802.11n throttles up WLAN throughput

摘要

The drive for higher throughput in wireless LANs has pushed the IEEE to develop 802.11n, a new version of the 802.11 standard that promises throughput in excess of 100M bit/sec in 20-MHz to 40-MHz of bandwidth. This standard would permit very-high-speed interconnection of wireless devices over distances of 300 feet or more. Current IEEE 802.11a/g WANs operate with raw data rates up to 54M bit/sec, but the actual throughputs are generally no more than 20M bit/sec. Although fine for many applications, interconnection devices with higher data rates, particularly HDTV and streaming video, can require throughputs of 100M bit/sec and higher. Achieving this throughput within the unlicensed channel of 20 MHz requires improvements in the physical layer (that is, the raw data rate) and the efficiency of the media access control (MAC) layer, such that the throughput is closer to the raw data rate.