The final 802.11n standard might not be ratified until 2008
Just when we thought that we were finally progressing smoothly with the 802.11n draft specification, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) drops a bomb on us. A second draft was due for the 802.11n standard by late fall of this year, but will likely appear in January of next year instead.
Part of the delay comes from the vast number of comments – over 12,000 in all -- that have been recorded as a result of the draft 1.0 spec that was announced in late January. Since that time, a number of manufacturers have released wireless products built around the standard. Companies like Dell and Acer have even announced notebooks which use draft standard 802.11n wireless cards. And with the string of product releases comes many issues that have been encountered over the past seven months. Things were really bad when eWeek first tested 802.11n gear back in April. Problems cropped up with legacy performance with "G" networks, poor performance at longer ranges and routers were having issues keeping a connection with wireless clients. When eWeek did its second round of testing in July, things were getting much better with new 802.11n draft products that entered the market. The main problems with products tested at that time were compatibility issues with wireless devices using different wireless chipsets.
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