Wireless throughput hits 1Gbps

Researchers at Siemens Communications claim to have broken the speed record for transmitting wireless data after demonstrating throughput rates of 1Gbps.

The team used multiple antennas (three transmitting, four receiving), and a new technique called Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) which manages data flow to the best efficiency. The current best speed for Wi-Fi networks is around 50Mbps.

"Future mobile communication systems will have to use the frequency band as efficiently as possible, with the lowest possible transmit power," said Christoph Caselitz, president of the mobile networks division at Siemens Communications.

"With our experimental system, we have demonstrated how powerful intelligent antennas can combine with OFDM. In doing so, we have created a major module for future mobile communication systems."

Siemens had to develop specialist signal processing software to ensure that the data transmitted by each antenna could be correctly split and then reformed at the receiving point.

The company described the feat as similar to having multiple groups of people simultaneously conducting conversations with each other and other groups without interfering with one another.

Siemens developed the experimental 1Gbps transmission system in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications (Heinrich Hertz Institute) and the Institute for Applied Radio System Technology.