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IEEE Developments in Wireless Networking

Posted by Zonk on from the how-to-talk-to-the-eather dept.

JamesAlfaro writes "After much wrangling between opposing interests among the members of the IEEE, a first draft for the Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11n specification received approval in a Thursday meeting. Final ratification of the standard is not expected until next year." Relatedly, judgecorp writes "The IEEE has disbanded its working group on ultrawideband. They are leaving the marketplace to decide between two competing approaches." From the article: "Freescale, first to the market with UWB products, believes its headstart will give it a long-term victory, while WiMedia, with the backing of industry heavyweights including Intel and Microsoft, reckons its punch will eventually win through, even without a formal IEEE standard."

9 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Wait faster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    So now I can wait on the hotel's 1.544 DSL line even faster?

  2. Think of the consumers! by plbland · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think it would be quite nice if they could at least co-operate to some degree with these UWB WiFi technologies. It's easy for the /. crowd to understand these compatibility issues but it can only be hassle for the general consumer who barely understand the current wireless standards/speeds.

  3. How bout *Nix support for 'b' ??? by smokestacklightning · · Score: 3, Funny

    Great, another wireless standard whose lack of *nix Driver support will undoubtedly make my machine act all twitchy ...

    How about out-of-the-box *nix support that doesn't involve me devoting my spare time, work hours and waking moments getting it to run, or run as it should ...

    Ran with NDISWrapper for a long time on my laptop, gave up after my last upgrade when Ubuntu dicked me. Now I've just got this really long, really sad cat5 cable that follows me around the house... My dog thinks it's his pal ...

  4. Not needed for VoIP by hey · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Its cool and all that they are making a faster standard but the article says:

    This technology in particular is key to enhancing the VoIP user experience.

    I get 54Mbps on WiFi now. That's more than fast enough for VoIP.

    1. Re:Not needed for VoIP by tpgp · · Score: 4, Informative
      I get 54Mbps on WiFi now. That's more than fast enough for VoIP.

      Throughput is not the only requirements for VOIP.

      From the article:
      Another technology called Space Time Block Coding (STBC) will reduce signal dropout by using multiple antennas for redundancy.

      This technology in particular is key to enhancing the VoIP user experience.
      The article also mentions power management improvements (for devices running on batteries - like cell phones), longer range and better collision management.

      Together, these would make a significant difference to VOIP - even if Mbps were lower.
      --
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  5. Great, just great.... by 10Ghz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    More technologies that do the same thing, yet are incompatible with each other. "Oh, we'll let the market sort this one out". translation: "MWAHAHAHAHAA! Screw the consumers! It's up to the little guy to figure this one out, because we will have nothing to do with it!".

    --
    Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
  6. Re:Pre-n compatiblity by amazon10x · · Score: 4, Informative
    I found a page about being unable to upgrade the firmware to fix it:

    http://www.thechannelinsider.com/article2/0,1895,1 754056,00.asp

    Towards the end of the article:
    Making matters even more problematic is that, unlike 802.11g, where many early devices could be upgraded to the real standard with a firmware upgrade, that's less likely to be the case with the pre-N MIMO devices, depending on who wins the standard war.

  7. Relevant UWB Link by writertype · · Score: 3, Informative
    Given that the CNET link above seems tied to the 802.11n standard, here's a link on the whole IEEE UWB story, from ExtremeTech.

    UWB Standards Group Calls It Quits "

    Unable to resolve a deadlock between two competing proposals, the IEEE working group responsible for the ultrawideband technology threw in the towel Thursday.

    The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.3a task group (TG3a), which oversaw the formation of the UWB standard agreed to withdraw the Jan. 2003 project authorization request that formed the group. Instead, the two competing technologies - MB-OFDM, championed by the Intel-led WiMedia Forum, and DS-UWB, promoted by Freescale Semiconductor and its UWB Forum - will be left to fight it out in the marketplace.

  8. Faster then 100 mbit? by tecker · · Score: 5, Interesting
    If I am correct in thinking that "pre-n" and the new 802.11n will be faster then 100mbits that most people have in their house.This article shows that over the air will be 200mbps+ and the MAC SAP would peg out at 100mbps.

    That is all well and good for corperate environments that need network access to programs from a server but seriously. This speed is 40 times faster then the connection I have at home for my internet. Unless you are doing things over your home network (Streaming video I suppose) there is no reason to upgrade.

    The trouble is that theses companies will be pushing "N" routers like crazy when noone needs it. Unless it offers super Encryption of 802.11i then count me out.

    --
    Procrastinating life a way at a rapid rate of speed.