Intel Corporation and ArrayComm today announced a collaboration to incorporate key requirements into the IEEE 802.16 standard to improve the protocol’s ability to support smart antenna technology. As part of the collaboration, ArrayComm will develop IEEE 802.16-compliant smart antenna solutions and Intel plans to support ArrayComm’s solution with its future IEEE 802.16e WiMAX client device chipsets. This combination is expected to yield large improvements in overall system range, capacity, and coverage quality for 802.16 networks, offering WiMAX users higher data rates over wider areas.
“As industry momentum continues to build around WiMAX, we are seeing a tremendous amount of innovation happening in many different aspects of the technology,” said Scott Richardson, general manager of Intel’s Broadband Wireless Group. “We are excited to work with ArrayComm to bring their considerable experience to bear on the radio fundamentals of range and network capacity that are so critical to the success of WiMAX.”
“Today’s announcement is a great stride forward in realizing the vision we at ArrayComm have always held — that smart antenna technology is an essential ingredient in wireless broadband access systems and a key enabler to numerous applications,” said Martin Cooper, ArrayComm’s executive chairman. “Intel’s leadership in the WiMAX community makes them a great colleague in helping operators worldwide reap the benefits ArrayComm’s technology can bring to the standard.”
ArrayComm’s unique smart antenna technology, serving over 40 million subscribers to date, has been field-proven to enhance radio network performance cost-effectively in several wireless protocols. ArrayComm’s technology applied to WiMAX is expected to yield substantial network economic advantages to wireless operators.
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