3 ms·

In 1995 I (and a few others) designed and built the first WiFi node [1]. At the time there was only one WiFi unit in the world, and it was the one on our bench

by femto 4y ago

In 1995 I (and a few others) designed and built the first WiFi node [1]. At the time there was only one WiFi unit in the world, and it was the one on our bench. It now has about 20 billion descendants. [1] https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1109/40.566198 https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1109/40.566198

comboy 4y ago
Awesome. What made it win? Were there any close competitors? Was infrared close to being the winner? I'm also surprised big enough FPGA was already around. Thanks.
- femto 4y ago
  > What made it win? Initially, ignoring the wisdom of the time that said OFDM was no good for indoor channels. The research project was eventually shut down due to lack of commercial interest, but the research leaders had enough faith to immediately start their own company (Radiata). Later, commercial success for Radiata came from being in the right place at the right time. > Were there any close competitors? In the research phase, not that I was aware of. In the commercial phase, Atheros. The story I was told after the event was that Cisco had decided to buy whichever company came to market first. Radiata came to market 2 weeks before Atheros and so Radiata was acquired. > Was infrared close to being the winner? It could have been, but specular reflection in IR channels causes inter-symbol interference, which limits the data rate. If someone could have solved that problem then IR might have happened instead of WiFi. > I'm also surprised big enough FPGA was already around. At the start of the project FPGAs were not big enough, so we had to partition across multiple 3000 series Xilinx parts. Bigger FPGAs had been released by the end of the project, so the transmitter fitted on a single XC4025 FPGA, using manual placement. The 4025s were brand new and Xilinx (as always) were difficult to deal with, so we had to beg for devices and they magnanimously granted us 3 or 4 chips. At the time there wasn't much sense of occasion, as we were busy doing the work and none of us knew how big it would get.
anakaine 4y ago
CSIRO ftw. Now if only in my part of the world we could get CSIRO scientitists onto the same actual page as scientists from another 'industry' council, and academia, instead of them just paying lip service to each other in the public forum but actively undermining each other behind closed doors.
- femto 4y ago
  Most of the team was Macquarie University. At the time the collaboration with CSIRO worked quite well, as there were no business development types involved. In 1995 CSIRO was more concerned about science than IP. Since then they have become more money/IP focused. Maybe they got gold fever from the $1 billion in royalties they made from their WiFi patent?

by femto 4y ago

comboy 4y ago

Awesome. What made it win? Were there any close competitors? Was infrared close to being the winner? I'm also surprised big enough FPGA was already around. Thanks.

femto 4y ago
> What made it win? Initially, ignoring the wisdom of the time that said OFDM was no good for indoor channels. The research project was eventually shut down due to lack of commercial interest, but the research leaders had enough faith to immediately start their own company (Radiata). Later, commercial success for Radiata came from being in the right place at the right time. > Were there any close competitors? In the research phase, not that I was aware of. In the commercial phase, Atheros. The story I was told after the event was that Cisco had decided to buy whichever company came to market first. Radiata came to market 2 weeks before Atheros and so Radiata was acquired. > Was infrared close to being the winner? It could have been, but specular reflection in IR channels causes inter-symbol interference, which limits the data rate. If someone could have solved that problem then IR might have happened instead of WiFi. > I'm also surprised big enough FPGA was already around. At the start of the project FPGAs were not big enough, so we had to partition across multiple 3000 series Xilinx parts. Bigger FPGAs had been released by the end of the project, so the transmitter fitted on a single XC4025 FPGA, using manual placement. The 4025s were brand new and Xilinx (as always) were difficult to deal with, so we had to beg for devices and they magnanimously granted us 3 or 4 chips. At the time there wasn't much sense of occasion, as we were busy doing the work and none of us knew how big it would get.

anakaine 4y ago

CSIRO ftw. Now if only in my part of the world we could get CSIRO scientitists onto the same actual page as scientists from another 'industry' council, and academia, instead of them just paying lip service to each other in the public forum but actively undermining each other behind closed doors.

femto 4y ago
Most of the team was Macquarie University. At the time the collaboration with CSIRO worked quite well, as there were no business development types involved. In 1995 CSIRO was more concerned about science than IP. Since then they have become more money/IP focused. Maybe they got gold fever from the $1 billion in royalties they made from their WiFi patent?