802.11n Proposal Emerges

A group of heavyweight WLAN vendors emerged Thursday to advocate a proposal for the 802.11n standard that promises wireless network speeds of at least 100 Mbps. The newly-announced WWiSE consortium includes Airgo Networks, Bermai, Broadcom, Conexant Systems, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments. They said that WWiSE stands for WorldWide Spectrum Efficiency.

The group's proposal for the 802.11n standard calls for use of the 20MHz channel format, which is already widely used, the group said in a statement. That will insure an easy transition to the new standard, the group claimed.

Ratification of 802.11n isn't expected for at least a year and many observers believe it will take far longer given the high number of competing technical proposals.

The WwiSE group's proposal also includes MIMO smart antenna and OFDM technology. The group said its proposal would result in minimum throughput of 135 Mbps with rates potentially as high as 540 Mbps. It also would support backward compatibility with all currently-used Wi-Fi standards, according to the group.