Realtek RTL8188CE, RTL8188CEAU User Manual

RTL8188CE, RTL8188CEAU

802.11b/g/n RTL8188CE miniCard
User’s Manual

Rev. 1.0

08 Jun 2011

Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

No. 2, Innovation Road II, Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan
Tel.: [phone]. Fax: [phone]
www.realtek.com.tw

RTL8188CE, RTL8188CEAU

User’s Manual

COPYRIGHT

©2009 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced,
transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form or by any
means without the written permission of Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

DISCLAIMER

Realtek provides this document “as is”, without warranty of any kind, neither expressed nor implied,
including, but not limited to, the particular purpose. Realtek may make improvements and/or changes in this
document or in the product described in this document at any time. This document could include technical
inaccuracies or typographical errors.

TRADEMARKS

Realtek is a trademark of Realtek Semiconductor Corporation. Other names mentioned in this document are
trademarks/registered trademarks of their respective owners.

USING THIS DOCUMENT

This document is intended for the software engineer’s reference and provides detailed programming
information.

Though every effort has been made to ensure that this document is current and accurate, more information
may have become available subsequent to the production of this guide. In that event, please contact your
Realtek representative for additional information that may help in the development process.

ii Rev.1.0

RTL8188CE, RTL8188CEAU

User’s Manual

Table of Contents

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION.........................................................................................................................................1

2. FEATURES...................................................................................................................................................................2

3. BLOCK DIAGRAM.....................................................................................................................................................3

4. PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS...................................................................................................................................4

4.1. MINI PCI EXPRESS PIN ASSIGNMENT .........................................................................................................................4

4.2. MECHANICAL...........................................................................................................................................................5

4.3. ENVIRONMENTAL.....................................................................................................................................................5

4.3.1. Operating........................................................................................................................................................5

4.3.2. Storage............................................................................................................................................................5

4.4. FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATIONS ...................................................................................................................................5

4.5. WARNING ................................................................................................................................................................6

4.5.1 Federal Communication Commission Interference Statement.................................................................................6

4.5.2 Industry Canada Statement...................................................................................................................................8

4.5.3 NCC

警語

...........................................................................................................................................................10

List of Tables

TABLE 1. MINI PCI EXPRESS PIN ASSIGNMENT........................................................................................................................4

TABLE 2. FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATIONS..................................................................................................................................5

List of Figures

FIGURE 1. RTL8188CE MINICARD APPLICATION DIAGRAM.....................................................................................................3

FIGURE 2. RTL8188CE MINICARD MECHANICAL SPECIFICATION.............................................................................................5

iii Rev.1.0

RTL8188CE, RTL8188CEAU

User’s Manual

1. General Description

The Realtek RTL8188CE, RTL8188CEAU is a highly integrated single-chip Wireless LAN (WLAN)
controller compatible with the IEEE 802.11n specification. It combines a MAC, a 1T1R capable baseband,
and RF in a single chip. The RTL8188CE, RTL8188CEAU provides a complete solution for a
high-performance wireless client.

The RTL8188CE, RTL8188CEAU baseband implements Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO)
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) with one transmit and one receive path (1T1R).
Features include one spatial stream transmission, short Guard Interval (GI) of 400ns, spatial spreading, and
support for both 20MHz and 40MHz channel bandwidth.

For legacy compatibility, Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS), Complementary Code Keying (CCK)
and OFDM baseband processing are included to support all IEEE 802.11b, and 802.11g data rates.
Differential phase shift keying modulation schemes, DBPSK and DQPSK with data scrambling capability are
available, and CCK provides support for legacy data rates, with long or short preamble. The high speed
FFT/IFFT paths, combined with BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM modulation of the individual
subcarriers, and rate compatible punctured convolutional coding with coding rate of 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, and 5/6,
provide higher data rates of 54Mbps and 150Mbps for IEEE 802.11g and 802.11n OFDM respectively.

The RTL8188CE, RTL8188CEAU builds in an enhanced signal detector, an adaptive frequency domain
equalizer, and a soft-decision Viterbi decoder to alleviate severe multi-path effects and mutual interference in
the reception of multiple streams. Robust interference detection and suppression are provided to protect
against Bluetooth, cordless phone, and microwave oven interference.

Efficient IQ-imbalance, DC offset, phase noise, frequency offset, and timing offset compensations are
provided for the radio frequency front-end. Selectable digital transmit and receive FIR filters are provided to
meet transmit spectrum mask requirements and to reject adjacent channel interference, respectively.

The RTL8188CE, RTL8188CEAU supports fast receiver Automatic Gain Control (AGC) with synchronous
and asynchronous control loops among antennas, antenna diversity functions, and adaptive transmit power
control functions to obtain better performance in the analog portions of the transceiver.

The RTL8188CE, RTL8188CEAU MAC supports 802.11e for multimedia applications, 802.11i for security,
and 802.11n for enhanced MAC protocol efficiency. Using packet aggregation techniques such as A-MPDU
with BA and A-MSDU, protocol efficiency is significantly improved. Power saving mechanisms such as
U-APSD, and APSD, reduces power wasted during idle time, and compensates for the extra power required
to transmit OFDM. The RTL8188CE, RTL8188CEAU provides simple legacy and 20MHz/40MHz
co-existence mechanisms to ensure backward and network compatibility.

1 Rev.1.0

2. Features

General

n 48-pin QFN
n CMOS MAC, Baseband PHY and RF in a

single chip for IEEE 802.11b/g/n compatible
WLAN

n 75Mbps receive PHY rate and 75Mbps

transmit PHY rate using 20MHz bandwidth

n 150Mbps receive PHY rate and 150Mbps

transmit PHY rate using 40MHz bandwidth

n Compatible with 802.11n specification
n Backward compatible with 802.11b/g devices

while operating at 802.11n data rates

Host Interface

n Complies with PCI Express Base

Specification Revision 1.1 / USB 2.0

Standards Supported

n IEEE 802.11b/g/n compatible WLAN
n IEEE 802.11e QoS Enhancement (WMM)
n IEEE 802.11i (WPA, WPA2). Open, shared

key, and pair-wise key authentication services

MAC Features

n Frame aggregation for increased MAC

efficiency (A-MSDU, A-MPDU)

n Low latency immediate High-Throughput

Block Acknowledgement (HT-BA)

n Long NAV for media reservation with

CF-End for NAV release

n PHY-level spoofing to enhance legacy

compatibility

n Power saving mechanism
n Channel management and co-existence
n Multiple BSSID feature allows the

RTL8188CE to assume multiple MAC
identities when used as a wireless bridge

RTL8188CE, RTL8188CEAU

User’s Manual

n Supports Wake-On-WLAN via Magic Packet

and Wake-up frame

n Transmit Opportunity (TXOP) Short

Inter-Frame Space (SIFS) bursting for higher
multimedia bandwidth

Peripheral Interfaces

n General Purpose Input/Output (8 pins)
n Three configurable LED pins
n Configurable Bluetooth Coexistence

Interface

PHY Features

n IEEE 802.11n OFDM
n One Transmit and one Receive path (1T1R)
n 20MHz and 40MHz bandwidth transmission
n Short Guard Interval (400ns)
n DSSS with DBPSK and DQPSK, CCK

modulation with long and short preamble

n OFDM with BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, and

64QAM modulation. Convolutional Coding
Rate: 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, and 5/6

n Maximum data rate 54Mbps in 802.11g, and

150Mbps in 802.11n

n Switch diversity for DSSS/CCK
n Hardware antenna diversity
n Selectable digital transmit and receive FIR

filters

n Programmable scaling in transmitter and

receiver to trade quantization noise against
increased probability of clipping

n Fast receiver Automatic Gain Control (AGC)
n On-chip ADC and DAC

2 Rev.1.0