MagnaCom has announced WAM-RX™, a patented ultra-sensitive Wi-Fi receiver that enables mobile devices to operate at much higher power efficiency. WAM-RX is Wi-Fi standard compliant receiver that empowers 802.11ax in mobile devices. Further validating the magnitude of this accomplishment, Fierce Wireless awarded WAM-RX their Best in Show award as the Best Technical Problem-Solver, in addition to a Spectrum Efficiency Winner.
MagnaCom has invented, and already delivered to customers – a new ultra-sensitive Wi-Fi receiver technology that improves power, range and speed for the billions of Wi-Fi devices already in use today. WAM-RX delivers those benefits while being fully Wi-Fi compliant. Demonstrating a dramatic 7 dB Wi-Fi system gain improvement – while using existing terminal station silicon with embedded CMOS PA, WAM-RX allows Wi-Fi connected devices to enjoy significant power reduction and extended reach, all with no change to terminal station silicon and without making any modifications to the Antenna, RF, or PA.
Wi-Fi is the most pervasive wireless technology today, and seamless hopping will further blur the lines between cellular and Wi-Fi networks in the future. IOT devices, wearable or embedded medical devices, and mobile devices will enjoy the massive power reduction and extended reach enabled by WAM-RX, while still being 100% Wi-Fi standard compliant. NETGEAR has been testing WAM-RX with its new Nighthawk® X8 R8500 router, which is one of the highest speed Wi-Fi routers in the market today. They are impressed with what they have seen so far.
WAM-RX Technology Highlights
- Receiver only solution based on standard Wi-Fi transmission
- No change to the terminal station (mobile phone, PC, etc.) silicon
- Support low cost embedded CMOS PA at high modulations (QAM-256, QAM-1024)
- Supports MIMO configurations, yielding even higher overall system benefit
- Saves 500mW for current mobile devices (802.11ac, at QAM-256, 22dbm)
- Makes 802.11ax possible in mobile devices, by saving over 1Watt of power (QAM-1024, 22dbm)
- Demonstrated even higher Wi-Fi speed (QAM-4096) with TODAY’s Wi-Fi PA
- New 2016 FCC regulation allows even higher transmit power, making WAM-RX even more impactful
WAM-RX Technical Information
WAM-RX’s also supports higher power transmission (Tx power) in high order modulations (such as MCS9 and beyond), far exceeding today’s acceptable EVM. The Tx power for high-order modulations is almost the same as the TX power used today in very low modulations (such as MCS1), and therefore is fully compliant with the Wi-Fi Standard, and other FCC requirements. In addition, WAM-RX’s highly compressed signal transmission does not impact network interoperability, which is still maintained at 100 percent. Transmitted signals fully comply with Wi-Fi mask, and other requirements such as Band-Edge. WAM-RX fully supports MIMO configurations, yielding even higher benefits, and overall network efficiency and power savings.
The benefit of higher order modulation is two fold: Increasing speed, and improving overall network efficiency – as devices get “on and off” the network much faster, and free up the airtime for other devices on the network. The standard compliant Wi-Fi solution mitigates congestion of legacy Wi-Fi terminals that coexist with the WAM-RX terminals. Transmitted signals fully comply with Wi-Fi mask, and other requirements such as Band-Edge. WAM-RX processing resources can be dynamically allocated over the connection configuration to maximize efficiency.
MagnaCom’s WAM-RX is a receiver only solution based on standard compliant Wi-Fi, with no change to the terminal station silicon. It increases transmit power of terminals with existing radio designs and power amplifiers (PA), and significantly improves power efficiency. WAM-RX also enables Mobile phones and PCs to employ higher order modulation, while allowing PA operation at a much lower transmitter output power backoff – close to the PA saturation. In doing so, enabling higher capacity uplinks for 4K HD video and large cloud uploads at a useful and meaningful range. High error vector magnitude (EVM) is tolerated, with the powerful demodulator achieving virtually linear channel performance even for a highly distorted signal. WAM-RX successfully tested with embedded (internal) CMOS PA in actual Wi-Fi chips.
Availability
MagnaCom’s WAM-RX technology is available to early access partners immediately. Click here to learn more.
