AT&T is about to start consumer field trials of its U-verse service using Ruckus Wireless gear to deliver HD IPTV streams over WiFi throughout the home, Light Reading has learned. The drive for AT&T, sources say, is to find ways to shave minutes, maybe hours, off some new customer installations by using 802.11n wireless connections instead of coaxial cable as the home’s main video distribution medium.
There is a precedent of big carriers using WiFi to deliver IPTV in the home. Ruckus customers include TeliaSonera AB , Belgacom SA and Telenor ASA, to name a few. But this is interesting because it’s AT&T’s first reported use of something other than a wired connection in its U-verse homes, and it involves the new version of Ruckus’s equipment, the MediaFlex 7000, which was designed to handle HDTV.
Ruckus says its 802.11n equipment can ensure the transmission of 30 Mbit/s to 50 Mbit/s of guaranteed throughput for streaming video throughout a typical 2,500 square-foot to 3,000 square-foot (230 square meter) home. The MediaFlex 7000 device manual says it can support four to six MPEG-4 HDTV IPTV streams running at 10 Mbit/s each.
In Light Reading’s test of Ruckus’s gear last year in a real AT&T U-verse home, Ruckus performed well. That, of course, was just one case study, and deploying AT&T’s U-verse has, in practice, been an exercise in finding just the right homes, with just the right wiring, at just the right distance from an AT&T VRAD. (See Unstrung: Raising a Ruckus With U-verse.)
Still, other wireless HDTV approaches exist. They include;
- WirelessHD: Uses 60GHz and allows for uncompressed, digital transmission of full HD video and audio and data signals. WirelessHD promoters include chipmaker SiBEAM, Broadcom, Intel, LG, Panasonic, Toshiba, NEC, SAMSUNG and Sony.
- The WiGig Alliance also plans to use unlicensed 60-gigahertz, similar to WirelessHD. WiGig, however, may enhance the spec by combining it with traditional Wi-Fi networking. With WiFi, it may go through walls and cover the entire home, explains Venture Beat. Products based on the WGA specification will be capable of at least 1 Gbps at a typical range of 10 meters though some implementations will be capable of speeds more than 6 Gbps at greater distances.
- Wireless Home Digital Interface (WHDI): Uses the 5 GHz unlicensed band for uncompressed 1080p in a 40 MHz channel. WHDI promoters include chipmaker AMIMON, Hitachi, LG, Motorola, SAMSUNG, Sharp and Sony.
- Ultrawideband: Uses a large bandwidth (3.1 to 10.6 GHz) at very low power, limiting speeds in excess of 675 Mbit/s. UWB/Wireless USB promoters include chipmakers Alereon and Staccato, the WiMedia Alliance and Bluetooth 3.0.
Both 802.11ad (60GHz) and 802.11ac (5GHz) are years away from a working standard. WiGig may be available for consumers next year.
Related Dailywireless articles include; In-Stat: UWB Effectively Dead, Wireless HDTV Gets Amimon Chips, Bluetooth 3.0 Announced, and UWB WiMedia Alliance Dissolved, Absorbed In Bluetooth
