In a break from its tradition of certifying products only after a standard has been approved, the Wi-Fi Alliance says it plans to “pre-certify” the interoperability of pre-802.11n products beginning in the first half of 2007, before the IEEE ratifies the standard, which is expected to happen sometime in 2008.
Karen Hanley, senior marketing director at the Wi-Fi Alliance, explained that many of the alliance’s members are already shipping pre-802.11n products, and pressure has been building for the Wi-Fi Alliance to test and pre-certify products based on the draft specification, or the baseline fundamentals of 802.11n technology.
Hanley said the move to pre-certify products meets the needs of both its members and consumers, for whom certification provides reassurance that pre-n products have been tested and can be expected to perform in line with the basic tenets of the 802.11n standard.
“This two-phase approach balances our longstanding commitment to standards-based technology with the current market need for product interoperability certification,” said Frank Hanzlik, managing director of the Wi-Fi Alliance. “While we are committed to supporting a full 802.11n standard when it is available, pre-standard products are reaching a level of maturity and there is enough market uptake that a certification program makes sense for the industry.”
The alliance said it expects certified pre-n products to be compatible with products certified to the full standard. In addition, the alliance confirmed that certification labels used for pre-n products will clearly indicate that the certified products are pre-standard so that consumers will understand that the products are not based on the yet-to-be-ratified IEEE standard.
“The ratified IEEE 802.11n is likely to include a larger set of features and will be a fully reviewed standard,” Hanzlik said. “We believe the maturity of the baseline features in the pre-standard certification diminishes the risk that products won’t comply with IEEE 802.11n when it is ratified.”
The alliance’s announcement comes on the heels of the IEEE’s 802.11n task group announcement to postpone its vote on the second draft of the wireless specification until January.
Hanzlik said the delay was due to “an unprecedented level of participation” in a standard that promises Wi-Fi speeds of up to 100 megabits per second for wireless local area networks. 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 up to 24 Mbps. Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output technology has been adopted as the foundation for the IEEE’s 802.11n standard. Airgo Networks’ 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.
“Airgo believes that the updated Wi-Fi Alliance certification timeline and the imminent Draft 2.0 of the standard lay a solid foundation for products that will deliver the performance necessary for next-generation consumer and enterprise wireless applications,” said Beau Beck, vice president of business development for Airgo Networks. “Draft 2.0 will be a significantly improved and more stable version of the eventual 802.11n standard. Of particular note is that Draft 2.0 will resolve the “bad neighbor” coexistence issues with legacy networks and interoperability problems seen between various chipsets based on Draft 1.0.”
Indeed, chipmakers Broadcom and Atheros Communications have both enjoyed successful launches of their pre-n chipsets. R
