Qualcomm bolsters TGn Sync group's 802.11n proposal

Up till now, the San Diego, California based proponent of CDMA technologies had its own proposals for 802.11n.

It has now withdrawn that proposal and the Tgn Sync consortium — which already comprises 20 companies across the cellular, computing, consumer electronics, enterprise networking, mobile radio, public access and semiconductor markets, including Agere Systems, Cisco Systems, Sony, Toshiba, Samsung, Nortel, Intel Atheros, and Royal Philips — gains access to Qualcomm's multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technology, which greatly improves wireless performance through the use of multiple transmit and receive antennas.

Another group, dubbed WWiSE (for World Wide Spectrum Efficiency) and including companies such as Texas Instruments, Broadcom, Motorola, Conexant and ST Microelectronics, is working on an alternate proposal that differs significantly from the TGn Sync group's.

The TGn version would use two MIMO antennas, in combination with 40 MHz channels, to create a device that will provide 250 Mbit/s of bandwidth and a theoretical 175 Mbit/s of usable throughput.

Members of the WWiSE coalition suggest this would reduce the number of available non-overlapping 802.11 channels and be illegal in some countries, for instance, Japan. Instead, it has proposed technology that uses four MIMO antennas, while sticking with the 20 MHz channels currently specified by 802.11.

This approach, they suggest, is more spectrally efficient, and would face fewer regulatory obstacles.

Ed Tiedemann, senior vice president of engineering, Qualcomm, said in a statement: "We believe that the TGn Sync proposal will serve as the fundamental basis for the 802.11n standard and provides the highest possible throughput and quality of service for next-generation wireless networks." A statement from TGn Sync added : "By applying Qualcomm's expertise in wireless and MIMO technology development, we are strengthening our proposal for the 802.11n standard. Working together, our cross-industry group will be in a much better position to advance the standard swiftly."