Standardization for faster Wi-Fi technology continues to make progress. The IEEE group working on the 802.11n standard recently voted 82-12 in favor of the standard’s first draft proposal. The tentative approval began a 40-day period during which members can offer comments and vote on the proposed standard, which needs support from 75 percent of the group’s members in order to be submitted to the IEEE at its July meeting.
The 802.11n standard for Wi-Fi is said to be up to 10 times faster than existing Wi-Fi standards 802.11a and 802.11g, both of which offer throughput at speeds of about 54 megabits per second. The latest Wi-Fi standard is also being engineered to be compatible with existing Wi-Fi standards, enabling older Wi-Fi devices to work with newer products. Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output technology has been adopted as the foundation for the IEEE’s 802.11n standard.
Competition to get 802.11n chips on the market is fierce. Since January of 2004 when the IEEE announced the formation of a new 802.11 task group, there have been competing proposals of the 802.11n standard: World-Wide Spectrum Efficiency, backed by chipmaker Broadcom Inc., and TGn Sync, backed by Intel Corp. and Philips Electronics. By July 2005, the opposing groups, joined by a third group, MITMOT, announced that they would merge their proposals and send it to the IEEE’s standards meeting in September, with a final draft to be submitted in November. The standardization process was expected to be completed by the second half of 2006.
But in October, yet another group entered the standards fracas. The new group called themselves the Enhanced Wireless Consortium and was led by some long-time 802.11n players like Intel and Broadcom. In mid January, the IEEE 802.11n Working Group accepted the EWC’s 802.11n draft proposal, setting the stage for the latest vote. The ratification of an 802.11n standard has been pushed out to the middle of 2007.
However, certification of 802.11n products is yet another matter and is being handled by the Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry trade group that counts practically every company selling Wi-Fi equipment among its members. The group owns the Wi-Fi trademark, which is only used on equipment that the alliance has certified as 802.11-compliant. The alliance recently announced that its WPA2 security certification program is now a mandatory feature for all new Wi-Fi certified products.
WPA2 is based upon the full IEEE 802.11i standard, which provided for enhanced security and was ratified in 2004.
