802.11n creeps closer to finality as Draft 2.0 reaches milestone

It's been a long, hard road for all of us -- consumers, manufacturers, developers, and a little club called the 802.11n Working Group -- but the next-gen, MIMO-powered WiFi standard has finally reached an important milestone in its tortured journey from a wee pre-N to a full-fledged spec (hopefully!), with 83.4% of eligible voters approving the latest Draft 2.0 revision. As we all remember from the overwhelming initial rejection of Draft 1.0, a 75% supermajority is required for moving on to the next stage, so the fact that there was this much support coupled with relatively few comments (3,000-some versus the 12,000+ for that famous Draft 1.0 flameout) means that we may actually be on track for a planned April 2009 publication of the final IEEE spec. The best part is that since Draft 2.0 is guaranteed to be fully compatible with the finalized 802.11n, your current gear with the D 2.0 badge of honor will definitely play nice with future components. So we're in the home stretch now, folks -- all that's left is some nitpicking over technicalities and language -- and it looks like the naysayers will have been proven wrong after all; although when WiMax comes to town and makes WLANs irrelevant, there's a good chance that this whole ordeal will be quickly forgotten anyway.

[Via Ars Technica]

[NarfPointZort @ Mar 14th 2007 9:06PM]

"although when WiMax comes to town and makes WLANs irrelevant"
HAH! I can't even express how insanely shortsighted that statement is. Meh, private WLANs, who needs 'em? LOL

[Connor @ Mar 14th 2007 9:23PM]

Someone could probably make a lot of money be going back and writing firmware updates for older routers that could potentially work with the new standard.

[Jeff @ Mar 14th 2007 9:25PM]

can anyone tell me of any routers using the 2.0 spec right now? ive been looking but i only seem to find 1.0

[Monkut @ Mar 14th 2007 10:04PM]

WIMAX and WLAN are not direct competitors.

As I understand WIMAX requires licensed specturm, where WLAN is unlicensed.

So, the only one going to give you WIMAX is your carrier. (And I'm sure everyone is happy with thier current billing and service)

While with WLAn, you still can put a 802.11n hotspot in your home and share that with your neighbors.

I could be wrong, but I don't see WIMAX replacing WLAN in anyway in the future, unless a version that uses unlicensed spectrum comes out.

[Guffy @ Mar 15th 2007 12:54PM]

"on track for a planned April 2009 publication of the final IEEE spec"

Are you just kidding me here or is this for real? I know the IEEE is a very saggy group and takes forever to make the smallest decisions. But April 2009 as an official release date, that is pushing it. I figured itd get a little bit delayed and everything, but that it would come out sometime in 2007.

So it is def not coming out anytime before 2009?

[JOATMON @ Mar 15th 2007 8:14PM]

April 2009 for final approval is indeed correct. Yes, IEEE can grind exceedingly slow. The IEEE 802.11 Working Group has approved Draft 2.0 with over 75%, but in order to go to the next level of balloting, it'll have to get well over 90% approval. And then, that only to go to Sponsor Balloting, and it has to get over 90% there, as well. The minimum number of ballots historically was 5, and the maximum was 15 ballots.
Also, there is no guarantee that final equipment will work with equipment based on Draft 2.0. The draft can change throughout this process.