* Wi-Fi Alliance issues Wi-Fi Multimedia certification
The Wi-Fi Alliance this month started certifying equipment that goes beyond what you would typically find in a wireless LAN, certifying for a capability known as Wi-Fi Multimedia, or WMM.
As WLAN technology, or Wi-Fi, makes its way into consumer devices and phones, QoS issues come to the fore. Real-time voice and video would need to receive a higher priority to ensure that it gets through in a timely manner.
WMM is the alliance’s interim step to an official standard (apparently the group’s not willing to wait). The IEEE is currently working on 802.11e for its standard.
The Wi-Fi Alliance, a nonprofit group created to promote WLANs, is obviously hoping to get some level of generally accepted QoS control out into the world as soon as possible. It cites strong industry demand as a driver. The group in a press release named DVD players and televisions as prime candidates for the new technology, saying WMM is “designed to improve the user experience for audio, video and voice applications over a Wi-Fi wireless connection.”
The certification is for interoperability, and the alliance sees the certification “jumpstarting the coming mainstream adoption of Wi-Fi in the consumer electronics market segment.”
Already, several vendors have had their products certified by the alliance as compliant with WMM. These include: Atheros Communications’ access point and network adapter, Broadcom’s reference designs for cards and access points, Cisco’s Aironet 1200 Series access point, Conexant Systems’ WorldRadio, Instant802 Networks’ Gateway 7001 access point, Intel’s Pro/Wireless 2915 Network Connection, and Philips’ WLAN reference design. There’s not a lot of consumer electronics in that list, but presumably that will come.
