IEEE Developments in Wireless Networking

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."

Comments

Wait faster

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Not needed for VoIP

[tpgp]

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.

Re:Pre-n compatiblity

[amazon10x]

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.

Faster then 100 mbit?

[tecker]

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.