802.11n Approved, Wi-Max Coming

I just wanted to follow-up on my article from last week and say that the IEEE has approved the 802.11n wireless spec. This will allow for potential wireless transmission throughput of 600 megabits per second. It's amazing how it is possible to come so close to gigabit ethernet without the cable. 802.11n also makes it possible for n-enabled devices such as access points and routers to operate at greater ranges, i.e. throughout Barnes & Noble and Starbucks.

The IEEE Task Group "N" voted to confirm the proposal for the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard. Submitted by the Joint Proposal team, this specification was developed by the Enhanced Wireless Consortium (EWC) and included several elements developed within the Joint Proposal team. By passing the confirmation vote, this proposal became the first official draft of the 802.11n standard. The draft will now proceed through the IEEE ratification process, which includes letter balloting, comment resolution, sponsor balloting and final ratification.

In other news, the wireless broadband specification Wi-Max (aka 802.16a,d,e) is around the corner. Intel has already made some working chips for Wi-Max devices. Unlike the current 802.11b,g wireless devices which operate at 2.4GHz, Wi-Max runs on the 3.5GHz frequency.