Goodbye Draft-N Wi-Fi - hello 802.11n

The 802.11n Wi-Fi standard has finally been formally certified — a mere seven years after it was first proposed. The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) announced its decision on Friday and the approval means that hardware manufacturers can now slap 802.11n stickers on their wares, and customers can mix and match networking equipment, safe in the knowledge that it will all work together. Hopefully.

More details after the cut.

Until now, manufacturers have technically only been able to sell equipment that works with the Draft-N Wi-Fi standard and there have been six different versions of this so far — each one rejected by the IEEE. Something similar happened with 802.11g in 2003, but the first draft of that standard was quickly approved and the manufacturers who jumped the gun by launching pre-approval g-compatible hardware were able to offer firmware updates a few months later.

The long delay in certification and numerous specification revisions for 802.11n have meant that some owners of Draft-N equipment haven’t been so lucky. Early Draft-N hardware from different manufacturers was incompatible (that’s why it needed certifying…) and some equipment simply couldn’t be upgraded to the next revision of the standard.

Back in 2006, the advice was to hold off buying Draft-N Wi-Fi gear for this very reason, but no one expected to wait three years for the standard to finally gain approval as 802.11n…

The expectation now is that more recent Draft-N (or ‘802.11n’, if the manufacturer was being naughty) hardware should be fully compatible with the new standard, but that will depend on manufacturers making firmware updates available — you’ll need to keep an eye on their web sites for that.

[ IEEE]