WiFi Alliance Announces 802.11n Draft-Certified Products
The 802.11n version of Wi-Fi promises to deliver higher speeds and greater reliability than earlier versions.
The WiFi Alliance has announced the first list of products that meet its 802.11n Draft 2.0 specification. These products follow the preliminary specifications that were announced in March and should be upgradable to the final 802.11n specification when that is released in 2008, although such upgrades are not guaranteed by the WiFi Alliance.
The products included in the WiFi Alliance's list are both commercial products and reference designs and will be used as part of the Alliance's testbed for interoperability testing.
The 802.11n version of Wi-Fi promises to deliver higher speeds and greater reliability than earlier versions. A number of manufacturers have announced plans to build wireless high-definition IPTV communications devices based on the standard, and access points labeled "pre-n" have been on the market for a few months.
However, computers able to use 802.11n have yet to be produced.
The list of commercial products and reference devices that meet the Draft 2.0 standard includes wireless access points and access cards for laptop and desktop computers as well as a chip set:
-- Atheros XSPAN with SST Draft 2.0 802.11n Dual-Concurrent 2.4/5GHz Router with Atheros AR7100 Series Wireless Network Processor
-- Atheros XSPAN with SST Draft 2.0 802.11n dual-band 2.4/5GHz card bus
-- Broadcom Intensi-Fi 802.11n router: BCM94705GMP
-- Broadcom Intensi-Fi 802.11n card: BCM94321MC123
-- Cisco Access Point
-- Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
-- Marvell TopDog WLAN solutions (station card)
-- Marvell TopDog WLAN solutions (access point)
-- Ralink MIMObility RT2800PD chip set featuring the RT2860 802.11n 2T3R MAC/BBP and the RT2850 802.11n Dual-Band RFIC
-- Ralink MIMObility RT2800PD access point
The WildPackets OmniPeek Workgroup Pro is also listed by the WiFi Alliance as a testbed software tool.
In addition, the WiFi Alliance has published a white paper on the details of Draft 2.0 802.11n Wi-Fi, explaining what the certification process means to retailers and consumers. It's available here.
Copyright 2007 by Ziff Davis Media, Distributed by United Press International
