Design and implementation of a CMOS 802.11n SoC

  • Authors:

  • Sundar G. Sankaran;Masoud Zargari;Lalitkumar Y. Nathawad;Hirad Samavati;Srenik S. Mehta;Alireza Kheirkhahi;Phoebe Chen;Ke Gong;Babak Vakili-Amini;Justin A. Hwang;Shuo-Wei Mike Chen;Manolis Terrovitis;Brian J. Kaczynski;Sotirios Limotyrakis;Michael P. Mack;Haitao Gan;Meelan Lee;Richard T. Chang;Hakan Dogan;Shahram Abdollahi-Alibeik;Burcin Baytekin;Keith Onodera;Suni Mendis;Andrew Chang;Yashar Rajavi;Steve Hung-Min Jen;David K. Su;Bruce A. Wooley

  • Affiliations:

  • Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Atheros Communications;Stanford University

  • Venue:
  • IEEE Communications Magazine
  • Year:
  • 2009

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.25

Visualization

Abstract

Wireless local area networks based on the IEEE 802.11 standard are rapidly replacing wires within homes and offices. The latest data-rate amendment to the IEEE 802.11 standard, known as the 802.11n, provides enhanced user experience by exploiting MIMO techniques that use multiple antennas for both transmitter and receiver. In conjunction with MAC layer improvements such as aggregating data, the 802.11n standard supports PHY data rates as high as 600 Mb/s with four spatial streams. This article discusses various MAC and PHY level modifications introduced in 802.11n, as well as the architecture, design trade-offs, and implementation details of a two spatial stream CMOS 802.11n-draft-compliant SoC.