First Wireless Chip to Outstrip Wired Speeds
The question, “What about UWB?” comes up often. The short answer is 802.11n, an evolving IEEE standard in the ISM band. Radio chip vendor Airgo has just announced a MIMO chipset
with speeds up to 240 Mbps and reverse compatibility with 802.11a/b/g.
While this level of performance is cool and all, it still begs the
question, “do hospitals really need this much throughput?” A typical
multi parameter patient monitor needs about 12 kbs, a fraction of
Airgo's new speed. But if you're running on a shared infrastructure,
with bandwidth hogs like wireless PACS and VoIP communications, maybe
more is better.
