C'mon, say it with us: "phew!" Considering that just about everyone has been shipping "802.11n" wireless kit since draft 2.0 was put into play two summers ago, we couldn't be more relieved to see the Wi-Fi Alliance confirm that it won't change the baseline requirements of its
802.11n certification program when the format gets certified this September. Just as
we'd heard, the WiFi standard will leave its stagnant
draft status and sashay into the wondrous realm of officialdom in merely two months, with the updated test program to "preserve interoperability with more than 600 Wi-Fi certified 802.11n draft 2.0 products released since June 2007, while adding testing for some optional features now included in the standard." Good thing, too -- can you imagine the uproar if your forthcoming 802.11n dongle wouldn't play nice with that draft-N router you snagged last June?
[Via
Electronista]
posted Jul 27th 2009 3:56AM
Wow, it's seriously been out that long already? What took them so long?
Phew!
The router I purchased last June, or last week!!! Anyway, good thing!
Agreed, I too just bought an N router earlier this month. Very glad to hear it will continue to work with newer hardware. :-)
gonna skip this and get a draft .11ac next summer
Meh
glad i waited... ::rolls eyes::
Oversimplified story, check out the real scoop here:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30880/100/
Basically, what this will do is let the manufacturers claim full 802.11n compatibility without any retesting. The problem with this is that the final 802.11n certification test contains tests for some optional features, such as the "three spatial stream" feature which allows 450 mbps throughput. There will be no easy way for a consumer to tell the difference between hardware that has these optional features versus those that don't.
What took such an incredibly long and drawn out time of confusion? Ugh. Well, at least it's done so we can move on to bigger and better 802.11x drafts!