IPhone Make 802.11n Popular!

For starters, the once conventional wisdom that WiMAX would dominate the future of wireless communication is no longer a certainty, since the FCC freed up a huge section of bandwidth for “non-exclusive access.”

With 802.11n, the range of users’ access points will be improved, as will the throughput of the WLAN to nearly 100 Mbps, allowing for video streaming and clear reception indoors, even in elevators. It builds on other 802.11 standards with its new MIMO (multiple input multiple output) features, allowing throughput on up to four antennas and transmitters simultaneously. The greatest weakness of 802.11n is the interference at 2.4 GHz in a noisy environment. But is that weakness enough to cripple what Apple and others consider a significant leap forward?

Real Products
Until June 2007, the greatest problem with 802.11n was uncertainty, since the IEEE had stated it would not finalize the 802.11n standard until March 2009. But the emergence of 802.11n-enabled devices forced the market’s hand. With too much invested in the technology to risk bad performance of uncertified 802.11n devices, the Wi-Fi Alliance began to draft certifying products. The Wi-Fi Alliance at first refused to precertify 802.11n products before the IEEE, but that was in 2004 when there were no devices yet on the market and when the IEEE had said it would finalize its certification by 2006. By the end of that year, when the IEEE set its date of finalization back until 2009, the Alliance set its own date for draft certification.

Products given the Alliance’s initial certification were released on June 25, 2007, including Intel's Wireless wifi Link, Broadcom's 802.11n router and card, Cisco Access Point and Marvell TopDog WLAN solutions, as well as products from Atheros and Ralink. Four days later, Apple launched the iPhone. Apparently Apple didn’t give the Wi-Fi Alliance an early look at the hottest 802.11n device on the planet, and the iPhone’s 802.11n technology remains uncertified by the Alliance two months after it entered the marketplace — a prime illustration that the 802.11n standard still has that new-car smell.

More interesting will be if 802.11n has any affect on the municipal wifi market, which is starting to run into roadblocks and may be superseded by WiMAX. One simple response to that question will come from iPhone users. They don’t care what happens; the iPhone is compatible with both.