IEEE Approves 802.11n Wi-Fi Standard 115
alphadogg writes "The IEEE has finally approved the 802.11n high-throughput wireless LAN standard. Bruce Kraemer, the long-time chairman of the 802.11n Task Group (part of the 802.11 Working Group, which oversees the WLAN standards), has sent out a notification to a listserv for task group members, which includes a wide range of Wi-Fi chip makers, software developers, and equipment vendors. A press release is available now as well. This process began in 2002."
Not completely their fault (Score:5, Informative)
I'm assuming that if it had been as simple as "take their legos and play elsewhere" (ie replace CSIRO patented technology), they would have done so. The article was written before CSIRO refused to sign the agreements, and before they secretly negotiated what amounted to licensing agreements with a number of top manufacturers.
Interestingly, someone just revised the Wikipedia article by wholesale-deleting any references to patent issues, CSIRO, or their licensing "settlements" [wikipedia.org].
What is annoying is that I had to give up trying to find information on WHAT the infringements were. Nobody seems to know, or want to say.
Re:Umm... ok, thanks. (Score:5, Informative)
...--will enable rollout of significantly more scalable WLANs that deliver 10-fold-greater data rates than previously defined while ensuring co-existence with legacy systems and security implementations.
So, cool. Don't know which I'll be replacing first, my laptop with 11.n or my wireless router - but it's nice to know that any new device will work with the old. (The extra throughput would not benefit me as my cable internet is the current weak link...)
Re:Yipee? (Score:3, Informative)
You mean the wireless modems don't come with Flash ROM that can be updated by the user? That's whack. The old USR Robotics modems were upgrdeable from 19.2 to 28.8 to 56k as each new standard was released.
Re:Not completely their fault (Score:5, Informative)
The talk page... [wikipedia.org]
I encourage other wiki users to look at this diff [wikipedia.org] and help determine if this edit is unfounded or not.
Re:Umm... ok, thanks. (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, it's compatible with Draft N (Score:3, Informative)
For those who haven't read until the end of the boring article, let me just put in the last sentence:
"According to the Alliance, users can expect future Wi-Fi products to be fully compatible with todayâ(TM)s products."
Well, that's at least a relieve. Hopefully they did not have to drop a lot of features to get that result. The other good thing is having an official test suite, so products don't have to be tested 1:N where N is all the other products out there. Although I presume there are also Draft N test suites available already.
Re:Umm... ok, thanks. (Score:4, Informative)
Co-existence means more than that. It means that your neighbour's new .11n equipment shouldn't clobber your existing .11g network. That's important to those in densely packed urban areas
vendors are part of IEEE (Score:5, Informative)
They built the products early because the IEEE was dragging their feet on the final approval. The IEEE defined the standard exceptionally late - that's WHY the vendors built early. You've got the cause and effect totally reversed.
And it's not like the vendors had anything to do with the delay. They certainly worked together in a harmonious fashion without trying to push their own technological agenda into the working group. /sarcasm
Who do you think was in the IEEE effort? It was the vendors themselves. Just look at the 802.11 member list:
http://www.ieee802.org/11/Voters/votingmembers.htm
It was the members themselves that couldn't decide between the competing technologies (TGn Sync and WWiSE):
http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/3490926
http://www.networkworld.com/net.worker/news/2005/020705netleadside.html
The IEEE is not some ivory tower institution sending down standards from the clouds like Zeus and his lightning bolts. It is made up of members, and those members are sponsored by their employers to work on these standards (and there may even be a few "independents" as well).
The IEEE took a long time to come to a consensus because the vendors (through their paid employees) took a long time to come to a consensus.
Re:Standard finalized but... (Score:2, Informative)
Note: I originally posted the AC and the reason it is even vaguely humorous is because it will only take minor flash updates to the current chipsets to make them fully compliant, while they are effectively compliant now.
Re:glad i waited (Score:2, Informative)
WRT160NL with a bonus USB port for your external hard drive (who said cheap media server?)
http://gizmodo.com/5301321/linksys-wrt160nl-is-fully-linux-powered-80211n-and-acts-as-media-server [gizmodo.com]
Re:IEEE Stinks (Score:5, Informative)
All IEEE 802 standards are available for free:
http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/
http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/portfolio.html
Besides, what's wrong with them charging for it? Even a non-profit has bills to pay.
(And 802.11-2007 is 1184 pages.)
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:vendors are part of IEEE (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Umm... ok, thanks. (Score:1, Informative)
Actual hard disk throughput is generally about 800 Mbps. Fastest 11n throughput I've seen (and I've seen many!) was about 85 Mbps. Currently the only way to even approach the rate what a SINGLE hard disk can output is to use gigabit wired ethernet.