After seven years, 802.11n is finally ratified
Published: 14 September, 2009
READ MORE: Regulator | Wi-Fi | 802.11n
After seven years of work, the 802.11n fast Wi-Fi standard has finally been officially ratified, though the IEEE taskgroup was low key about announcing the breakthrough. The changes from Draft 2 of the specification, which is widely implemented in commercial products, are minimal and compatibility is guaranteed (the Wi-Fi Alliance already has a testing program for Draft 2).
Bruce Kraemer, chair of the 802.11n taskgroup, sent out an email notification, announcing approval of 11n and a companion standard, 11w, for protecting data in 802.11 management frames.
"Although this email vehicle falls far short of expressing the sentiment, thanks to the hundreds of 802.11members that contributed to these efforts, as well as the 802 EC and the IEEE Staff," Kraemer wrote.
When a study group was set up in 2002 to look at fast Wi-Fi, it was wondering whether 100Mbps speeds would be possible on the WLans - now, most Draft 2.0 products achieve 150Mbps to 200Mbps, by using two new spatial streams.
The Wi-Fi Alliance will update its certification program on September 30 to begin testing products that meet the full standard, though this has only seen a handful of additions in the past two years, all involving optional features.
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