802.11n going up for approval once again

Sure, they say the third time's a charm, but at this point, all "charm" in the grueling 802.11n ratification process has evaporated. Moving ever-so-slightly ahead of schedule, the IEEE's 802.11 working group has "unanimously approved Draft 1.10 of the 802.11n WiFi spec," and has now passed it along to the entire membership of the IEEE for final approval. Of course, we've certainly been down the unfortunate road before, but hopefully the folks in charge will give it the thumbs-up we all need to sanely move on with our wireless lives. Notably, there's "no set timeline" for when it expects an approval / denial decision, but if the membership does give this draft the green light, "it will be the final 802.11n specification." Now, let's all cross our collective fingers for some positive (and hasty) decision making.

[james @ Jan 23rd 2007 10:37AM]

i want my two dollars!

[Nij @ Jan 23rd 2007 11:10AM]

Yes, let's completely rush an extremely important technological standard so that Engadget can add more useless complaining to every story they post. Great reporting, as usual.

[tekdroid @ Jan 23rd 2007 11:15AM]

"As it is, Silva has his reservations about 802.11n because it uses the same 2.4GHz spectrum as 11b and 11g and there could be some interference. With potential conflict between specs, the only solution may be to rip and replace all old Wi-Fi technologies with 11n.

"So enterprises have to think do I want to refresh my entire wireless LAN to get 11n," he said. "They have to ask do I need this increased range and bandwidth to justify revamping my entire wireless LAN?"
============
Hmmmmmmmm.

[Matt B @ Jan 23rd 2007 11:24AM]

A/B/G went off without any issue, so what is the issue with N?

[Octothorpe @ Jan 23rd 2007 12:15PM]

802.11N is truly less than exciting. 802.11A uses 5.4Ghz and has poor range, 802.11B has the best range and shares channels, and radio frequencies with 802.11G, 802.11G is 5 times faster than 802.11B, and is backward-compatable (mostly)with 802.11B, but has range limits. 802.11N claims better range, but ONLY due to MIMO features (multiple in/out) requiring multiple antennas per access point (you can pretty much give up the idea of using different antennas for better range or patterns. I am realatively happy with 802.11B for internet access and pleased with 802.11G for file transfers, I won't rush out and waste my money on 802.11N even if it is ratified. The reason 802.11N isn't winning approval rapidly is because there is really no need for it and geeks only want it just to have another toy. the theoretical 100+ megabit throughput it nice, but seriously, is that really that great when I have Gigabit to my desktop and 10 Gigabit to my server. In my opinion, 802.11N needs to disappear and IEEE needs to work on the next 802.11? that will have excellent range with a SINGLE antenna (try using lower frequencies, it will help overall range without the need for more power) and bandwidth closer to what is available to my desktop via cat6A cabling (it is just copper twisted pair, but they can get 10 Gigabit on it).

[Hans @ Jan 23rd 2007 12:36PM]

802.11n is already sold and included in new computers, without the approval. even with a denial from the IEEE, would it really stop the inclusion of draft n in new computers?

[nigel @ Jan 23rd 2007 1:32PM]

I assume N is faster, but how much faster?
I must have been sleeping when we learned about this.

[MR @ Jan 23rd 2007 3:38PM]

@Octothorpe
I don't think 802.11N is just another toy for geeks. Currently, none of the A/B/G is fast enough to stream DVD-Rs (~4Mbps), let alone DVD9s and HD. Without a better wireless solution, it'd become impractical for someone to setup a wireless home theater system.
Besides, data backup is becoming more and more important. I, for one, have started clearing out my file cabinets and converting documents to pdfs. And with all the digital photos that I have (upward of 10GB per trip), I'd definitely need a separate location to keep the backups besides burning DVDRs. For some people, wired connection may be impossible and they'll need the fastest wireless connection that they can get.
Do I think 802.11N is the solution? No, I doubt it's fast enough either. But at least it's one step toward the right direction.

[Sean Cooper @ Jan 24th 2007 2:41AM]

With all of these Pre-N certified products out, does it even matter if they ever certify the standard. I think they have proven that their processes are far to bureaucratic or just too slow and the market has decided to move without them.

[ethana2 @ Jan 24th 2007 7:05AM]

I think society needs more than another wireless standard. We need to offload all old-media communications to the internet. Then, we need to offload all single -purpose machines' tasks onto PC's. Game consoles? Phone lines? Screw it. Just give me a PS3 install CD and a massively powerful co processor on PCIe 32x. And then a few controllers as peripherals. As they fit my tastes. I already have a logitech PS2 type controller. Pretty sweet.
Of course, that's called efficiency. And few industries have been shown friendly to efficiency. Hopefully, open source will blow the other guys' business models out of the water (I'll help), and then we can move on without them in our way. Imagine. Downloading one open source game engine, with 13 games running through it. Much smaller. And when you upgrade the engine, you simultaneously upgrade all your games. "Oh, hey! The camera module got stereo vision support today! I'll see how it looks in.... this game here." "Sweet!"