Joint Proposal team voted to adopt IEEE 802.11n, the next generation WLAN standard
In January 2004 IEEE announced that it had formed a new 802.11 Task Group (TGn) to develop a new amendment to the 802.11 standard for local-area wireless networks. The real data throughput is estimated to reach a theoretical 540 Mbit/s (which may require an even higher raw data rate at the physical layer), and should be up to 40 times faster than 802.11b, and near 10 times faster than 802.11a or 802.11g. It is projected that 802.11n will also offer a better operating distance than current networks.
There are two competing proposals of the 802.11n standard, expected to be ratified: WWiSE (World-Wide Spectrum Efficiency), backed by companies including Broadcom, and TGn Sync backed by Intel and Philips.
Previous competitors TGnSync, WWiSE, and a third group, MITMOT, said in late July 2005 that they would merge their respective proposals as a draft which would be sent to the IEEE in September; a final version will be submitted in November.
802.11n builds upon previous 802.11 standards by adding MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). MIMO uses multiple transmitter and receiver antennas to allow for increased data throughput through spatial multiplexing and increased range by exploiting the spatial diversity, perhaps through coding schemes like Alamouti coding.
The Enhanced Wireless Consortium (EWC) was formed to help accelerate the IEEE 802.11n development process and promote a technology specification for interoperability of next-generation wireless local area networking (WLAN) products.
In the vote yesterday (Jan. 11), forty members voted for the compromise proposals, none against, and two companies abstained.
This far exceeds the JP’s required quorum of 60 percent of the membership voting, and the IEEE working group’s adoption rule of 75 percent affirmative among those voting).
This proposal is being finalized over the next two days before being submitted to the IEEE meeting in Hawaii, which kicks off January 16. All proponents seem hopeful it will get the required 75 percent majority before it can become the standard for the high data-rate Wi-Fi.
802.11n is predicated on MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) techniques, and much of the technology developed by Airgo Networks, to boost bandwidth by an order of magnitude above the standard of today’s Wi-Fi networks. The technique makes use of “multi-path” interference that might once have been minimised to drive up the network’s range.