Wi-Fi Alliance to certify pre-standard 802.11n gear

The Wi-Fi Alliance said today it is making the contrary move of certifying standard products based on the still incomplete IEEE 802.11n specification.

The IEEE is expected to ratify the final standard in early 2008, but Wi-Fi vendors have already introduced commercial “pre-N” routers and clients into the devices. By certifying under a pre-standard specification, the Alliance can enforce some alignment on the myriad of proprietary technologies emerging in the market. And when the standard is finally ratified can require compatibility between the pre-standard certified devices and the next phase of fully standardized gear, Alliance Managing director Frank Hanzlik said.

“This two-phase approach balances our longstanding commitment to standards-based technology with the current market for product interoperability certification,” Hanzlik said in a statement released today. “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 certification program makes sense for the industry.”

In an interview earlier this summer, Hanzlik said the pre-N products hitting the market could create confusion between proprietary gear and future standardized products, which led the Alliance to monitor closely how its member companies used the Wi-Fi name to describe them. However, the issue of pre-certification solves many of those issues. While not meeting the as-of-yet-undecided IEEE standard, all of those products are based on the first draft of the 802.11n standard, which is expected to resemble the final specification.

Though based on the N draft, they aren’t necessarily interoperable with other pre-N products. Setting an interoperability profile is one of the Alliance’s main missions, along with ensuring the products meet minimal compliance with the standard’s requirements. The Alliance said that when it begins certification on the pre-standard products, it would clearly label them as such so as not to mislead buyers into thinking they are purchasing fully standardized products.

802.11n is intended to push Wi-Fi bandwidth upwards of 500 Mb/s, using multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) antenna technologies. In March, the IEEE appeared close to finalizing the standard with members of the 802.11n task force voting unanimously to compromise between differing technology camps: TGnSync and WWISE. The process foundered from there, however, as the task group voted against sending the final draft for a full IEEE vote. The draft generated 12,000 comments indicating a heavy load of unresolved questions in the technology.

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