Higher-throughput speeds for Wi-Fi got slowed down again as the IEEE’s 802.11n task group’s vote on the second draft of the wireless specification was postponed until January.
Frank Hanzlik, managing director of the Wi-Fi Alliance, which tests and certifies products for Wi-Fi interoperability, said the delay was due to “an unprecedented level of participation” in a standard that promises speeds of up to 100 megabits per second for WLANs. The broad level of interest made the standardization process more difficult, Hanzlik said.
Indeed, the 802.11n task group has poured over about half of the more than 12,000 comments filed after draft 1.0 was issued earlier this year.
Nonetheless, the task group expects its second draft to be presented at the November meeting, with letter balloting set to take place in January.
Through the use of multiple antennas and signal processors, the 802.11n standard for Wi-Fi is said to be up to 10 times faster than existing 802.11g and 802.11a standards, which deliver throughputs of 20 to 24 megabits per second. Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output technology, which Airgo Networks Inc. developed, has been adopted as the foundation for the IEEE’s 802.11n standard. Airgo’s True MIMO chipset is considered a pre-802.11n solution that delivers higher throughput and greater range than 802.11g by using multiple antennas for data transmission. It is backward compatible with Wi-Fi networks that use the unlicensed 2.4 GHz spectrum band.
Competition to get 802.11n chips on the market is fierce. Last October, a group led by Intel Corp. and Broadcom Corp. formed the Enhanced Wireless Consortium, which reportedly aimed to accelerate the IEEE’s 802.11n standards-development process by promoting an industry-supported specification. Airgo contended that the companies that formed the EWC weren’t interested in speeding up the standardization of 802.11n, but were instead trying to slow down the process so that they could race to market with their own “closed standard” products, hence gaining a share of the market with pre-802.11n solutions.
Indeed, chipmakers Broadcom and Atheros Communications have both enjoyed successful launches of their pre-11n chipsets.
Hanzlik said certified 802.11n products should be available in early 2008.
