Quantenna Targets 10-Gig WiFi

WiFi is just now starting to nudge into 1 Gbps territory with today's 802.11ac technology, but Quantenna Communications claims a new chipset in development will be targeting throughputs of 10 Gbps.

Quantenna, which works with serive providers such as AT&T, DirecTV, Swisscom, Telefonica and Belgacom, said it will reach such lofty speeds by using an 8x8 MU-MIMO architecture. But the technology not’s yet fully cooked. Quantenna said it expects its 10G WiFi chipsets to become available in 2015, including support for MIMO configurations up to 8x8.

“We’ve made 4x4 MU-MIMO a reality, but we can’t stop there,” said Dr. Sam Heidari, Quantenna’s CEO, in a statement. “The demand for reliable, high-performance Wi-Fi will only increase. The number of Wi-Fi enabled devices in the home is growing faster than anyone predicted. Outdoor applications like carrier Wi-Fi, mobile offload and broadband delivery are quickly emerging. Wi-Fi has to keep up. That’s where 10G Wi-Fi comes in.”

“As we move into an era of exponentially-growing video usage and the Internet of Things, the 8x8 architecture and MU-MIMO technologies will become essential in all high-performance Wi-Fi devices,” added Andrea Goldsmith, Stephen Harris Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.