On The Verge

The Holiday sales circulars that arrived in newspapers last weekend carried the latest round in the speed and range contest being waged by wireless-LAN (WLAN) vendors. Early this year in "The greed for speed" I covered WLAN technology and the numbers game being played by vendors of IEEE 802.11a/b/g chips. Indeed, the vendors have come up with imaginative and proprietary ways to boost the data rate and range of their products while hopefully maintaining compatibility with the standard. And back then, it was clear that a constant skirmish over proprietary performance boosters would continue while the industry went through the laborious process of creating the next-generation 802.11n standard.

Well, just as happened during the development of the "g" standard, we now have the first products shipping that purport to be prestandard "n" products. As Matthew Miller recently chronicled in "n" game," Belkin is using the brand "Pre-N" on its new family of 2.4-GHz-band products, which, the company claims, affords speed and range advantages over 802.11g products. The company is playing on the next-generation label despite the fact the Wi-Fi Alliance has warned companies not to use 802.11n to describe pre-standard products (see "No on "n": Wi-Fi group warns against use of "802.11n" in marketing").

The fact is, Belkin and semiconductor vendor Airgo Networks have jumped the gun even earlier than Broadcom did in the "g" generation. Of course Broadcom's early work in "g" made it a player in the WLAN business, and in a way you can't blame Airgo for hoping to take the same route to success. But in this case, 802.11n is likely two years away—an October press release from the Wi-Fi Alliance predicted that 802.11n would be completed in November of 2006.

MIMO (multiple input/multiple output) is the only real connection between Airgo's chips and 802.11n. MIMO uses multiple sending and receiving antennas and appears to be necessary to really drive 802.11 data rates and range—although it may well be an optional feature when the standard arrives. See "The greed for speed" for more details.

I'll give Airgo some credit for delivering on promises. When I interviewed the company for "The greed for speed," I doubted that it would come close to its promise of having end products in stores this summer. Airgo missed that date, but not by much. And the $100 PC Card and $150 router are a bit pricier than the company suggested, but if such technology alleviates the need for multiple access points or repeaters, then the products turn into a bargain. I tried to contact the company before posting this piece, but my former contacts are no longer with the company. I'll add Airgo's view on the implied 802.11n controversy when I hear from them.

Meanwhile, I found at least one early review that suggests the products deliver on range and speed promises. PC World in "New Wi-Fi nearly doubles speed" gives the Belkin products a positive review, noting that they perform well when you use both a Pre-N router and client card. The article also says that the Pre-N router increases range and data rate when used with 802.11g clients. We'll take our own hands-on look for EDN's Digital Den shortly.

At the end of the day, I'd never fault Airgo or Belkin for shipping innovative products. Innovation drives our industry. But quite a few consumers have been burned by other proprietary products that were labeled as prestandard, so I think Belkin and Airgo should take steps to separate their new offerings from the 802.11n standard. Belkin spokesperson Melody Chalaban points out that despite the Pre-N name, that product literature makes no claims of 802.11n compatibility.

Chalaban also states, “the products carry Wi-Fi Certification for b and g operation.” The Wi-Fi Alliance made a threat that it would not certify products that use proprietary technology and, in the process, interfere with older Wi-Fi products. I tried to reach a Wi-Fi alliance spokesperson to discuss the Belkin products but haven't heard back as yet. I hope that the group sticks to its guns if Airgo’s or another company’s technology affects 802.11b/g networks in any manner.

Meanwhile, Belkin has an exclusive deal to supply the Airgo MIMO-based products through January. Once again it’s game on in the hot WLAN sector.