802.11n's Pregame Show

Computerworld - In the Star Wars movie parody Spaceballs, the character Dark Helmet (played by Rick Moranis) commands his crew to shift to "ludicrous speed" to pursue another spaceship. Ignoring warnings from his crew that the technology is unproven and untested, the pompous chief executive blunders onward toward disaster.
Similarly, attempts by vendors to jump ahead of the wireless LAN standards game with new high-speed adapters and access points under the 802.11n banner could deal heedless customers an equally unpleasant -- and much less humorous -- blow.
The IEEE has only just begun considering technical proposals for a new high-bandwidth WLAN standard known as 802.11n. Four complete proposals and 28 partial proposals were submitted for the specification, which will be backward-compatible with current 802.11b and g standards while pushing real-world data rates to at least 100Mbit/sec. and possibly as high as 500Mbit/sec.
There is no 802.11n standard today. As yet, there is no agreement even on which technical proposals should be included. Final ratification of a standard isn't expected before late 2006, and mature, business-class products probably won't appear before 2007. Yet the first "pre-n" products are already heading for store shelves.
Belkin Corp.'s $99.99 Pre-N Notebook Adapter and $149.99 Wireless Pre-N Broadband Router use one of the technologies proposed to IEEE Task Group N, but calling the products "pre-n" is stretching the truth. When run in pre-n mode, these are nonstandard products, with all of the risks that implies. And because prestandard 802.11n products use the public airwaves and operate in the same 2.4- and 5-GHz frequency bands as existing 802.11b and g products, they could potentially be disruptive not only to the buyer but also to users of any other WLAN equipment within the same range. Such products are also unlikely to be forward-compatible with real 802.11n products when they arrive and could interfere with the operation of future 802.11n devices.
Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney is disgusted. "It was bad for these guys to start doing pre-802.11n," he says, citing the potential for interoperability problems for both consumers and business users.
For its part, Belkin says its equipment is backward-compatible. Indeed, its Pre-N products are certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance -- although only for 802.11b and g mode operation. However, that distinction will be lost on most buyers, who are likely to associate the Wi-Fi Alliance certification logo on the box with the Pre-N product name.
The alliance won't actually begin certifying 802.11n products until November 2006, and it has stated that it will revoke certification for any product claiming