802.11n Wi-Fi saga nears anti-climax

by Dean Evans at Tuesday 28th July, 2009 at 12:22 pm [0 comments]

According to a member of the IEEE 802.11 working group, the long development process that has held up the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard is nearing an anti-climactic end.

“Last week, the IEEE 802.11 working group met in San Francisco,” blogged IEEE member Matthew Gast. “On Friday, we took what is likely to be the final step as the 802.11 working group. We held our final approval vote, requesting that higher layers of the IEEE 802 group approve 11n for publication.”

The IEEE Standards Board next gathers on September 11, where it’s hoped that 802.11n will be rubberstamped amid some restrained flag-waving and a ripple of polite applause.

“If approved,” adds Gast, “the 802.11n effort will have taken exactly seven years.” The first ‘Draft N’ wireless products began to appear in 2007.

So if you’ve already invested in some Draft 802.11n gear (I recently upgraded to a nice Linksys WAG160N Wireless-N router), 802.11n compliance will be only a firmware upgrade away. As the Wi-Fi Alliance points out:

“The Wi-Fi Alliance led the industry in 2007 by introducing its 802.11n draft 2.0 program, and is striking the right balance now by adding a few features without sacrificing compatibility with previously-certified products.”

Reports suggest that certification testing based on the final 802.11n standard (if approved) will kick off in late September. Final, officially certified 802.11n devices should start appearing a couple of months later.

As for the IEEE 802.11 group, they’ll be starting work on the next Wi-Fi standard…

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