802.11n: full steam ahead

The 802.11n standardization process is finally nearing the finish line, after the IEEE's 802.11n Task Group approved a proposal in late January from the recently formed Enhanced Wireless Consortium, a group of 27 companies that sought to end more than a year of acrimony over competing standard proposals by combining the strongest elements of both. Voting on further suggested changes and adjustments is expected to begin this month.

The goal of the 802.11n standardization process has been to devise a standard solution that pushes Wi-Fi bandwidth beyond the threshold of 100 Mb/s. Two competing proposals, TGnSync and WWISE, had split participants in the process for several months before some proponents of each proposal sought a compromise.

“When the EWC proposal went public, there were a lot of ‘doubting Thomases’ who said it was an end run, but it wasn't,” said Todd Antes, vice president of marketing for Atheros Communications. “It was approved by a unanimous vote.”

That proposal still is based on multiple input/multiple output technology and has a theoretical bandwidth threshold of about 600 Mb/s. The IEEE likely will ratify it as the 802.11n standard sometime this year while the Wi-Fi Alliance is expected to start the product certification process later in 2006

“We'll now focus on getting whatever changes are in order to the Wi-Fi Alliance,” said Dave Borison, product marketing manager for Airgo Networks.

802.11N'S PATH TO STANDARDIZATION

JANUARY 2005

TGnSync and WWISE emerge as the two dominant proposals; debates grow heated

MARCH 2005

TGnSync wins early consensus vote in IEEE Task Group, but heated debate continues

OCTOBER 2005

Enhanced Wireless Consortium forms with plan that merges both proposals

JANUARY

EWC proposal is approved by IEEE, heads for standard ratification