There are dozens of 802.11n products available, but until now, none were certified by Wi-Fi Alliance. This meant that to guarantee compatibility, purchasers of 802.11n wireless networking equipment had to use an access point and wireless lan card from the same vendor. In 2000 802.11b adoption took off fueled by low cost consumer grade equipment from vendors like Linksys and Wi-Fi Alliance’s (formerly WECA) Wi-Fi certification program for 802.11b interoperability.

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 802.11n technology holds wide consumer appeal and will propel users to use next-generation applications more frequently. Recent research from Wi-Fi Alliance and Kelton Research indicates that 78% of US Wi-Fi users are interested in upgrading their Wi-Fi systems in order to gain improved range and/or throughput. Moreover, nearly 70% of the Wi-Fi users polled indicated that a faster Wi-Fi connection would prompt them to use multimedia applications such as video and gaming more frequently.

Wow, 78% of WiFi users are interested in upgrading, I didn’t think it would be this high considering that the existing 802.11 a/b/g based wireless networks are very functional and pretty speedy for most applications.

The following companies supply the products used in the interoperability test bed, and have the first devices to become Wi-Fi CERTIFIED:

• 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 Chipset featuring the RT2860 802.11n 2T3R MAC/BBP and the RT2850 802.11n Dual Band RFIC
• Ralink MIMObility™ RT2800PD Access Point

In addition, WildPackets OmniPeek Workgroup Pro is included as a test bed software tool.

Press release by Wi-Fi Alliance and whitepaper about 802.11n

• NetStumbler for Mac OS X
  NetStumbler for Mac OS X? If you are looking for a NetStumbler like program for Mac OS X you have several options. My personal favorite...
• Wireless N 802.11n Wi-Fi Standard Approved
  Wireless N 802.11n Wi-Fi Standard Approved The IEEE has finally approved the 802.11n high-throughput wireless LAN standard. The IEEE today announced that its Standards Board...
• Rogue Access Point Detection Using iWIDS
  Rogue Access Point Detection Using iWIDS iWIDS is an online wireless instrusion detection system (WIDS) that leverages the wireless scanning capabilities of a Windows XP/Vista/7...
• Airplane WiFi Wireless Internet Update
  Airplane WiFi Wireless Internet Update Since my previous post about airplane wifi, a few more airlines have launched wifi Internet using either Aircell’s GoGo or...

If you liked this post, subscribe using below

WLAN Book RSS Feed

WLAN Book by Email

Filed under: WLAN Standards