A high-speed wireless LAN

WLAN systems face technical problems similar to those encountered in outdoor wide-area radio-based systems, including the limited available bandwidth and fading noise due to multipath interference and blockage. The goal in WLAN system design is to transmit at the maximum information rate with an acceptable probability of error and minimum equipment complexity, power, and cost. Competing approaches use either infrared radiation or radio waves in the microwave or millimeter-wave bands. We have developed a radio solution at millimeter-wavelength frequencies, where the spectrum is sufficient to accommodate link speeds of hundreds of Mbps. Using a test bed with burst-mode transmission capability and an experimental 40-GHz radio, we have demonstrated a picocellular approach with a range of approximately 10 meters and link rates up to 185 Mbps. In addition, we have built a prototype modem with a raw link rate of 54 Mbps for use in a high-speed indoor WLAN demonstrator