802.11n standard is closer

By: T.O. Whenham

If you struggle to keep track of WiFi standards, it is only going to get worse. The 802.11n standard has moved one step closer to deployment after the Enhanced Wireless Consortium passed a joint proposal by a 40-0 vote. The proposal will now go to the IEEE, which meets next week, for adoption.

The 802.11n standard is estimated to be 5 times faster than 802.11g and therefore as much as 50 times faster than 802.11b. The point of bigger interest for this standard, though, is that the range it can achieve is far greater than any predecessor, owing to some advanced coding and the ability to work with multiple antennas. That means that providers can offer a wider coverage area ad more consistent speeds. This will be particularly significant as cities look to build wireless networks that cover their whole cities.

By the time the new standard umps through all the hoops placed before it, it is unlikely that it will be in use much before the end of the yea

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