Quantenna Communications announced that it is developing what it claims is "the world’s first 10G Wi-Fi chipset," designed to drive a new generation of wireless access points in homes, enterprises and public spaces. With an architecture enabling MIMO configurations up to an unprecedented 8x8, speeds up to 10 Gbps and universal support for MU-MIMO clients, Quantenna contends that its new 10G Wi-Fi chipset will deliver unparalleled wireless performance, range and stability.
Quantenna notes that it was the first to deliver 4x4 chipsets for the 802.11n and 802.11ac Wi-Fi standards, and the first to support MU-MIMO technology for transmitting data to multiple devices at once.
“We’ve made 4x4 MU-MIMO a reality, but we can’t stop there,” comments Dr. Sam Heidari, CEO, Quantenna Communications. “The demand for reliable, high-performance Wi-Fi will only increase. The number of Wi-Fi-enabled devices in the home is growing faster than anyone predicted. Outdoor applications like carrier Wi-Fi, mobile offload and broadband delivery are quickly emerging. Wi-Fi has to keep up. That’s where 10G Wi-Fi comes in. Wi-Fi is no longer a convenience. People expect it to ‘just work’ even with demanding applications like HD video streaming. With Quantenna’s 10G Wi-Fi, they’ll always get the performance they expect—even as their expectations continue to rise.”
Related: Amendment to 802.11ac spec unveils MU MIMO technology
Quantenna plans to complement its 4x4 offerings by making the first 10G Wi-Fi chipsets available in 2015, including support for MIMO configurations up to 8x8. According to the company, "massive MIMO" is the industry term for an advanced radio utilizing an array of many antennas to dramatically increase capacity through multi-user MIMO processing.
“Quantenna’s 8x8 architecture with adaptive beamforming demonstrates that the ‘massive MIMO’ promise of significantly higher throughput, robustness, and reduced interference can be realized in practice,” asserts Andrea Goldsmith, Stephen Harris Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. “This architecture will also significantly enhance the capabilities of MU-MIMO, allowing it to support interference-free transmission to many more devices simultaneously. These technology advances will transform the landscape of applications and devices that Wi-Fi can support."
Goldsmith adds, "As we move into an era of exponentially-growing video usage and the Internet of Things, the 8x8 architecture and MU-MIMO technologies will become essential in all high-performance Wi-Fi devices.”