CL1300 802.11a/n Wi-Fi radio
Distributing video in the home and creating the wireless HDMI replacement has been a subject of discussion and many investments in new products. The result has been a variety of wireless technologies such as SiBeam’s 60-GHz band solution, Amimon’s extensive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) solution, and WiMedia’s Ultra-Wideband. Celeno Wireless Communications now offers another choice.
The CL1300 802.11a/n Wi-Fi radio (see the figure) operates from 4.9 to 5.85 GHz. It uses antenna diversity and beamforming to improve range and data rate as well as a four-element antenna array with two discrete elements on the receiver. The Carmel reference design kit incorporates the CL1300 and other devices to implement a wireless HDMI interface.
The reference design handles HDMI 1.3 transmit and receive and composite video and S-video interfaces. It can transmit and receive 1080p, 1080i, 720p60, and standard digital resolutions. Typical over the air data rates range from 10 to 20 Mbits/s. H.264 video compression is used along with standard PCM audio.
Celeno’s testing shows that the CL1300 can reliably cover a typical 2500- to 3500-square-foot home through walls and ceilings. Using the real-time transmission algorithms, the system’s beamforming and antenna switching let it adapt to changing environments and guarantee zero errors as it overcomes channel fading, dead zones, and signal interferences. HDTV manufacturer Vizio has selected the chip for use in wireless connections to Blu-ray DVDs and set top boxes.
Also, Celeno’s CL1800 second-generation 802.11n chipset optimizes 802.11n performance for whole-home HD video distribution applications. Manufacturers and OEMs can leverage it to enable residential gateways, multimedia home routers, set-top boxes, digital video recorders (DVRs), networked TVs, wireless HDMI bridges, and a variety of other consumer electronics (CE) devices with robust, wire-like, HD video distribution throughout the home.
The CL1800 chipset builds on the success of the CL1300, with its field-proven implicit transmit beam-forming technology. It quadruples the video throughput/range combination of typical 802.11n systems, reaching more than 120 Mbits/s of video throughput at the edge of the home with zero packet errors. The chipset also supports up to eight concurrent HD video streams. And, it meets carrier-grade performance requirements.
The highly integrated CL1800 combines an 802.11n media access controller/physical layer (MAC/PHY) baseband, a dual-band radio, and a powerful CPU. The system-on-a-chip (SoC) includes a powerful MIPS processor and complementary software, enabling it to run as a completely self-contained unit. This frees the host CPU from any Wi-Fi MAC processing, simplifying integration of the CL1800 into devices such as gateways and DVRs. Further, the CL1800 features 2.4/5-GHz dual-band operation, up to three spatial streams, a PHY rate of up to 450 Mbits/s, 20/40-MHz channel bandwidth, transmit digital beam forming, and PCI/PCI Express/RGMII/MII/USB interfaces.
Celeno’s OptimizAIR technology builds on top of standard 802.11n and combines several innovative technologies that work together to boost performance and throughput as needed to support whole-home HD video streaming. These include Transmit Beam Forming MIMO for increased range, TDM Scheduled MAC to support multiple clients with the appropriate quality of service (QoS), channel-aware rate selection for zero packet error rate, real-time antenna diversity for robustness and interference resiliency based on adaptive interference detection, fast channel selection, and dynamic 20/40-MHz operation. The OptimizAIR expert system drives up performance by applying real time packet-by-packet channel estimation to each one of those elements for fully channel-aware silicon.
Celeno developed the CL1800 with Ralink as part of the companies’ strategic partnership. The CL1800 family includes two variants. The high-end CL1830 supports up to three transmit and three receive radios, while the cost-effective CL1820 supports two transmit and three receive radios. The CL1800 and selected reference designs are now available.