Concerns Over Increased 802.11n Power Usage

alphadogg writes "Next-generation 802.11n systems promise to considerably improve WLAN performance. But the processing required for the boost sucks up more power than the older 802.11a/b/g networks. Still, many enterprise-class Wi-Fi vendors claim to deliver full 802.11n capabilities without enterprise customers having to touch their power infrastructures. So what gives?"

Comments

Wrong assumptions

[Casandro]

Essentially just because vendor A has devices which consume "up to 18 watts" it doesn't mean that nobody can build devices which take less than 13 Watts.

That's just 5 watts difference. You could probably achieve this by switching to higher efficiency components. Or you could store some energy for the short bursts of transmission, getting a steady power of 13 watts.

Keep in mind that most vendors probably still have the very first itteration of hardware. It will significantly improve over the next years anyhow.