Demand for wireless LAN hardware has experienced phenomenal growth during the past several years, evolving quickly from novelty into necessity. The growing pervasiveness of Wi-Fi is helping to extend the technology beyond the PC and into consumer electronics applications like Internet telephony, music streaming, gaming, and even photo viewing and in-home video transmission. These new uses, as well as the growing number of conventional WLAN users, increasingly combine to strain existing Wi-Fi networks. Fortunately, a solution is close at hand. The industry has come to an agreement on the components that will make up 802.11n, a new WLAN standard that promises both higher data rates and increased reliability, and the IEEE standards-setting body is ironing out the final details.
In the meantime, hardware that conforms to the 802.11n draft is becoming available, so consumers can begin building high-speed wireless networks in anticipation of the standard while ensuring interoperability at high speeds and still supporting their existing WLAN hardware.
