Faster Wi-Fi hits another hurdle
Published: 04 May 2006 10:55 BST
The proposed next-generation Wi-Fi standard failed to pass a critical vote on Tuesday, emphasising experts' warnings that consumers and business customers should wait until the final draft before purchasing products that claim to be draft-compliant.
The new 802.11n standard, expected to be finalised later this year, will let users connect to wireless access points at much faster speeds than currently available with 802.11g.
Draft 1.0 of 802.11n was voted on during a working group meeting Tuesday, but did not win the necessary 75 percent approval needed to move it forward as the final draft. Comments and potential changes will be submitted to the working group and discussed during the IEEE's May meeting.
While it's typical for early drafts to be rejected at this stage in the standards process, the failure is noteworthy since many companies have already begun selling products based on Draft 1.0.
Experts believe the final implementation of 802.11n will likely change dramatically from the version these vendors are using.
"The standards process is filled with many twists and turns," said Craig Mathias, an analyst with Farpoint Group. "And anyone who thinks they can tell what the final draft looks like is smoking something. The strategy adopted by some vendors to jump the gun on draft compliance doesn't do them any favours."
Farpoint recently published a study based on tests of Draft 1.0 products that found the performance and interoperability claims of chip vendors didn't stack up.
Vendors like Broadcom, which is already selling Draft 1.0 chips to wireless routing makers Netgear and Linksys, disagreed with the findings. The company also disagrees with Mathias's assessment that 802.11n will change significantly in its final version, since any major changes require a 75 percent vote by IEEE members.
"Partner solutions based on our Intensi-fi products will continue to offer multivendor interoperability and compliance with the 802.11n draft standard," said Bill Bunch, director of product marketing for Broadcom.
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