Addressing client devices, smart home, and infrastructure, CEVA releases RivieraWaves RW-AX family of 802.11ax Wi-Fi intellectual property (IP). Reportedly, CEVA is the first company to offer licensable 802.11ax solutions in a comprehensive platform that allows users to integrate the latest Wi-Fi standard into next-gen designs.
With the proliferation of smart phones, over-the-top boxes, and smart home devices relying on Wi-Fi, the spectrum has become congested, which causes below-par service and reduced bandwidth. Wi-Fi 802.11ax provides 25% data rate improvements over 802.11ac as well as boosts of spectrum efficiency and network capacity. These include the use of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) for bandwidth sharing and uplink Multi-User MIMO capabilities for more symmetrical data loads.
Moreover, with the addition of other features such as wake-time scheduling, this latest generation of Wi-Fi also addresses the needs of IoT and low power devices, offering greater efficiency and lower power consumption. As a result, 802.11ax in a slim 1x1 configuration is an ideal future-proofing replacement for 802.11n in ultra-low power IoT devices. The RivieraWaves RW-AX family includes:
- RW-AX Low Power: This 11ax 20MHz platform is ideal for small, low power IoT devices, including wearables.
- RW-AX High Performance: The 802.11ax 1x1 and 2x2 platforms with symmetrical Multi-User MIMO are tailored for high performance applications such as smartphones, tablets, set top box and smart home access points.
- RW-AX Multi-Gig: Highest performance 802.11ax up to 4x4, addressing the most advanced use cases including access points, media gateways and Wi-Fi offload in small cells.
Each incorporates PHY modem functions and MAC functions, including Lower MAC (LMAC) and Full MAC software protocol stacks. The IP is provided with an integration-ready platform containing an optional open-source processor and is operating-system-agnostic, simplifying deployment in SoC/ASSP designs.
Initial members of the RivieraWaves RW-AX family will be available for licensing in the second quarter of 2018. Of course, more information and specs are available right now.