tutorial 802.11n

802.11nisoneofthemostsignicantwirelesstechnologydevelopmentstocomealonginrecentyears.And,it’sa

majorareaofinteresttoeveryonemanagingorplanningaWi-Finetwork,oranytypeofwirelessapplication.

WhilearatiedIEEE802.11nstandardisn’texpecteduntil2009,somevendorshavealreadybegunshipping

“Pre-N”or“Draft2.0”products,leadingmoreorganizationstoquestionhowtheupcomingstandardwillplay

intotheirWi-Fiplans.

The promise of increased coverage and performance of 802.11n has created a restorm of questions and

uncertaintythroughouttheITcommunity,suchas:

thehighestperformancepossiblebothtodayandtomorrow.

Theneedforincreasedrangeand capacity isbeing

driven by users demanding wired-like performance

from their wireless networks. Many companies

today are eyeing wireless technology as becoming

their primary method of connecting end-users to

their networks, shifting the need for high-capacity,

high-performance wireless networks from what was

a “nice-to-have” to now what is rapidly becoming a

justtonameafew.

High-capacity wireless networking is available today

in some products, such as the Xirrus Wi-Fi Array, but

technologylike802.11nwillhelpaddressthemyriadof

high-bandwidth applications that are emerging in the

marketplace, such as: mobile-to-mobile convergence,

videoconferencing,andhigh-endgraphicsapplications.

In addition to the enterprise, the new 802.11n

technologywillalsohelpboostperformanceinhome-

based applications, such as whole-house coverage

of HDTV broadcasting. These high-end applications,

therebydecreasingoverallthroughputandperformance

across the network. The new 802.11n standard will

helptoalleviatethisproblembysignicantlyboosting

boththecoverageandperformanceofWi-Finetworks.