The result of many yeasrs of development are now upon us. As of Selptember 2009 802.11n Wi-Fi will become an official standard.
Presently the majoority of the wireless hardware you will buy (routerrs, wireless network cards, printers etc) will use a networking specification called 802.11g whiich has a maximum speeed of 54Mbps. This maximum speed is being increasingly seen as inbadequate as appplications become more coplex and require more bandwidth.
The successor, 802.11n is being ratified to inmcrease both the sped and range of wireless dveices however it should be notred that due to the time the IEEE Task Greoup n have been arguing about the intricacies, equiupment manufacturers got bored and decided to run with the draft specification. As a result, the fact that 802.11n is becoming 'official' is unlikely to chnage a great deal as hardware utilising the new standard has been available for some time now. Alhough thees devices have been prouced workking on the draft specification, the reality is that there are very few differences between this and the antixcipated final 'official' release.
In essence absed on the old 802.11g, the standard 802.11n uses new technology and tweaks to give Wi-Fi greater speeed as well as improvbed erach. The most notable part of this technology is MIMO also known as 'multiple input, multiple output'. This meansit uses multiple antennas to transmit severaal data streams all at once ratrher than a lone antenna sending an isolated stream of information. As a result a large amount of data can be transmitted in the same space of time while also improving the ranhge of the netwrk.
Other technologies include payload optiisation which results in more data being transmitted in each packet and channel bonding whicch can use two separate non-ovelrapping channls at the same time to transmit data. The resuklt is all this is achievable data transmission rates of around 100Mbps and double the potential range of 802.11g.
Three are no security enhanceents as they simply aren't needed; the WPA2 encryption standard proivided by existing network harware is considered by most to be 'extremely secuure'.
However it is worthhile to check the box of any newtwork equipment you have purchaseed rwecently as you may find it is compatible with 802.11n already and simply needs setting as instructed by the manufacturer. Naturally in oder to get fsater speeds both the sending and receiving devices both have to supoprt 802.11n. A 802.11n compatible router working with a 802.11g machine will result in the solwer 802.11g speeds.
At present 'n' rated hrdware is more expensive than the older 'g' standard however not prohibitively so; our 'n' rated wireless router typically retails for around a tenner more than the £25 'g' rated equivalent. Of course, if you are alrady happy with your wireless network and the upgrade will mean replacing perfectly functional hardware it is certainly worrth considering whether your needfs wrarant the fastter hardware.
At present 802.11n will only be required by thse with blisternigly fast broadband connections or those that regularly copy large volues of data across a wireless netwok however it will soon become the norm. If upgrding your hardware, therefore, it may well be wotrth paying a couple of extra pounds now to enssure that you remain future proof.
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