802.11g wins 'official' approval
Techweb is reporting the IEEE approved 802.11g, the newest wireless
networking standard.
The Standards Board of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE), established the standards for wireless hardware capable of transmitting
data at speeds up to 54Mbps while maintaining backwards compatibility with the
ultra-popular 802.11b gear that runs at a much slower 11 Mbps. Both
specifications use the 2.4GHz band of the radio spectrum.
The report says 802.11g's ability to co-exist on the same network as 802.11b
has been the long-touted key to the standard's acceptance in the corporate
world. Wireless LAN (WLAN) hardware certified under the new specification can
initially be used with an 802.11b infrastructure -- access points, wireless
networking cards, and so on -- and then as a corporation requires fatter
wireless pipes, serve as the foundation for a mixed, or 802.11g-only, WLAN.
This three-year process opened the door for labeling 802.11g-certified
equipment.
You've probably been able to see the 54-G spec on store shelves already, and
much to the shagrin of the steering committees, the products used draft specs
and not the certified specs for the protocols, meaning the products may not have
worked right on Wireless LANs. But Broadcom, a chipset manufacturer with 90% of
the marketshare, says as it happened, the final, ratified standard is the same
standard tey used to make their chipset, so all is well.
Broadcom makes silicon for Linksys, Apple, Dell and Gateway.
