Yes, in the radio world "apparently faster" is not necessarily faster. In an isolated facility out of radio range of other local radio networks, 11 MBits is much faster than 2 Mbits. But in a facility with overlapping radio networks operating on the 2.4 band, the 2 Mbit "frequency hopping" radios may give you comparable throughput to the 11 Mbit "direct sequence" radios, and overall perforance across many devices in the same facility might be better using "frequency hopping" rather than "direct sequence". To try and simply explain, the 2.4 band has a maximum effective band width of a little over 11 MBit and "direct sequence" (DSSS) radios use almost the whole band width and therefore are impacted if they have to share the same radio space with other local radio networks. The 2 Mbit "frequency hopping" radios use a dynamic sub-band within the total 2.4 band, and will hop around to try and find a quiet sub-band with minimal interference from other radio networks. They also have anti-interference hopping algorithms to reduce the effect of interference in high capacity environments. Applications that don't need the higher burst throughput of 11 MBit DSSS (such as large graphic downloads or voice-over-IP) might actually be better of with 2 MBit FHS! Roger Stringer Marietta Systems ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >Subject: Re: Symbol SPT1740 and Airport? >From: Steve <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Date: Mon, 6 Mar 00 07:00:54 -0800 >At PalmSource, someone from Symbol stated that the current Spectrum24 >implementation would not be compatible with Airport/802.11 but the newer >version on the way would. >It's not exactly a question of current vs. newer. There are two variants >of Spectrum24, 2 MBits/sec and 11 MBits/sec. Although in general faster >is better, there are pros and cons to both so Symbol will be selling both >for the foreseeable future, as I understand it. It is true that the 11 >MBit version of the 1740 isn't quite released yet, and I believe Dave is >correct that that's what is required for Airport compatibility. >Steve Patt >President, Stevens Creek Software -- For information on using the Palm Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.palm.com/devzone/mailinglists.html
