802.11n Groups Join Forces

As some of you know, 802.11n looks to be the most likely candidate to bring us 100 Mbps+ wireless networking in the future. After months of wrangling, the differing groups inside the IEEE working on different versions of the standard have joined forces. This should dramatically accelerate the adoption of a final standard.

I know that we’re all starved for higher-speed wireless, but we’re going to have to wait. According to eWeek’s Carmen Nobel and Mark Hachman, the groups had been getting nowhere fast. The new group is said to have a working draft ready by September, with a Novamber to January 2007 timefraame for a real standard.

The article does bring out one VERY IMPORTANT POINT: any equipment that touts itself as ‘pre-n’ at this point will very likely NOT be compatible with the final standard, when it’s finalized.

“Pre-n is a bad, bad term, because it implies that there is some connection with n for upgrades,” said Ken Dulaney, vice president of mobile computing at Gartner Inc. in San Jose, Calif. “There isn’t, and we will say anything negative we can about any vendor who puts this on their box. The term ‘pre’ only makes sense when you know what the here and now is. Prehistoric makes sense only when you have history, not before it’s created.”

IEEE officials made it clear that anyone buying a pre-standard product at this point should understand that it likely will not be upgradeable to a ratified standard.

“We haven’t even got a draft yet,” said Stuart Kerry, chair of the 802.11 working group at the IEEE.