The state of wireless LAN technology is evolving rapidly. The most common use for a wireless network today is to connect a single notebook computer to a broadband internet connection. Increasingly, though, wireless networks are handling a growing number of clients due to the boom in notebooks with embedded wireless capability.
Wireless is a shared medium. So the more clients on the network, the less bandwidth there is for any given client. This problem will only grow worse as the number of wireless-ready devices mushrooms beyond notebooks and handheld computers. In fact, half of all wireless LAN chip sets will enable something other than a PC by 2004.
In the enterprise, for example, voice-over-IP phone systems and cellular phones with wireless LAN capabilities will follow the proliferation of wireless-enabled notebooks. And for the home, retailers are planning to stock shelves with a wide range of wireless-enabled products, from notebooks, desktops, printers and media servers to MP3 players, digital cameras, camcorders, DVD players and digital TV displays.
As more and more devices vie for the limited bandwidth of the wireless network, wireless LAN suppliers must find ways to wring every ounce of performance out of their hardware. At the same time, they must ensure that their hardware will be compatible – not only with existing equipment, but also with gear that ships in the future.
The IEEE recently approved 802.11g as the newest mainstream wireless LAN standard. It offers a dramatic increase in performance for 2.4GHz wireless networks. Another technique, called frame bursting, is emerging to extract even more performance out of wireless networks. It is a standards-based approach that increases performance by making the network more efficient.
This white paper describes frame bursting, and illustrates how it increases throughput in a variety of wireless LAN scenarios, including pure 802.11b, 802.11a and 802.11g networks as well as mixed 802.11b/ 802.11g environments.