The age of IPTV has arrived. Last week we reported that Mountain View, California-based wireless startup Video54 was changing its name to Ruckus Wireless and putting in the bank the $9 million it has just received from VCs. What, exactly, did Ruckus tell the VCs about its technology that made them invest in the company? It told them that it had found a way to deliver high-quality video over WiFi, that's what.  

The problem cable operators face is how to get high-quality voice and video from a gateway device to multiple devices around a home. Ruckus has found a way to do that with 802.11b/g-compliant router and adapter which come with multiple antennas and software for maintaining a steady video stream. These products work with other vendors' gear, but customers would see the full benefits if they had an all-Ruckus network. The Ruckus router connects to a cable or a DSL service, and the adapter is a client which attaches to a PC, set top box, or other device through Ethernet. The quality of delivery hinges on the six antennas it has built into each AP and adapter and by including sophisticated queuing capabilities in software (the company calls it SmartCard). A Ruckus router and adapter working together can thus set up 63 different paths for radio signals efficiently to bypass and compensate for obstacles or interference. What is more, while Ruckus supports the 802.11e standard, which places different packets in different queues, its SmartCard traffic manager allows for a more fine-grained classification of traffic.

For more on Ruckus's new product line
- see Stephen Lawson's InfoWorld report
- and Peter Judge's Computerworld report

For more on Ruckus's BeamFlex and SmartCard technology
- see company's website
- also see Alteon's website