Wi-Fi Alliance to test and certify 802.11n Draft 2.0 equipment

From Arstechnica:

In an unusual move, the Wi-Fi Alliance will certify the next generation of wireless networking equipment in two waves. The two-step process is designed to give consumers access to the latest technology now with some confidence of interoperability, and to give the IEEE some breathing room to finalize the specifications on its own schedule.

The first phase will be based on draft 2.0 of the standard, to be released this coming March, and certified equipment will have been thoroughly tested to ensure that it works with other certified 802.11n pre-standard gear. The second phase will certify equpment against the full, final version of the IEEE standard, and is expected sometime in the first half of 2008.

The Wi-Fi Alliance, which includes industry heavyweights like Intel, Motorola, Cisco, and Texas Instruments, recognized a need for quick action in response to the heavy demand on faster wireless networking equipment. All of the major networking specialists, including Linksys, Netgear, and D-Link, already have products on store shelves based on draft 1.0 of the 802.11n standard, and millions of units are expected to ship in 2007. The problem with that is interoperability, as some parts of the draft are open to some interpretation, making routers from manufacturer A less than guaranteed to work with access cards from manufacturer B today. Forcing manufacturers to submit to interoperability testing should eliminate that concern.

The two stages of certification will carry clearly different brandings, though no names or images have been chosen yet. Phase one gear will also be clearly marked as not guaranteed to be forward-compatible with phase two, in order to cut down on customer confusion and the nearly inevitable lawsuits that would result from leading us to believe that everything will work perfectly with final stage equipment.

Now, stage two will be backwards-compatible, but there's just no guarantee that missing features in phase one will be available through firmware or driver updates. Chipset makers and networking equipment manufacturers from Atheros and Airgo to Netgear and Dell are supporting the two-stage approach, and Intel plans to support 802.11n in its first phase of certification in its Kedron wireless module for Santa Rosa, the next generation of the Centrino mobile platform. If the IEEE does not produce its next draft by next spring as expected, the Alliance will take it upon itself to pull together the next best thing—a coherent set of de facto standards.