Quantenna Claims 1Gbps Wi-Fi Speeds By Next Year

Higher latency and much lower speed are keeping Wi-Fi out of a lot of business settings, even considering massive performance increases of new 802.11n over previous standards. Quantenna says it can remedy these problems with existing technology, and using techniques that are already part of the 802.11n standard. Though there is pretty much no way to tell if their throughput claims are at all reasonable, the basic idea behind the system is simple, and probably doable: lots and lots of parallel connections.

The 802.11n standard already uses parallel data transmission, doubling up data streams to reach its claimed 300Mbps raw data throughput. Quantenna thinks they can stack that same tech to reach a ridiculous 1Gbps, which they claim they’ll be able to do for under $US50 per chipset. The same principles can be applied for purposes of redundancy, achieving greater reliability and range but at typical 802.11n speeds, which nobody really cares about because — honestly now — 1Gbps. [Ars]