Wi-Fi Alliance certification move
p2pnet.net News:- Worried about, “incompatibilities among next-generation routers and network cards,” the Wi-Fi Alliance will in 2007 certify products without waiting for the completion of technical standards.
Wi-Fi Alliance managing director Frank Hanzlik said without a certification program, the market could have been fragmented by the growing number and variety of pre-standard “Draft N” or “Pre-N” products claiming faster speeds and greater range, continues the Associated Press.
“The products take their names from the coming 802.11n standard. As early as a month ago, the alliance, which ensures WiFi products from different companies work together, indicated it wouldn’t certify the compatibility of the pre-N products,” the story says. “But delays within the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the professional association that shepherds the standards process, prompted the Wi-Fi Alliance to rethink, Hanzlik said.”
Broadcom, “has welcomed the decision taken by the Wi-Fi Alliance to speed up the testing process for 802.11n specification equipment despite the fact that the high data-rate wireless technology is still undergoing standardization within the IEEE,” says EETimes, going on:
“A 2.0 version of the 802.11n draft standard is now being prepared after the first vote in May by members of the IEEE 802.11 working group on Draft 1.0 failed to reach the 75 percent majority required for acceptance.
“Just days earlier, several vendors targeting the next-generation wireless-LAN standard went on the defensive after the first tests of draft IEEE 802.11n clients and routers indicated poorer-than-expected performance, a lack of interoperability and, in one case, inadequate security. The chip and equipment companies questioned the testing methods, saying they suspected preproduction systems and software versions had been used, and quoted higher performance numbers based on their own tests.”
According to AP, Hanzlik expects to use the next version of the draft for testing and certification, but if the institute remains “bogged down,” the Wi-Fi Alliance, “will still go ahead certifying products in the first half of 2007. Then, when the institute approves a final 802.11n standard, not expected until March 2008, the alliance will do more testing.”
Also See:
Associated Press – WiFi group to certify products sans standard, August 30, 2006
EETimes – Wi-Fi Alliance breaks ranks on 802.11n testing, August 29, 2006
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