Swisscom's 4x4 MIMO From Quantenna

Swisscom is deploying the world's first 4x4 MIMO 802.11n gateway. Wireless has long promised speeds fast enough for 4 HD video streams, with 802.11n offering 54 megabits up to a nominal 600 megabits. In practice, no carrier has found wireless to deliver the speeds needed reliably. Dropouts and lost packets look ugly on the TV screen, so even occasional errors are unacceptable.
A 4x4 MIMO chip supports four antennas both for transmitting and receiving, the maximum allowed in the standard. Stéphane Dufour of Swisscom says Netgear/Quantenna gateway is "capable of guaranteeing the performance and reliability that our subscribers need."
Quantenna's founder Behrooz Rezvani delivered the world's fastest VDSL DMT chips years ago at Ikanos reaching 100 meg. He's looking to match that feat at Quantenna. Delivering the first 4x4 is impressive, but I'm withholding judgment until I get substantial feedback from the field.
Imran Hajimusa in January showed me an impressive demo of their 802.11 chip simultaneously carrying four HD streams. It's only 3x3, but Hajimusa believes Lantiq design features will yield a better chip. A third company, Celeno, has a major win at Liberty Global, the world's #2 cableco.
They write me "MIMO by itself does not correlate necessarily to good carrier-grade Wi-Fi performance. Video over Wi-Fi needs long range and consistent throughput with very low packet loss. In low SNR conditions (i.e. long reach and/or rich multipath home environment), the number of spatial streams typically degrades to one." Celeno supports "transmit beam forming to extend range, scheduled MAC for QoS and additional features such as antenna diversity and channel aware rate selection for increased robustness to fight off dead spots, people moving, dependency on device orientation , etc."
Balan Nair, CTO of Liberty Global, gives Celeno strong support. “Wireless delivery of video content to multiple video displays is an important part of our home gateway strategy, Celeno was able to meet our stringent performance requirements. Its Wi-Fi solution demonstrated the level of flexibility required." Nair was CTO at Qwest back when they were building the world's first substantial VDSL network in Phoenix and his opinion is always well-informed.
Off the record comments from readers testing the new chips very welcome.
Here's Wikipedia's explanation of the number of antennas
The number of simultaneous data streams is limited by the minimum number of antennas in use on both sides of the link. However, the individual radios often further limit the number of spatial streams that may carry unique data. The notation helps identify what a given radio is capable of. The first number (a) is the maximum number of transmit antennas or RF chains that can be used by the radio. The second number (b) is the maximum number of receive antennas or RF chains that can be used by the radio. The third number (c) is the maximum number of data spatial streams the radio can use. For example, a radio that can transmit on two antennas and receive on three, but can only send or receive two data streams would be .
The 802.11n draft allows up to
Quantenna, Swisscom and Netgear Release the World’s First Reliable Video over Wi-Fi 4x4 MIMO Deployment
Switzerland’s Leading Carrier Deploys NETGEAR Video Bridge That Uses Quantenna’s Wi-Fi 4x4 MIMO Technology to Deliver Most Reliable Wi-Fi Service, Anywhere in the Home.
FREMONT, Calif., October 19, 2010 -- Quantenna Communications, Inc., the leader in ultra-reliable Wi-Fi video networking for whole-home entertainment, today announced that its Full-11n™ 4x4 MIMO 802.11n chipset has been selected by NETGEAR® for a video-bridge solution that Swisscom has used to complete field trials of the first high-definition (HD) video-over-Wi-Fi service from a major worldwide provider.
The collaboration between Swisscom, NETGEAR and Quantenna is the result of a development partnership between the three companies. In 2008, Swisscom began working with Quantenna to define and develop video service-delivery technology that provides whole-home coverage at very high data rates, which is mandatory for services and applications such as HDTV. NETGEAR, whose first video bridge was introduced in January 2008 at CES, joined the partnership in 2009 to deliver a video bridge that uses Quantenna’s Full-11n product to transport multiple HD video streams from residential gateways to multiple set-top boxes around the home with the highest possible reach and performance. Swisscom will use the NETGEAR video bridge with Quantenna’s Full-11n solution to deploy its whole-home broadband wireless video networking service this month.
“We are excited to be the world’s first major carrier to deploy HD video-over-Wi-Fi services using reliable 4x4 MIMO technology. The close collaboration between Quantenna, NETGEAR and Swisscom resulted in an innovative technology capable of guaranteeing the performance and reliability that our subscribers need for an excellent experience,” said Stéphane Dufour, executive in charge of strategy and innovation with Swisscom.
“Quantenna and NETGEAR have worked closely to ensure that Swisscom’s wireless broadband video service exceeds customer expectations for quality and reliability,” said Michael Clegg, vice president and general manager of the service provider business unit at NETGEAR. “NETGEAR’s new WHDE3004 video bridge leverages Quantenna’s industry-leading 4x4 MIMO technology to deliver the most satisfying consumer experience possible while reducing customer support requirements and minimizing truck rolls and overall deployment costs.”
Quantenna’s third-generation 802.11n chipset fully supports the IEEE802.11n standard with advanced 4x4 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) capabilities as well as dynamic digital beamforming, mesh networking and wireless channel monitoring and optimizing. These features work together to deliver performance improvement across five times the coverage area as compared to earlier WLAN technology. Wi-Fi networks that use Quantenna chipsets are capable of delivering the same quality as wired Ethernet, anywhere in the home, while guaranteeing compatibility with existing and future IEEE 802.11n-compliant products. The chipsets also minimize system latencies for real-time applications such as online multi-player role-playing games using bidirectional video-game controllers.
“Quantenna is excited and proud to be part of the world’s first major 4x4 MIMO video-over-Wi-Fi service deployment by a leading worldwide carrier,” said David French, Quantenna CEO. “Our technology gives Swisscom a platform for deploying a variety of triple-play voice, data and video services, with the option to support new service models such as centralized, multi-room DVRs and remote DVR/STB maintenance and management.” Written by Dave Burstein


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