Buyer beware: First draft of 802.11n fails

It's always risky to ship products based on drafts of standards, something Broadcom, Atheros and a host of analysts have been saying for a while when it comes to the 802.11n standards process. Now it looks like they have been proven correct. The first vote by members of the IEEE 802.11 working group failed to reach a majority on Draft 1 of the new 802.11n standard, which boosts 802.11 performance in terms of throughput and range. The draft couldn't even get a simple majority, with just 46.6 percent voting for moving the draft to the next step in the IEEE process. Meanwhile, a host of vendors are shipping pre-N router products based on Draft 1.0 to get a head start in the market, much like they did with previous standards of 802.11. Airgo's CEO Greg Raleigh says the rejection of Draft 1.0 shows the desire for significant changes in the standard, including improvements in interoperability with legacy devices.

To read more about the the 802.11n vote:
- check out this article from EE Times