PCTEL Inc., vendor of Performance Critical TELecom solutions, announced Tuesday that it developed a reference antenna system for a major 802.11ax Wi-Fi chipset manufacturer. The 802.11ax chipset is the next evolution of the Wi-Fi standard, designed to serve a wide variety of high-throughput devices in dense user environments.
PCTEL’s reference design enables 802.11ax access points to take full advantage of the chipset’s capabilities. PCTEL’s engineers are among the first to develop an antenna system truly optimized for 802.11ax.
The company’s precision antennas are deployed in small cells, enterprise Wi-Fi access points, fleet management and transit systems, and in equipment and devices for the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). It also offers in-house design, testing, radio integration, and manufacturing capabilities for antenna customers.
PCTEL’s test and measurement tools improve the performance of wireless networks globally, with a focus on LTE, public safety, and emerging 5G technologies. Network operators, neutral hosts, and equipment manufacturers rely on our scanning receivers and testing solutions to analyze, design, and optimize their networks.
With a properly optimized antenna system, an 802.11ax access point can produce up to a 4x increase in overall capacity. 802.11ax utilizes complex antenna arrays covering both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, enabling 8×8 MU-MIMO (Multi-User MIMO) on both uplink and downlink.
PCTEL’s design also provides high isolation between antenna elements and uniform omnidirectional coverage for dual 5 GHz radios, further increasing the number of devices that can be served reliably by a single access point. PCTEL’s engineers leveraged the company’s laboratory capabilities to design and test an antenna system that works seamlessly with the manufacturer’s chipset and access point reference design.
“This reference design includes patent-pending technology that places PCTEL at the forefront of exciting new developments in embedded wireless systems,” said Rishi Bhardwaj, PCTEL’s Senior Vice President and GM, Connected Solutions. “We are also customizing our 802.11ax antenna system designs and integrating them with enterprise or industrial-grade devices, such as access points, routers, and set-top boxes.”
