David Flynn01 February 2007, 1:05 AM
Now that Apple and Intel have thrown their weight behind the draft version of 802.11n, does the officially sanctified standard need to be anything more than a rubber stamp?
The draft version of 802.11n looks set to become the de facto industry standard for high-speed wireless, with hardware heavyweights tired of endless waiting for the final spec to be set in stone.
The IEEE's 802.11 working group last week signed off on an enhanced 'Draft 2.0' spec, which will be finessed into Draft 3.0 around the middle of this year and is tipped to be become the final foundation for 802.11n. But there's still a long last mile to be run.
The official timeline of the IEEE 802.11 team is peppered with dates from mid-2008 for sponsor ballots through to a jaw-dropping March 2009 for the working group's final approval. (The timeline also lists April 2009 as the date when the spec will be published, so the IEEE either has a very slow printer or there's a really long queue at their photocopier).
Given that we've just entered February 2007, this is almost two years too long for Apple and Intel.
Apple raised the Draft N flag in January, complete with a slick web page proclaiming 802.11n as "The next great leap in wireless technology" built into its new AirPort Extreme Base Station, Apple TV box and most Mac desktops and notebooks.
Of course, Apple's Core 2 Duo machines have actually had 802.11n wireless adapters (from both Atheros and Broadcom) fitted since September last year, although the drivers kept these card locked in the guise of an 802.11b/g card.
 Apple's Draft N software settings |
This week Apple started selling the 802.11n Enabler software necessary to activate Draft N on these earlier model Intel Macs, with a price tag of A$2.99 . You can order the software from the Australian Apple Store, and you can read our report on why Apple has to charge for the update rather than hand it out, even if they've set a peppercorn price. Of course, the software has already popped up on BitTorrent...
 Intel's Kedron wireless chipset |
Intel has also joined the Draft N parade. In fact, while the chipmaker planned to add Draft N to the fourth generation of its Centrino platform (codenamed 'Santa Rosa' and due to launch in April), it jumped the gun and last week announced that its Draft N-capable 'Kedron' wireless chip -- now blessed with an official moniker of Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN -- would be immediately available for current Centrino notebooks. Intel has also given the 802.11n technology itself a snappier name of 'Next-Gen Wireless-N'.
"Normally we would wait for the final signature, but then the Wi-Fi Alliance said that the final signature of the draft by the IEEE was delayed" Mooly Eden, General Manager for Intel's Mobile Platforms Group and the driving force behind the Centrino platform, told APCmag.com.
 Intel's Mobility chief Mooly Eden |
"So we said 'Guys, it doesn't make sense to hold it any more, let's share it.' We're working with all the access point providers and doing interoperability tests with everyone, even our competitors, to deliver a good interoperability experience, which was not the case with the first (Pre-N) 11n specification on the market."
The result is a new campaign which permits the makers of Draft N routers to plaster an official-looking "Connect with Centrino" logo on their product packaging and advertising, provided the gear has passed Intel's in-house compatibility and performance testing program.
However, there's no guarantee that current Draft N equipment will be fully compatible with the final version of 802.11n. "We believe it will be", Eden suggests, "but I cannot commit to something which is a future specification -- there's a reason it's called 'draft'."
With most manufacturers of networking hardware and several leading notebook companies already shipping products designed around the Draft N standard, it begs the question: will the groundswell of support for Draft-N force the IEEE to rubber stamp the spec as its final choice, or at least restrict any changes to those which can be applied to Draft N kit as a firmware update?
"I don’t think the IEEE will feel obliged to rubber stamp anything" suggests NETGEAR technical specialist Jeff Fulton. "We’re just seeing the more or less inevitable tension between consumer demand, vendor interest in meeting that demand, and the necessarily methodical and time-consuming standards mechanism."
"Consumers have shown an increasing willingness to adopt non-standard and pre-standard wireless solutions to satisfy their performance needs. And in the end, the consumers will decide."
"The IEEE designed 802.11a as the original high-speed wireless solution, but consumers resisted because they wanted backwards compatibility with their 11b networks, so 11g was born."
Fulton reflects that the preludes to the WPA wireless encryption standard followed the same path as he expects .11n to take.
"I’m pretty sure we’ll see solutions available for early adopters that work and interoperate well enough that they become the de facto standard, along with some improvements and additions to the final standard that are worth having. With luck, most of those will be able to be accommodated in firmware rather than requiring hardware changes."
There's also the possibility that the continued adoption of Draft N and the year-plus wait until a final spec takes shape could result in some form of enhanced .11n -- one the marketeers will no doubt christen 11n+ or 11n Pro -- which would retain a high level of compatibility with Draft N while making further speed tweaks available to products which adhere to the new standard.
"The IEEE might choose to move some 'desirable' but perhaps not 'essential' requirements to an advanced standard", agrees Fulton.
"There’s already substantial scope in the proposed standard for a range of advanced options, while still maintaining some level of compatibility."
"For example, the number of radios can be varied. Most current implementations use two transmitters and two receivers or 2/3 (two transmitters, three receivers). The proposed .11n standard allows up to five transmitters. This is a trade-off between cost and performance. The standard also provides for operation in both the 2.4GHz and 5.8 GHz spectrum."
We'll no doubt learn more about the final shape of 802.11n as the months, and years, march on. In the meantime, Intel's endorsement (with implied compatibility testing) means that at least you can consider buying an 802.11n router or access point with some confidence that you won't be buying an expensive paperweight.