Netgear Draft 11n products get IEEE certification

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Netgear Inc., a provider of networking solutions, announced that all its wireless products based on the Draft 802.11n will comply to new IEEE standard specification.

This has come in effect after the IEEE Standards Board has officially approved the IEEE 802.11N as a standard with significantly improved data rates and ranges for Wireless LAN communications.

Along with the cerfication, also, effective from Monday, all Netgear products that have achieved Draft 11n certification from the WiFi Alliance (WFA) will carry Wi-Fi Certified and compliant logo.

Atul Jain, country manager, Netgear India and SAARC, said, “It is a great achievement for us as IEEE Standards Board has officially recognised the Netgear’s innovations so also WFA. I am happy that there will be a lot of interoperability along with the competition platform which will bring a lot of value to the customers."

Finalisation of the new wireless networking standard-which is capable of delivering throughput speeds up to 300 megabits per second (and even higher)-took exactly seven years from the day it was conceived, and six years from the first draft version. The standard has been through a dozen or so Draft versions.

According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, the group that tests and certifies wireless products to ensure their interoperability, all existing Wi-Fi Certified Draft N wireless products will still work with the final standard.

802.11n offers much higher speeds than the previous, already-ratified 802.11g, which caps at only 54Mbps. Due to the compelling higher speed, most wireless vendors have been offering 802.11n-based (also known as Wireless-N) products during the past six years and calling them Draft N products. 

According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, most, if not all, of the existing equipment can be upgraded to the final specification via a firmware update. Finally, all future wireless networking products will be compatible with today's products that have been Wi-Fi-certified.