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

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Filed under: WLAN Standards