You may recall that I have previously mentioned ([1], [2]) the ongoing battle over the next Wi-Fi standard. Now it looks like a compromise has been reached:
An industry group seeking common ground on the emerging IEEE 802.11n high-speed wireless LAN specification has agreed on a compromise proposal that may form the basis of a final standard.
The joint proposal group, which includes backers of all the major factions in the fight over how to boost the speed and range of wireless LANs, late Wednesday [Jan. 11 - ed.] approved a proposal by a unanimous online vote with two abstentions, according to Bill McFarland, chief technology officer at Atheros Communications, a semiconductor vendor that belongs to the group.
The IEEE is expected to formally accept the proposal in a meeting this week, but it likely won’t be formally adopted for about a year. The good news is that won’t slow down the vendors:
But partly because the standards process has taken so long and vendors have gained experience with the new technology, there will probably be pre-standard products on the market in the middle of this year that are mostly interoperable and can be upgraded to the final standard via software or firmware upgrade.
The advantages are 802.11n, or MIMO as it is often called, are greater range and faster speed.
