Few companies in the WLAN space have addressed the transmission of data through the often unpredictable airwave environment. This environment can include walls, partitions, filing cabinets, and even people, which can affect RF radiation and limit the effective range and performance of a WLAN system.

A key measurement of a wireless system, the data transfer rate, can be significantly impacted by the signal to noise ratio at the receiver. The signal to noise ratio is influenced by a variety of factors, including power, bandwidth, receiver sensitivity, distance and antenna gain. Since power and bandwidth are limited by FCC standards, and receivers and antennas are designed to be close to theoretical limits, little effort has gone into improving the signal to noise ratio. Airgain’s patented smart antenna technology addresses this issue to provide a superior solution to increasing the range of effective 802.11 wireless transmissions.

At the heart of Airgain’s technology is a very effective and inexpensive way to focus radio wave energy and to point this focused "beam" in a chosen direction. This focused energy is then harnessed to improve data communication in wireless networks through a set of proprietary algorithms implemented in software and firmware that can greatly enhance the range and data performance versus conventional solutions. Our smart directional antenna can offer peak gain of up to 10dBi more than an omni-directional antenna with the same pattern.

All of the focusing of the radio wave energy is designed to take place within the limitations of the existing FCC regulations concerning equipment that operates in the unlicensed frequencies used by the 802.11 systems. This way the Airgain antennas can enable the best possible utilization of the permitted transmitter power for the purposes of communication. All of the algorithms operate within the standardized protocols for 802.11 networks and are therefore fully compatible with existing products on the market. Since the beam of radio waves can turn so rapidly, the solution can also be used by access points, which must be able to communicate with several client nodes that are in different directions and may be moving while communicating.

The combination of a focused energy beam and the algorithms to steer it to optimize the communication range and efficiency are the basis of Airgain’s Smart Antenna solutions.