Second Wi-Fi standards group steps forward
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A new battle of technologies may be in the offing in the 802.11n arena as 12 key companies have developed a key proposal to counter another one announced last week that is backed by a group of top wireless players.
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In an effort to help ensure standardization, the Free Standards Group has officially released the Linux Standard Base (LSB) 2.0, a specification composed of interoperability standards, a base set of APIs and libraries and developer environments and test
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The WWiSE proposal builds on the existing and globally adopted 20MHz channel format of the tens of millions of Wi-Fi devices already in use. Its proposal is a second, competing standard that seeks to speed up wireless networks with ...
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Several wireless networking standards are vying for a center spot in consumers' homes. Here we take you on a tour of some of the most likely candidates.
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A second consortium puts in a bid for the faster 802.11n spec. But don't expect a battle over formats.
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Most original draft-802.11n products should be firmware upgradable to the second draft, expected to be formally approved this week; interoperability should be vastly improved.
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SAN JOSE, Calif. - A proposal to blanket 1,500 square miles of Silicon Valley with affordable wireless access to the Internet stepped closer to reality Tuesday after a joint task force selected Silicon Valley Metro Connect to build and operate the network.
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Networking consortium submits proposal for faster Wi-Fi, as battle lines are drawn between rival groups.
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InfoWorld - The Wi-Fi Alliance launched the action phase of its plan to get faster wireless networking products into the market on Monday, kicking off certification testing of gear based on a draft version of the IEEE 802.11n standard.
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A group of major wireless operators, device and infrastructure vendors Tuesday released a proposed specification that the group claims will enable devices to seamlessly transition between cellular and wireless data networks.
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Engineers expect the networking standard to hit new speeds by 2010.
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(InfoWorld) - The Wi-Fi Alliance launched the action phase of its plan to get faster wireless networking products into the market on Monday, kicking off certification testing of gear based on a draft version of the IEEE 802.11n standard. The industry group that popularized wireless LANs expects 802.11n Draft 2.0 products with its seal of approval to be on the market before September. Those routers, access points, clients, and other products should work with other certified gear based on the draft standard as well as existing Wi-Fi gear that uses the 802.11a/b/g standards. They'll also need to pass security and multimedia quality tests. Eight labs in Spain, Taiwan, Japan, and the U.S. are now testing products, according to the industry group, which has about 300 member companies. The emerging 802.11n specification, which is more complicated than earlier wireless LAN standards because it involves the use of multiple antennas and a large amount of radio spectrum, has been a tough nut for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to crack. After watching lengthy fights over the proposed standard, the Wi-Fi Alliance last year jumped on Draft 2.0 of the standard as a common ground for vendors to build products that work together. The IEEE is still working on a final 802.11n specification and expects it to be finished in March 2009. There is no guarantee of interoperability between products based on Draft 2.0 and those using the final standard. Wi-Fi Alliance certification is intended to let consumers buy Draft 2.0 products from different vendors and know they will work together. However, some industry analysts don't expect enterprises to invest in the new generation of technology until the final standard is approved because they need to be sure they have a wide range of products to choose from over a long period of time. Both Draft 2.0 and the final standard are intended to run at more than 100Mbps, faster than many wired Ethernet connections. The products now being certified can deliver as much as five times the throughput and twice the range of earlier Wi-Fi gear, according to a Wi-Fi Alliance news release. In addition to working with other Draft 2.0 products, the certified products will comply with the group's WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access) security specification and its WMM (Wi-Fi Multimedia) standard for ensuring high-quality voice, video, and gaming.
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Plans for valuable wireless spectrum being considered by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission may not go far enough to encourage a new broadband competitor, said groups calling for open-access rules for part of the spectrum.
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Cities and towns are jumping on the Wi-Fi bandwagon. But a municipal model of connectivity may be tricky to pull off.
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(InfoWorld) - The process to standardize a rival to the broadband wireless WiMax technology is back on track although the delay and scandal around it could present a serious set back to the effort. On Tuesday, standards setting body the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) announced changes that would allow the 802.20 working group, suspended in June, to continue to develop the standard. The group will elect all new officers and resume working once a chair is approved, which IEEE hopes will happen by Nov. 12. Participants in the group will also be required to disclose all of their affiliations, including any company that pays, employs or sponsors the member. Some experts warn, however, that the changes could be coming too late. "Whatever the reality behind it, 802.20 is now so heavily associated with Qualcomm that it will not be perceived as an independent standard," said Caroline Gabriel, an analyst with Rethink Research. The IEEE put the new measures in place in hopes of correcting the problems that lead to the suspension of the group in June. At the time, the standards body had received several complaints, including some that accused the independent analyst who served as chairman of 802.20 of being paid by Qualcomm, an accusation he later confirmed. In addition, the IEEE said the group's activities had become unusually contentious. The 802.20 group began as an offshoot of 802.16, the standard that forms the basis of WiMax. The goal of the 802.16 effort initially was to build a fixed broadband wireless technology that would compete with DSL (digital subscriber line) and other wireline technologies. As work progressed, however, 802.16 members decided that in the future, the standard should be capable of supporting mobile or portable access as well. But some of the members didn't want to have to build the mobility feature on top of a standard that was originally created for a fixed application. Consequently, they split off to create 802.20, a mobile broadband wireless standard that could be created from scratch and would be designed to support broadband wireless access for users moving at very high speeds, such as on a train. While 802.16 emphasizes throughput speeds, 802.20 emphasizes supporting access at very fast user mobility. IntelÂ is a major backer of the 802.16 process and ArrayCommÂ and Flarion have been heavily involved in the 802.20 process. Intel competitorÂ Qualcomm acquired FlarionÂ last year. Qualcomm is best known for its development of CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and strict licensing policies. The process of completing the 802.20 standard was already far behind its 802.16 competitor when the suspension occurred. The specification for the fixed version of 802.16 is finished with products currently shipping and the mobile version of 802.16 was ratified late last year. The 802.20 standard will also have to compete with the developing cellular standards, such as HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access).
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(InfoWorld) - During a presentation at the IEEE Globecom 2006 Expo in San Francisco on Tuesday, Alan Crouch, director and general manager at Intel's Communications Technology Lab told the audience to expect Intel to put a pre-standard version of IEEE 802.11n Wi-Fi into its Centrino chips by next year. The IEEE 802.11n standard, which is not expected to be ratified before the first half of 2008, will give users far greater performance and range than current Wi-Fi technology. The technology will someday scale to 600Mbps, according to Bill McFarland, a member of the IEEE committee, with a range 50 percent greater than available with Wi-Fi now. Although the news caused barely a ripple of reaction in the audience of software and hardware engineers, there are industry analysts who have already warned large buyers of wireless technology to resist the temptation to deploy high speed IEEE 802.11n devices until the standard is ratified. This is the advice of Gartner's Ken Dulaney, among others, who said that a pre-standard version might be fine for the home where the technology exists as a closed loop, but in an enterprise with a heterogeneous wireless environment it could lead to interoperability problems down the road. Continuing on a theme of emerging technologies, Crouch also touted the benefits of UWB (Ultra Wideband), a short range, three meters, wireless technology, which he said will start to gain recognition in â07. UWB is sometimes called Wireless USB but with better performance. In addition, Crouch said the Bluetooth standards body will adopt UWB technology as a future version of Bluetooth. With its short range and high performance, first devices will be capable of 480Mbps, Crouch said consumer electronics companies will quickly take up the technology. Following Crouch on stage was David Leeper, senior principal engineer for UWB at Intel who continued to talk about UWB benefits and uses. "It is a compelling technology because you can do video streaming at very low power," Leeper said. Leeper estimated a full-length feature movie could be downloaded using UWB in 80 seconds. If UWB performs as advertised it could easily replace most interconnect cables such as those running to printers, scanners, and other peripheral devices allowing a user to print, stream wireless display data, and synch all at the same time. The capability to move a great deal of content at high speed also has a use in the enterprise, Leeper added. At the end of the Intel presentation, Crouch admitted that the biggest challenge faced by the industry is overcoming RF (radio frequency) interference among the various wireless technologies, especially Wi-Fi, WiMAX, and UWB. Crouch said each of the three technologies has a unique usage model and he does not expect any one of the three to replace the other.Crouch said, however, it wouldnât be easy to have a single device with all three radios inside. "Requirements for [using] multi-radio is a huge leap. This is where companies are spending their time and energy," Crouch said.ADVERTISEMENTNEW IT SERVICES FROM IBM: EASIER TO BUY AND IMPLEMENTDiscover a simpler, more cost-effective way to get the solutions your company needs to grow more flexible and efficient.
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The 802.11n draft wireless standard moved further into mainstream acceptance on Tuesday with Cisco&#39;s announcement of integrated enterprise products.