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News and New Products
802.11n Draft Technologies Out of the Gate
Online Staff -- Electronic News, 4/21/2006
Before 802.11n has even reached an industry standard, some companies are choosing to move ahead with 802.11n retail products while others are simply demonstrating the technology and waiting for a more concrete standard to release their wares.
Three Enhanced Wireless Consortium (EWC) members Buffalo Technology, Netgear Inc. and Marvell Technology Group Ltd. have debuted retail products this month off of the 802.11n draft. However, Israel-based Metalink has chosen to hold off on releasing products until the draft has become a standard.
Task Group N of the IEEE 802.11 committee unanimously approved on January 19 a joint proposal to amend the IEEE 802.11 standard by adding specifications such as MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) and 20Mhz and 40Mhz channels, which ultimately will increase wireless network connection speeds, to as much as 600Mbps by the time the standard is ratified. Draft 802.11n also offers compatibility with any legacy 802.11b/802.11g WLAN device. The IEEE expects to ratify the standard in 2007.
Austin, Texas-based wireless networking hardware supplier Buffalo Technology rolled out its 802.11n draft compatible products last week, including the AirStation Nfiniti Wireless Router and AP (WZR-G300N), the AirStation Nfiniti Wireless PCI Adapter (WLI-PCI-G300N) and the AirStation Nfiniti Wireless Notebook Adapter (WLI-CB-G300N).
Buffalo’s new wireless products will produce data rates near 300Mbps, and will accommodate applications that demand greater bandwidth such as VoIP or high definition video.
“The market has been waiting for techno-savvy solutions that complement their bandwidth intense digital lifestyles,” said Morikazu Sano, senior VP of global marketing at Buffalo Technology, in a statement. “We are thrilled to make these products immediate available to our customers, allowing us to once again set the pace for the next-generation of WLAN solutions and immediately offer customers the speed, stability and security necessary to handle any modern-day application.”
Netgear Inc. moved ahead with its 802.11n draft compatible products that include the RangeMax NEXT Wireless Router with 10/100 Switch (WNR834B) and RangeMax NEXT Wireless Notebook Adapter (WN511B), also made available last week.
Netgear’s WNR834B RangeMax NEXT wireless router incorporates a 10/100 Mbps switch to support bandwidth-hungry wireless applications in the home such as IP telephony, Internet sharing, downloading MP3 files, streaming high-definition video and playing network games.
“As the process moves toward the ratification of the new 802.11n standard, Netgear will continue to actively work with the various chipset vendors as well as the IEEE and WFA standards bodies to ensure that multi-vendor wireless solutions interoperate at the highest speeds possible while, at the same time, maintaining backwards compatibility and smooth operation of legacy 802.11b/g clients,” said Vivek Pathela, Neatgear VP of product marketing, in a statement.
Earlier this month Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Marvell released its 802.11n draft-compliant products, dubbed the TopDog family, which have been incorporated in both D-Link and Netgear products, that include wireless routers and PC client cards. Marvell TopDog WLAN products deliver data rates between 300 to 600 Mbps and Ethernet connectivity from 100Mbps to 1 Gbps.
On the other side of the fence, Metalink Ltd. has advised consumers to hold off on buying 802.11n devices, but have held a series of live demonstrations of its WLANPlus chipset, also based on the draft.
“We are advising people not to deploy pre-n products, not even our pre-n products,” said Metatlink VP of North American sales and marketing Ron Cates, earlier this month.Cates noted that the products Metalink were demonstrating had been developed before the 802.11n standard was issued publicly, and as a result, there were certain aspects of the design that would not be interoperable with final standard products. The purpose of the demonstrations was not to go into production, but to allow customers to experience the performance of a final 802.11n product.
