Practical Considerations for Deploying 802.11n

There is a lot of confusion surrounding the capabilities and status of the new 802.11n WiFi standard. The confusion is understandable since the standard is very broad and has been slow to develop, and even slower to finalize. (Full ratification is not expected until mid 2009). However, this glacial pace has changed in response to the 2007 announcement by the WiFi Alliance (WFA) to launch a compatibility testing and certification program for 802.11n infrastructure and clients based on the Draft 2 standard.

The WFA Draft-N certification program has removed much of the deployment risk and accelerated the 802.11n market. Wireless hardware based on Draft 2 of the 802.11n standard is ready for deployment from a technical, interoperability and cost perspective, but there are some key issues to consider when planning your 802.11n network.

Two major issues to consider when planning for 802.11n are power consumption and WLAN architecture. It is important to select an 802.11n solution that operates at full dual-concurrent 3x3 MIMO when using 12.95 Watts. Siemens is the only vendor supporting fully functional 802.11n within the 802af PoE standard.