USR Creates Another Speed Boost for 802.11b+

US Robotics (USR) has long had available a set of products using the Texas Instruments (TI) ACX100 chipset. Using PBCC modulation to get that extra bit of bandwidth (instead of regular 802.11b's DSSS modulation), products using TI's chips have been rated at 22Mbps in the 2.4GHz band -- a proprietary solution on top of a standard, which has come to be called 802.11b+.

Now those products are getting what Chicago-based USR calls boost to 54Mbps type performance like that found in products out today using the draft of the 802.11g specification. Using a mix of software and firmware upgrades the company calls "XLerator Technology," USR's 802.11b+ products can get four times the real-world throughput by installing a free download.

Kevin Goulet, director of product management at USR says the update is "utilizing technology TI put together and that we optimized."

USR is not claiming a jump to 54Mbps for its 802.11b+ products -- instead it says that the real-world throughput of its 802.11b+ will jump to around 10 to 15Mbps of usable throughput in a mixed mode environment. That's similar to what's been found in testing of the initial products using draft 802.11g. The 11g standard is likely to be ratified later this summer.

The USR products that can use the XLerator Technology are: the USR2249 access point, the USR2210 PC Card, the USR 2216 and 2215 PCI adapters, and the USR8022 Wireless Cable/DSL Router. The updates are free and available for download now on all the products but the router, which won't be available until May.

This speed increase is similar to a throughput boost D-Link announced late last year for its one AirPlus Enhanced line of 802.11b+ products. In D-Link's case, the upgrade -- called 4X -- has been slowly being added to products over the last few months with little fanfare. D-Link's support site recommends using 4X mode only if you have a complete set of AirPlus wireless products -- it doesn't work other products.

Previously if two 802.11b+ products from different vendors were used together they could get the PBCC speed boost. Goulet says Xlerator-powered USR products used with 4X D-Link products will probably not get the equivalent boost, but they would still communicate at the 802.11b+ speeds which were enhanced over standard 802.11b.

Goulet says URS has plans for 802.11g-based product for later in the year.