U.S. Robotics Promises 100-Mbps Throughput With 802.11g Products

U.S. Robotics maximizes network capacity by placing all the speed on a single channel, said Kevin Goulet, director of product management at the Schaumburg, Ill.-based wireless networking and modem vendor.

Included in U.S. Robotics' new 802.11g Wireless Turbo product line is an access point and router, which includes an 802.11g turbo access point, four-port Ethernet switch, router and firewall. The product lists for about $130.

Also included in the new product family, set to ship in July, is a multifunction access point, which includes an access point, bridge, multibridge, client and repeater. This device is capable of bridging both wired and wireless networks, and the repeater function relays signals across multiple access points for greater wireless range and coverage, the company said. The product has a list price of about $250.

A turbo PCI adapter, which lists at about $100, and a site-survey feature and wireless turbo PC card, which has a list price of about $80 and a low-power design feature, are also among the new products in U.S. Robotics Wireless Turbo product line.

The company, in partnership with chip maker Texas Instruments, waited to see how the evolving standard would shake out before coming out with 802.11g products, Goulet said .

"Now we are coming out with what we believe is a better mousetrap," Goulet said. "It's a better product line, with better security, and it can work with all the different flavored cards out there, at the highest speed possible."

Solution providers have expressed enthusiasm about the 802.11g standard because it promises to extend data rates from the current, popular 802.11b 11 Mbps to a projected 54 Mbps while maintaining backward compatibility with 802.11b.

While some estimates place the actual throughput connection speeds much lower--at about 20 Mbps in a crowded 2.4MHz frequency--the new standard is considered an improvement from 802.11b and a more affordable alternative to 802.11a. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) recently moved the final draft of 802.11g toward an expected ratification on June 12.

Michael Allton, sales manager at Viking Technology, a wireless networking solution provider in Norwalk, Ohio, said the promise of 100-Mbps throughput in a wireless network is great news because one of the biggest barriers Viking faces in convincing customers to go wireless is the issue of speed.

"We have a lot of customers who run internal databases, and we've had some questions about putting in a wireless network and how that would perform compared to a wired network," said Allton. "Obviously, that question becomes moot with these new products."