Kiyon announces wireless switching software

Jun 16, 2006 1:12 PM, By Donny Jackson

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Building automation vendor Kiyon this week announced the release of wireless software core that greatly increases the speed of wireless routing, enabling low-latency quality of service for voice-over-IP (VoIP) and video applications in even multihop, single-radio, mesh-networking environments.

Kiyon founder and CEO Michael Nova said the human ear discriminates sounds at 150 milliseconds, which is about the time it takes to switch a VoIP call in a standard 802.11 network. By utilizing multiple channels and time slots, Kiyon’s new software core reduces switching time to 1 millisecond, eliminating perceptible latency and jitter, Nova said.

“We switch so fast and are switching channels so fast that we’re way under that 150 millisecond level, Nova said. “So you get a really good-quality VoIP call; not only that, you get a lot of people who are able to do it at the same time.”

Kiyon CTO Weilin Wang said the new software core is an “order of magnitude better” than conventional 802.11 networks.

“We have already successfully demonstrated the capacity for this technology by pushing two simultaneous H.264 high definition video streams and more than 50 simultaneous VoIP calls at better than 4.0 MOS (mean opinion score) over a six-hop single-radio 802.11 wireless network,” Wang said in a prepared statement. “There is no reason throughput could not be significantly higher on all parameters.”

In addition to the improved data rates, the Kiyon software includes algorithms to improve mesh routing and better handle multipath interference, Nova said.

“After a couple of hops, a linear mesh network is really dead in terms of bandwidth, and you have major issues with quality of service,” he said. “We’ve been working with some of the muni-network companies, and their interested in using our technology to bulk up their outdoor muni networks.”

While Kiyon software can breathe new life into 802.11 wide area networks that may be overwhelmed with current traffic flows, it can also work with ultrawideband (UWB) and should work in WiMAX/WiBRO networks, Nova said.

“802.11, UWB and WiMAX are all based fundamentally on OFDM and TDMA technology,” he said. “The MACs are not exactly the same, but they’re pretty similar. We figured that, if we got it to work on 802.11, it would work on UWB, and it does.”