Researchers have used an advanced form of the technology used in Wifi to achieve a record wireless throughput of 1Gbit/second.
The range was about five metres across a lab, but researchers say it could have reached further.
It used orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation and multiple in multiple out (Mimo) technology.
Both are expected to be used in next-generation 802.11n Wifi, which should appear in products towards the summer of 2006 and will have data rates in excess of 100Mbits/sec.
Mimo uses multiple aerials at the transmitter and receiver ends. These transmit different data flows over the same frequencies, like different groups of people holding separate conversations in one room. Clever processing at the receiver can separate the data from the different sources, increasing the throughput a lot.
Speeds in excess of 1Gbit/sec had been achieved wirelessly before but only using methods requiring line of sight and directional aerials. These are easily blocked and less suitable for mobile links because the aerial must keep pointing in the right direction. 'Our link needs no line of sight or tracking and so it allows for true mobility of the user. This is really novel at such high data rates,' said Volker Jungnickel of the Fraunhofer Institute, which is working on the technology. It shows that the technology underlying 11n Wifi is feasible and scalable to much higher data rates - although 11n works in bandwidths of 20 or 40MHz, whereas the experimental system used 100MHz. Mimo technology is in use in 'pre-n' products that offer high bandwidth between compliant devices that don't conform to a standard, although they default to Wifi when talking to devices from other manufacturers.
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