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IEEE Approves 802.11n Wi-Fi Standard
alphadogg writes "The IEEE has finally approved the 802.11n high-throughput wireless LAN standard. Bruce Kraemer, the long-time chairman of the 802.11n Task Group (part of the 802.11 Working Group, which oversees the WLAN standards), has sent out a notification to a listserv for task group members, which includes a wide range of Wi-Fi chip makers, software developers, and equipment vendors. A press release is available now as well. This process began in 2002."
Gee thanks. Appreciate the timely response, Bruce. I'm glad the 802.11n Task Group was so on this project that they got the 802.11n standard finally approved years after all vendors have already been making products. Yeah, thanks.
Next time... I don't know... maybe define the standard in a reasonable time frame, not 5 years after the fact.
now how long will it be before anyone actually supports the standard.
So what? There have been Wireless-N products out now for quite a long time. Who gives a flippin' **** about the official approval of the format? It's not like the manufacturers will go back and update the firmware on the older devices. They'll just put out new products, brand them as "Official Wireless-N", and drop support for older equipment which may or not work as well.
I expect to extend the celebration of the success , (while we continue work on the other amendments in process ) when we convene in Hawaii two weeks from now.
It only took seven years to get this far...may as well go relax.
I'm very jealous of that time table.
0 = 1 + e^(Alt something)
LOL - sounds like where I work. What about these new fangled 3.5 inch disks - are they ready to replace low density 5.25 inchers? You can't rush these things, otherwise there'll be too much choice.
Now they can finally optimize Duke Nukem Forever's network code to utilize this new standard at LAN parties!
I'm assuming that if it had been as simple as "take their legos and play elsewhere" (ie replace CSIRO patented technology), they would have done so. The article was written before CSIRO refused to sign the agreements, and before they secretly negotiated what amounted to licensing agreements with a number of top manufacturers.
Interestingly, someone just revised the Wikipedia article by wholesale-deleting any references to patent issues, CSIRO, or their licensing "settlements".
What is annoying is that I had to give up trying to find information on WHAT the infringements were. Nobody seems to know, or want to say.
Please help metamoderate.
In related news, the same body has approved a special security packet encapsulator consisting of pigmented lipids that bond the rolled packet together, with a special imprinted signature to establish non-deniability of the transmitter and ensure the packet has not been intercepted and examined by third parties.
The standard was submitted for approval in '02.
That is, 0002.
-- We live in a world where lemonade is artificial and soap has real lemon.
call me risk adverse .. but i was actually waiting for the final publication and n devices.
it's only recently that the n devices were cost competitive with the g devices.
now to push cisco/linksys to release an n equivelent to the wrt54gl device
For those who haven't read until the end of the boring article, let me just put in the last sentence:
"According to the Alliance, users can expect future Wi-Fi products to be fully compatible with todayâ(TM)s products."
Well, that's at least a relieve. Hopefully they did not have to drop a lot of features to get that result. The other good thing is having an official test suite, so products don't have to be tested 1:N where N is all the other products out there. Although I presume there are also Draft N test suites available already.
I'm still deciding if I should go X2 or K56Flex and now you drop this on me!?
Folks - sad to say, but there is little bit of a disconnect between the IEEE and industry.
The organization is largely dominated by academics, and students. Industry participation is a bit mixed, to say the least.
The Special Interest Groups (SIG) are more effective at getting things done (WiFI alliance, WiMax, ZigBee, Bluetooth, etc)
What happens and gets adopted inside the SIG generally is what happens in the real world. The blessing of the IEEE standard is generally after the fact.
If the SIG blesses it, HW and SW move ahead, and you get a timely product development where everyone's stuff plugs and plays together.
Even inside a SIG, the politics and bickering is a tug of war, but the members are motivated to get it done because their companies want to ship products.
As for the IEEE, due to the academic orientation, there is a lack of impetus to produce standards quickly, and practical information is often not welcome in IEEE journal publications. As a reviewer for 2 IEEE journals, I want the practical, but my reviews go against 3-5 others, and its a consensus decision. Often other reviewers want the math analysis pretty, and don't care much that the publication has nothing for real world application or validity.
Go figure -
Oh, and yeah, I truly am a member of the IEEE, Senior Grade, Chapter chair for several societies, and journal reviewer as well. However my efforts are generally swimming against the flow. Because of that, when I publish, I do it in the electronics trade magazines where real world issues are a lot more welcome.
www.effectiveelectrons.com "chips that work" Analog, RF, Mixed Signal
They built the products early because the IEEE was dragging their feet on the final approval. The IEEE defined the standard exceptionally late - that's WHY the vendors built early. You've got the cause and effect totally reversed.
And it's not like the vendors had anything to do with the delay. They certainly worked together in a harmonious fashion without trying to push their own technological agenda into the working group. /sarcasm
Who do you think was in the IEEE effort? It was the vendors themselves. Just look at the 802.11 member list:
http://www.ieee802.org/11/Voters/votingmembers.htm
It was the members themselves that couldn't decide between the competing technologies (TGn Sync and WWiSE):
http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/3490926
http://www.networkworld.com/net.worker/news/2005/020705netleadside.html
The IEEE is not some ivory tower institution sending down standards from the clouds like Zeus and his lightning bolts. It is made up of members, and those members are sponsored by their employers to work on these standards (and there may even be a few "independents" as well).
The IEEE took a long time to come to a consensus because the vendors (through their paid employees) took a long time to come to a consensus.
All IEEE 802 standards are available for free:
http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/
http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802/portfolio.html
Besides, what's wrong with them charging for it? Even a non-profit has bills to pay.
(And 802.11-2007 is 1184 pages.)
Are there any non-apple routers that support IPv6 out of the box? Upgrading from 802.11b/g/a to n would be the perfect opportunity to make sure the consumer router market is ready for IPv6.
I just went down and told my router, it blinked it's little lights in approval.
Sheldon
We intend this report to belong to the entire Scheme community, and so we grant permission to copy it in whole or in part without fee. In particular, we encourage implementors of Scheme to use this report as a starting point for manuals and other documentation, modifying it as necessary.
That's how a standard should be.
SIGSEGV caught, terminating
wait... not that kind of sig.
.. did they make a change at the last minute that is small, but nevertheless renders all of the current "pre-n" hardware and software obsolete?
Hopefully the 5GHz band does not become clogged up now that all the new shiny 11n gear hits the market :-/
Many 802.11n devices already jam the 2.4GHz range and render near 11g devices unusable with their multi channel stuff...
FROM THE FUCKING ARTICLE AND A POST ABOVE.
For those who haven't read until the end of the boring article, let me just put in the last sentence:
"According to the Alliance, users can expect future Wi-Fi products to be fully compatible with todays products."
Moderators, wake up and read the actual article before modding anything up.
Nom du Keyboard indeed. Lire le Screen?