Broadcom Pushes WLAN/Bluetooth Harmony

LAS VEGAS, COMDEX -- Broadcom Corporation , a leading provider of silicon solutions enabling broadband communications, today announced InConcert(TM), a new technology designed to allow wireless devices to collaboratively co-exist within the same radio frequency. InConcert technology provides products enabled with Broadcom(R) Bluetooth(R) and Wi-Fi(R) chips the ability to intelligently share the 2.4 GHz frequency range, synchronizing transmissions to maximize throughput and performance for both standards. InConcert will begin shipping in Broadcom's Bluetooth and wireless LAN products starting early next year and is being demonstrated at the COMDEX trade show.

"The convenience and freedom enabled by wireless communications technologies are changing the way we access networks and use electronic devices in the enterprise, the home and on the road," said Jeff Abramowitz, Sr. Director of Marketing for Broadcom's Wireless LAN products. "Wi-Fi and Bluetooth have independently become mainstream technologies and Broadcom's InConcert technology optimizes how they work together in the same devices. This is an essential feature as multiple wireless technologies converge into individual products like PCs, PDAs or mobile phones."

InConcert Technology is a system solution that leverages hardware built into Broadcom's Bluetooth and Wi-Fi solutions. The software required to enable InConcert Technology resides within Broadcom's Blutonium(R) Bluetooth system firmware and OneDriver(TM) unified wireless LAN driver. Any device that uses both Bluetooth and wireless LAN chips enabled with InConcert will automatically and intelligently synchronize its wireless transmissions to avoid interference. The technology is critical for devices such as PCs, handheld computers and smart phones that integrate both technologies to maximize mobility and convenience.

"InConcert Technology is Broadcom's latest innovation in response to a customer need. We've added the industry's most advanced solution for collaborative coexistence to our best-of-breed Bluetooth and wireless LAN solutions," said Scott Bibaud, Director of Bluetooth Marketing at Broadcom. "Using prioritized coordination, InConcert technology elegantly addresses the coexistence problem for customers looking to build multi-radio technology devices."

2.4 GHz Increasingly Popular for Wireless Communications

The 2.4 GHz radio frequency band is used for a number of consumer and enterprise applications, including those that are equipped for Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11b and 802.11g wireless networking. In addition, these channels are also used for such devices as wireless video cameras and cordless phones. Adaptive frequency hopping (AFH), a Bluetooth 1.2 feature that Broadcom has already introduced in its products, can be used to mitigate radio interference in this common frequency, minimizing the possibility of performance degradation. For products like laptops or PDAs that incorporate both Bluetooth and wireless LAN technology, however, AFH is not sufficient to fully prevent interference.

InConcert technology alleviates this problem by having Broadcom Bluetooth and wireless LAN products work together to establish and adhere to a digital transmission synchronization scheme, ensuring that radio transmissions among products enabled with InConcert avoid collisions and find the clearest channels and time slots for operation. In network environments with Broadcom- enabled wireless products, all constituent devices can work together to facilitate maximum wireless performance.

InConcert technology will begin appearing in Broadcom's Bluetooth and wireless LAN products in early 2004 with these products being fully compatible with previous generation Broadcom wireless chips.

Broadcom Corp.