Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) is updating it WLAN portfolio today with a new flagship Aironet access point. The Aironet 3600 is a three spatial stream device with a simulataneous 2.4 and 5 Ghz, 4×4 antenna design. The total theoretical speed of the access point comes in at 900 Mbps.
Specified speed alone doesn’t define the true capabilities of any Wi-Fi access point as things such as reach and signal integrity often are more important to end-users in an enterprise deployment.
“The cool thing about the extra fourth antenna is that we have a degree for redundancy that lets us speed up the slower clients,” Sylvia Hooks, senior manager, wireless solutions at Cisco.”We’re able to speed mobile devices that need speeding up and there is no special software or standards required on the client side.”
Hooks explained that the Aironet 3600 has four transmit and receive antennas that allows for more consistent upload speeds. The need for more consistent speeds is important to help consumer-grade devices like tablets that don’t have strong transmit power capabilities.
“So even if the signal is weak from the mobile device, we’re able to compensate,” Hooks said. “On the reverse side, when we get a signal from a mobile client, we’re able to calculate its’ location and then send back to that exact location using beam forming.”
Read the full story at Wi-FiPlanet.com:
Cisco Accelerates Wi-Fi with Aironet 3600
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist
