It's both - and It doesn't matter anymore
I guess everyone’s heard by now that the 802.11n standard, now formally known as 802.11n-2009, received final approval by the IEEE Standards Board on 11 September. So the phone’s been ringing off the hook for the past two weeks looking for meaning in this milestone, and you might be surprised to hear me say that there isn’t as much here as there otherwise seems to be. Why, you ask? Because, as I’ve said before, we don’t actually buy 802.11 anything – we buy Wi-Fi. And the Wi-Fi Draft 802.11n interim specification has been around for two years, and there are now millions of products out there happily buzzing away. The Alliance has stated that they will maintain backward compatibility in the updated spec to be issued soon. In short, the real significance of this achievement (and I want to be clear here; it really is an achievement, and all of those who participated deserve our gratitude) is that approval eliminates the last barrier for very conservative organizations that (foolishly, IMHO) put off purchasing 802.11n products until the final standard was issued. Now, finally and unequivocally, there is no reason to buy anything else. And, indeed, I recommend that buyers insist on 802.11n in their present and future infrastructure and client purchases. Accept no substitute! Oh, and, by the way, 802.3at was also approved; now power-hungry APs can get all the juice they need, although I hope designers continue to place an emphasis on power efficiency in the obvious interest of saving the planet.
One reason that I put off posting this entry was that my latest article on the subject for Network World was itself just posted today. And the other is that I’ve been on a writer’s holiday of sorts. Nearpoints began, if I recall correctly, back in 2004 on a MediaLive or Key3Media or some-such site, anyway, one of the predecessors of today’s TechWeb. After a couple of years at Unstrung (after their acquisition by CMP, the predecessor of United Business Media, who today own TechWeb – confused yet?), it happily wound up here at Network World. And during that lifespan, I’ve never missed a week (or, really, more than a day or two), until now, anyway. I thought a break would be a good idea, and late summer isn’t usually a hot time for news or, really, much of anything other than enjoying the best weather of the year, IMHO, here in New England. But now my three-week blog break is over – activity in wireless and mobile is heating up for fall and there is once again a lot to talk about. And, as always, if there is something you think is a hot topic, drop me a note. My batteries are recharged.
