Comments on: Ready or Not, Here Comes 802.11n

By: Sharon

Sharon — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 19:42:48 +0000

What is the best cordless phone for a 802.11n network?

By: pofHQ

pofHQ — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 23:28:21 +0000

802.11n FUD

El passat 9 de Març es va aprovar el draft 1.0 del IEEE 802.11n, en aquest llarg procés hi ha involucrats quatre dels fabricants de xips més importants: Atheros, Broadcom, Intel i Marvell.
Atheros diu que la familia de productes XSPAN, incloent el…

By: Glenn Fleishman

Glenn Fleishman — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 17:37:08 +0000

I don't agree with your statement that this is Airgo versus Broadcom. In fact, it's Airgo versus its future. Broadcom, Marvell, Intel, and Atheros came up with a proposal that was adopted by the Task Group N joint proposal group, and then approved as a draft within 802.11n in January. Last week's vote isn't as you describe: Draft 1.0 was accepted, which was little changed (I was told by a few parties) from the 0.2 accepted in January. The balloting happening between now and May is for comments to make minor or major changes to the draft.

Airgo's 3rd generation chipsets were tested by Tom's Networking several weeks ago -- see Dennis's link above -- and found in that testing to cause significant problems with nearby 802.11g networks. Airgo tried to explain this to me, but their explanations were unconvincing because after justifying certain technical choices, they said that firmware upgrades would change those choices to conform more closely to what the Tom's Networking reviewer, Tim Higgins, thought should be the behavior.

There's a common misconception that Airgo has been manufacturing 802.11n equipment. Airgo's chips, while impressive, have always implemented just a portion of 802.11n and some elements that won't be in 802.11n at all. MIMO was their key concept, but 802.11n is a lot more than MIMO.

By: Dennis Evans

Dennis Evans — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 15:21:31 +0000

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/30/netgearwi-fimimotechnologydisaster/
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/2006/01/17/review_wpnt834/

The later will explain the problem in detail

By: Zoli Erdos

Zoli Erdos — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 14:56:27 +0000

I’ll be the first to admit I don’t understand the technical specs at all – I’m just a user, so my experience qualifies as a “Mom-test”. Around Christmas I set up a pre-Mimo router from Belkin. It appeared to work seamlessly with it’s own paired network card as well as two other Centrino laptops that were on the “g” standard. I cannot qualify 600%, but I know I received a strong signal in the furthermost part of the backyard where previously (g router) there was no signal at all.

By: Jacomo

Jacomo — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 13:30:16 +0000

I will put my faith in Airgo in that they have developed and continue (quietly) to enhance the MIMO functionality in existing Netgear, Belkin and Linksys products. The Standard idea is okay but if it deviates from what the Airgo design we will all be at risk. Broadcom is desperate to release and position their product to the market and will even release something based on an inferior and in this case interference prone design. One need only look at what the above 3 main players in this Wireless space are using in their radios to know where the market should focus.

Jacomo

By: MJ

MJ — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 09:38:39 +0000

I thought we were going to find a better test for tech ignorance than picking on Moms?

The new silicon for 802.11n has the guys in the office slavering. Wonder what the throughput of the kit will be (considering the real world throughput of 802.11g is quite disappointing…)