Wireless Router with MIMO

Linksys WRT54GX XXXXXXXXX Belkin Pre-N Router

About 2 years back the wireless networking gear 802.11g was introduced.
And now the time has arrived for MIMO-enhanced routers. MIMO stands
for multiple input multiple output. Using a single channel for multiple data
streams this technology enhances both the range and the throughput
substantially over that of standard Wi-Fi gears.

The pictures above show Belkin and Linksys routers which use Airgo's
MIMO chipset and use three external antennas to transmit and receive
data.

Other advantages of MIMO are: (i) It makes devices less susceptible to
interference, (ii) It interferes less with neighboring networks than other
performance-enhancing technologies, (iii) The MIMO-enabled products
are all backward compatible with 802.11b and 802.11g devices, which
basically means that you can use them with off-the-shelf Wi-Fi gear
from other makers.

One disadvantage with MIMO-enabled devices is worth noting. It is not
based on an 802.11 standard. This means that its performance benefits
of these devices probably cannot be exploited with 802.11n gear due out
in 2006. But as long as there are talented techies around, you can afford
to hope that some solution would come out before that.