Wi-Fi Alliance Starts Testing 802.11n Interoperability

Those of you that have bought pre-n wireless technology are going to be in for a shock, it probably won’t work with the 802.11n standard that the IEEE is drafting up. The Wi-Fi Alliance though, has grown impatient while waiting for the IEEE to ratify its technical standards, and so they have started testing the technology to see if the different brands actually worth with each other.

The IEEE has announced that it won’t be finished with Draft 2.0, the ratified standard that covers 802.11n until March of 2008, but products that claim compatibility with the new standard are already hitting the market.

Therefore, the Wi-Fi Alliance has said that it will offer preliminary certification for 802.11n based on interoperability of current products on the market.

The concern with 802.11n networks is that they interrupt coverage of older 802.11a/b/g networks and cause performance to suffer, and working out the problems has taken more time than expected.

I can’t wait for a new and better wireless standard, but unfortunately, I have already invested in G, and it is doing more or less what I need. I don’t see myself going to the next level for quite some time. And with new wireless technologies already coming down the pipe, will anyone but the uninformed consumer buy 802.11n products by the time its ratified by the IEEE?

Source: Pocket-lint

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