The IEEE on Monday announced that its standards board has ratified the IEEE 802.11n-2009 amendment, defining mechanisms that provide significantly improved data rates and ranges for wireless local area networks (WLANs). The new standard – which has been under development for years – will significantly improve data transfer speeds in WLANs. It is interesting to note that there are already hundreds of products compliant with 802.11 draft n spec.

“This was an extraordinarily wide-ranging technical challenge that required the sustained effort and concentration of a terrific variety of participants. When we started in 2002, many of the technologies addressed in 802.11n were university research topics and had not been implemented,” said Bruce Kraemer, chaimanr of the IEEE Wireless LAN Working Group.

The 802.11n standard will enable rollout of significantly more scalable WLANs that deliver 10-fold-greater data rates (up to 600Mb/s) than previously defined while ensuring co-existence with legacy systems and security implementations.

More than 400 individuals from equipment and silicon suppliers, service providers, systems integrators, consultant organizations and academic institutions from more than 20 countries participated in a seven-year effort leading to IEEE 802.11n’s ratification. Publication of the amendment is scheduled for mid-October.

The IEEE 802.11 standard defines how to design interoperable WLAN equipment that provides a variety of capabilities including a wide range of data rates, quality of service, reliability, range optimization, device link options, network management and security.

 “The performance improvements achieved via IEEE 802.11n stand to transform the WLAN user experience, and ratification of the amendment sets the stage for a new wave of application innovation and creation of new market opportunities,” added Mr. Kraemer.

Tags: 802.11n