General Description
The Realtek RTL8188RE-GR is a highly integrated single-chip Wireless LAN (WLAN) PCI Express
network interface controller compatible with the 802.11n specification. It combines a MAC, a 1T1R
capable baseband, and RF in a single chip. The RTL8188RE provides a complete solution for a high
throughput performance wireless client.
The RTL8188RE baseband implements Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) with 1
transmit and 1 receive path and is compatible with the IEEE 802.11n specification 2.0. Features include one
spatial stream transmission, short guard interval (GI) of 400ns, spatial spreading, and transmission over
20MHz and 40MHz 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 RTL8188RE 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 RTL8188RE supports fast receiver Automatic Gain Control (AGC) with synchronous and
asynchronous control loops among antennas, antenna diversity functions, and adaptive transmit power
control function to obtain the better performance in the analog portions of the transceiver.
The RTL8188RE 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 Legacy Power
Save, and U-APSD, and APSD, reduce the power wasted during idle time, and compensates for the extra
power required to transmit OFDM. The RTL8188RE provides simple legacy and 20MHz/40MHz
co-existence mechanisms to ensure backward and network compatibility.

Features
General
64-pin QFN
CMOS MAC, Baseband PHY, and RF in a
single chip for IEEE 802.11b/g/n compatible
WLAN
Complete 802.11n solution for 2.4GHz band
72.2Mbps receive PHY rate and 72.2Mbps
transmit PHY rate using 20MHz bandwidth
150Mbps receive PHY rate and 150Mbps
transmit PHY rate using 40MHz bandwidth
Compatible with 802.11n specification
Backward compatible with 802.11b/g
devices while operating in 802.11n mode
Host Interface
Complies with PCI Express Base
Specification Revision 1.1
Standards Supported
IEEE 802.11b/g/n compatible WLAN
IEEE 802.11e QoS Enhancement (WMM)
IEEE 802.11h TPC, Spectrum Measurement
802.11i (WPA, WPA2). Open, shared key,
and pair-wise key authentication services
Cisco Compatible Extensions (CCX) for
WLAN devices
MAC Features
Frame aggregation for increased MAC
efficiency (A-MSDU, A-MPDU)
Low latency immediate High-Throughput
Block Acknowledgement (HT-BA)
Long NAV for media reservation with
CF-End for NAV release
PHY-level spoofing to enhance legacy
compatibility
Power saving mechanism
Channel management and co-existence
Multiple BSSID feature allows the
RTL8188RE to assume multiple MAC
identities when used as a wireless bridge
Transmit Opportunity (TXOP) Short
Inter-Frame Space (SIFS) bursting for higher
multimedia bandwidth
Peripheral Interfaces
General Purpose Input/Output (11 pins)
4-wire EEPROM control interface (93C46)
Three configurable LED pins
Configurable Bluetooth Coexistence
Interface