October 2009
Am I taking a huge risk buying 802.11n equipment? People tell me that it is not yet and agreed standard and that I may end up with a wireless LAN that will not support new clients.

It has taken a long time to get here, but finally, the IEEE 802.11n specification was ratified on September 11th 2009. The current specification called IEEE 802.11n-2009 has taken 7 years to agree and in the meantime, it has been sold for nearly 4 years in a draft form and has built a commanding lead in the Wireless Data Infrastructure technology market.

• Do we have to do anything to benefit? - If you have already bought what was refered to as Draft 802.11n products, you will be pleased to hear that there is no need to update any equipment. If you were waiting for the spec to become official, then you can safely purchase either exisitng Draft N products, or fully ratified products without fear, they will all operate together.
   
  In short, you can just continue to use your Wireless N products or pick new ones off the shelf!
• Are there any benefits in the ratified products? - The final standard does bring new benefits, such as the continued harmonised development of dual and multi-stream technologies, which will lead soon to speeds of up to 600 Mbps (4 stream) and even Gigabit.
   
  Now that the specification is available as a common wireless standard, we predict greater adoption in the general consumer electronic industry; for example Microsoft Xbox360 announced an 11n wireless adapter on September 11th.
• Would you expect prices to fall? - there is what appears to be a never ending trend in the IT industry that year after year, we deliver more power for the same or less money. 802.11n will continue this trend.
• Should I wait for the next development? - following our answer above, 802.11n will now develop to deliver higher performance and as volumes increase, prices will come down. However, if you wait for the next big thing in IT, you will never buy because there is always something better on the horizon.

Ruckus Wireless has been developing market leading 802.11n products as long as any of its' rivals and with the Smart antenna technology which delivers performance well in advance of competitors, it is possible to truly maximise one of the key pillars of 802.11 performance. is bandied about by many competitors but as Tom's Hardware summarised in a recent review "Ruckus clearly shows that all 802.11n up to the present has merely been a preface. This is the next level and so far there’s only one company standing on it." - Tom’s Hardware August 2009.

If you have any questions regarding Wi-Fi WLAN technology please feel free to contact us on 01270-588228. If your question is of general interest, we may include it in our faqs.