SPOTLIGHT: Tough slog for 802.11n

Glenn Fleishman reports that an IEEE member informed him that the Task Group N schedule has slipped considerably. The group received 12,000 comments on the Draft 1.0 proposal, which was accepted as a working draft in March and failed to achieve in May anywhere near the 75 percent required (it received under 50 percent) to make it a final draft heading to ratification. The big surprise in the 802.11n ratification process to date is not so much the failure of Draft 1.0 to receive 75 percent of the vote but rather the sheer number of comments. Typically, a draft sent around for review by the IEEE voting members receives about 2,000 comments; the 802.11n Draft 1.0 received 12,000 comments. This shows intense interest in the standard, but it is also an indication that the reconciliation and consensus-building process may take longer than expected. Report