Wi-Fi Alliance to Certify 802.11n in June

by Jordan Yerman | May 16, 2007 at 09:18 am

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Okay, this isn't the sexiest news item of the day, but it is big news for wireless Internet fans... We love wandering around town with our laptops, but we arent' so crazy about how relatively slow it is. The 802.11n standard will mean that new wireless cards and routers will be five times faster than the existing 802.11g. Whilst n-rated products are already on the market, their throughput and range have not been standardized, so actual performance may or may not reach the soon-to-be-established 802.11n standard.

Starting in June, the Wi-Fi Alliance will begin certifying products using a prestandard version of the next generation of high-speed wireless networking technology, the organization said Wednesday.

The industry group, which has certified products for all of the preceding 802.11 standards, including 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g, said last August that it would take a two-phased approach to the 802.11n certification process. The group will certify interoperability for products using the 802.11n Draft 2.0 version of the specification starting next month.

Once 802.11n becomes a full standard, the alliance will update its certification process to comply with the standard. The group said it hopes to make sure the standard products also interoperate with pre-standard products it certifies.

Products that are certified will display a new logo to let consumers know they have been certified. Products are expected to hit store shelves in July. The Wi-Fi Alliance has 11 testing labs in seven countries around the world. Testing will begin in the middle of June. All the 802.11n Draft 2.0 certified products will also interoperate with products certified for previous 802.11 standards, such as 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g.