Cisco’s Linksys division says that one Wi-Fi network won’t do the job in today’s digital media home. Two are needed, it says, one for entertainment videos and the other for traditional data uses such as shared printers and data files. Funnily enough the company’s new Simultaneous Dual-N Band Wireless Router (WRT610N) operates two separate Wi-Fi networks, one dedicated exclusively to handling videos.
Videos, whether they are Hollywood productions in high def or grainy user-generated ones from YouTube, suck up a lot of bandwidth on a home network. The WRT610N is designed to achieve “true” Wireless-N performance by operating in two wireless spectrums: 5GHz and 2.4GHz. Since it can operate in both simultaneously, it effectively doubles the available Wi-Fi bandwidth.
Linksys recommends that users connect entertainment-oriented devices such as Windows Media Center Extenders, audio players and DVRs to the wider 5GHz band, and connect other devices like PCs, print servers or network attached storage devices (media servers) to the more common 2.4GHz band.
It has been obvious for some time that there is no single network technology available today that can satisfy the needs of consumers and pay-TV operators.
For over five years, consumers have been buying Wi-Fi to share everything from their Internet connection to printers and media servers. Telcos and cablecos have been installing MoCA (Verizon and Comcast), HomePNA (AT&T principally) and one of the Powerline (telcos in Europe, Asia, Latin/South America) compliant networks to handle the pay-TV services they’re selling.
Security (protection against piracy) and guaranteed quality of service (QoS) are mandatory for the pay-TV services. Wi-Fi so far has not been able to provide either to their satisfaction. The only exception has been the proprietary version of Wi-Fi that Ruckus Wireless offers.
Dual-N Band wireless networking allows users to utilize both the 2.4GHz wireless spectrum and the wider, more available, less interfered with 5GHz wireless spectrum for networking. The 5GHz spectrum provides more than seven times the number of non-overlapping wireless channels, allowing for clearer transmissions, while the 2.4GHz spectrum lets older network devices like print servers or Wi-Fi “g” and single-band Wi-Fi “n” devices access the network.
The WRT610N allows users to achieve full Wireless-N network speeds on both bands at the same time, hence the “simultaneous” in the product’s name.
There are products on the market that are called Dual-Band but they allow access to only one band at a time, according to Mani Dhillon, director of Linksys’ consumer business organization. He says they lose transmission speeds when both bands are in use. “As consumers begin to use the 5GHz spectrum for their multimedia devices, it becomes more important to have access to the full capabilities of both bands,” he said.
Linksys says its “Entertainment Optimized Networking” technology helps deliver a premium experience when WRT610N users share and access multimedia content. The WRT610N is designed so that network performance is fine-tuned to give priority to high definition video without manual configuration, according to the company.
PC users can customize their networks to give priority to certain devices, like gaming consoles, over others.
“Each day, more digital content is becoming available, and with that growth in availability comes the need to maintain the experience consumers have come to expect when enjoying a movie, watching an HDTV broadcast, or listening to their favorite music,” Dhillon said. “With the WRT610N, the home network can optimize the process of streaming multimedia content, and helping to make the process more user friendly than it has ever been.”
The router’s built-in access point uses a dual-band version of the very latest wireless networking technology, Wireless-N (draft 802.11n). Wireless-N’s “Multiple In, Multiple Out” (MIMO) technology multiplies the effective data rate. Unlike ordinary wireless networking technologies that are confused by signal reflections, MIMO actually uses these reflections to increase the range and reduce “dead spots” in the wireless coverage area. The robust signals travel further, maintaining wireless connections much better than standard Wireless-G.
The company says the product works great with the older “g,” “a” and “b” versions of Wi-Fi, but when both ends of the wireless link are Wireless-N, the router can increase the throughput even more by using twice as much radio band, yielding speeds much faster than standard Wireless-G. Wireless-N can dynamically enable this double-speed mode for Wireless-N devices, while still connecting to other wireless devices at their respective fastest speeds.
In congested areas, a “good neighbor” mode ensures that the router checks for other wireless devices in the area before gobbling up the radio band.
Easier Network Setup and Management. Wi-Fi has traditionally been difficult to set up and its return rates at retailers have been higher than other products.
The company says its Linksys EasyLink Advisor (LELA) provides consumers with a flash video-based guided installation guide for PC and Mac users. LELA is said to use simplified terminology that doesn’t require knowledge of networking jargon, and helps make setting up a wireless network easier than ever before.
When LELA is installed on a PC connected to a network, a visual overview or network map of all the devices connected to the network is created that provides an easy way to quickly view the status of the network. When a new device is connected, LELA will automatically discover the device and add it to the network map.
Advanced users who like to further tailor the settings of their network and devices can launch the advanced configuration via the traditional Web GUI method from within the EasyLink Advisor interface.
Wi-Fi Protected Setup is also included on the WRT610N. It’s an optional certification program from the Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry trade body, which is designed to ease the task of securely setting up and configuring devices on Wi-Fi networks. The WRT610N features a button that enables consumers to add additional devices to their network by simply pushing it and the corresponding button on the other certified product.
The product is four devices in one box:
1. The dual-band Wireless Access Point, which lets users connect to the network without wires.
2. A built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100/1000 Switch to connect wired-Ethernet devices together at up to gigabit speeds. The router function lets all the devices on the network share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection.
3. A storage link lets users add gigabytes of storage on the network by using readily available USB 2.0 hard drives. A USB flash disk can also be plugged in to access data files from portable devices.
4. A built-in media server streams music, video and photos from the attached storage device to any UPnP-compatible media adapter. It also lets the user use the Internet to access files from anywhere.
Available now at an estimated price of $199.99, the WRT610N can be purchased from Linksys online resellers and retailers. Buy.com this week was selling it for $167 including shipping.