5 Things to Know About 802.11n

By Carmen Nobel

September 18, 2006

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As wireless protocols go, 802.11n is everything an IT admin could want. The newest flavor in the alphabet soup that is Wi-Fi, "n" carries data faster and farther than its predecessors and is perfectly suited to multimedia transmission. There's just one tiny problem: 802.11n doesn't really exist yet. It's a familiar headache in the channel: A standards body proposes a protocol such as 802.11n that promises breathtaking advances. Vendors hype the technology for all it's worth, but politics stall the standard for years. Meanwhile, caught up in all the hype, customers start to demand products from their solution providers.

"We run into that quite often," says Joe Portaro, CTO and co-founder of NeTeam, a VAR in Richfield, Ohio, who participates in the 802.11n task group. "They say, 'We want 'n.' A lot of people want 'n,' but it's not feasible yet. A lot of people are confused by a lot of the information out there."

So what should VARs be telling their customers about 802.11n? Perhaps the best thing the channel can do now is to provide both the education and the reality check that the industry to date has ignored. The bottom line is that, while 802.11n is still wending slowly through the standards process, it will be a lucrative addition to the offerings of wireless integrators. Here are the five things all VARs should know about 802.11n even before it becomes available.

1. Just What Is 802.11n?

802.11n is a work in progress at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). A typical 802.11n connection will transmit data or voice packets at up to 200 Mbps, with theoretical rates of up to 540 Mbps. In other words, it's up to 10 times faster than the standard 802.11g and 802.11a wireless LAN technology on the market today. Furthermore, 802.11n promises a range of up to 50 meters between an access point and a client.

This plays right into the hands of VARs that say they see increasing demand for speed and range, especially among customers who want to offer both voice and video services over their wireless LANs.

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