they will be ready shortly to begin sampling their 802.11a chipsets. As a result, it is possible that production volume silicon could be available in the second half of 2001.
This has shaken up the WLAN industry, which is currently experiencing tremendous growth with 802.11b solutions. Cisco has moved to acquire of Radiata, and Intersil, the leading 802.11b silicon vendor, has unveiled a 5 GHz silicon roadmap.
The most compelling aspect of what has been announced is that both Radiata and Atheros have committed to $35 silicon solutions, marginally below the current complex integrated circuit (IC) cost of an 802.11b solution. The ability to deliver silicon at these prices will be heavily dependent on producing the radio in complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), a silicon process that would drive lower costs but that is also relatively untested in the design of WLAN radios.
Obstacles
While 802.11a sounds promising, there are a few reasons why it may initially fail to meet already inflated expectations. First, there are legitimate concerns about the range that 802.11a could realistically achieve. Second, power consumption is likely to be a major concern with first generation silicon. Third, the aggressive price targets announced will be highly dependent on manufacturing yield. Lastly, since 802.11a and 802.11b are not interoperable there is a problem in backwards compatibility.
Implications
A number of home networking industry participants are closely following 802.11a activity. They are trying to discern whether or not the technology will be cost-effective for use in residential and in consumer applications with the first generation of silicon solutions. In particular, consumer electronics vendors are aggressively seeking a wireless connectivity solution that can comfortably handle video streams with the payloads of DVD and HDTV signals (8 Mbps and 20 Mbps, respectively). It may be that by the time wireless home networking begins to penetrate consumer electronics devices, 802.11a will be a viable solution.
Allied Business Intelligence Inc is an Oyster Bay, NY-based technology research think tank specializing in communications and emerging technology markets. ABI publishes strategic research on the broadband, wireless, electronics, networking and energy industries. Details of these studies can be found at www.alliedworld.com , or call 516-624-3113 for more info.
