Air Time: Will 802.11n Change Your World?: Page 2 of 2

For the enterprise, the end game is similar. Craig Mathias, noted industry analyst
and principal of The Farpoint Group, characterizes MIMO as perhaps the most
important radio technology ever and asserts that MIMO will drive a market shift
away from Ethernet as an access medium, with wireless becoming the default
network connectivity for essentially everyone. I agree with Mathias, but the
transition won't necessarily be a smooth one. It will take a while for enterprise-
class 802.11n APs (access points) to make their way to market, especially from
Cisco, which seldom rushes unbaked network products to market. It's also likely
that this announcement will cause some stagnation in the existing enterprise Wi-Fi
market, especially for organizations planning very large rollouts during the coming
year. Vendors will feel pressure to not only quickly release 802.11n products but
also guarantee conformance to the final standard.

The final market worth following as relates to 802.11n is the market for wireless
client devices. Although Intel has played an important role in driving EWC and the
draft standard, it's not clear how quickly the company will shift to 802.11n as the
default radio module for notebook computers. After all, it hasn't been all that long
that Intel has offered a viable multiband 802.11ag offering. Before long, the
definition of Centrino will be changing, but how soon that will happen is far from
clear.

In the end, one can't help but marvel at the technical accomplishment represented
by 802.11n. When you consider how far the WLAN market has come in so short a
period of time, it's a tribute to scientific discovery, one more example of
technology offering great opportunities for innovation.