OWSS: a new signaling system for 100-150-Mb/s wireless LANs

Wireless local area networks have emerged as one of today's driving technologies, delivering high data rates on unlicensed spectrum. This article provides an overview of a new signaling system for high-bit-rate wireless LAN, made possible by a novel class of signaling pulses. Called OWSS pulses, they are generated through a combination of orthogonal wavelength-division multiplexing and spread-spectrum concepts. The system offers several advantages including intrinsic robustness to frequency-selective fading, effective equalization due, in part, to the wide spectrum and wide time-support of the pulses used, high data rate, and flexibility in carving different rates versus multiple access schedules at the physical layer.