There are now some 71 products that offer some 802.11n compatibility. This January, the 802.11n working group okayed Draft 2.0 with the full IEEE approving it some months later. The next step is Draft 3.0, which should see only minor modifications from 2.0, followed by the official 802.11n specification late next year.
Draft 2.0 hardware is guaranteed to work with the final 802.11n specification. That means any upgrade can probably be made with a firmware download.
A new 802.11n home router may be worth the price premium just for the improved range around the house. If an “N” client with MIMO can link to an ordinary WiFi access point at nearly twice the range, as one might hope (with MIMO antennas built into laptops), perhaps municipal WiFi might actually prove useful.
The issue of 40 MHz channels in the 2.4 MHz band remains a concern, says Wireless Design Line, with the protocol for interference avoidance still unsettled in the 802.11n draft. All 801.11n draft 2.0 certified products are listed at Wi-Fi.org.
Yes, 802.11n will be a big boost to Muni Mesh Networks when deployed first in the backhaul (Node to Node) and near term when openned up to the Access Side. The 5.8Ghz 40Mhz will allow for very high speed links in the backhaul (100-200Mbps/radio) and will effectively triple throughput and extend reach.
As an example: If Strix elects to deploy 802.11n in their product (OWS series Nodes), with 2 each 5.8Ghz radios assigned to the backhaul, it will be especially powerful allowing a provider to deliver 100-200Mbps out of each backhaul radio.
802.11n in the Access side will probably remain in the 20Mhz range (40-60Mbps) due to the fact that 802.11g (2.4Ghz) radios are still pervassive in customer devices, and the WiFi folks have not approved more then 20Mhz for 2.4Ghz systems.
When VoiceIP services expand the Mesh providers will need to leverage the 5Ghz 802.11n access side to improve latency and interference issues for both voice and video.
Jacomo
Left by jacomo on August 23rd, 2007