New 802.11n Standard

The equipment working on 11n is backward compatible with older standards. This means that 2.4 GHz 11n is compatible with 802.11b and 802.11g.

Speed is usually 150Mbps, but some of the wireless routers could work even on 300 Mbps. The range is 6 times father comparing to 802.11g.

Since it is still not standardized, all these values of speed and range you should take for granted. My advice for you would be the following: if you are buying new wireless equipment, take the one which support this newest 11n amendment. But I would not recommend changing your home wireless equipment using IEEE 802.11g standard with the intention to significantly improve the characteristics and performance of your network. There could be quite a difference between actual results and the speeds and ranges that vendors are stating in their specifications.

The story of 11n begins in the 2004 when IEEE formed a new task group to develop a new amendment to 802.11. Data throughput is estimated to theoretical 540 Mbps. The new standard is built on previous 802.11 standards by adding MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output). MIMO have a multiple transmitter and receiver antennas which allow increased data bandwidth via spatial multiplexing and increased range by exploiting the spatial diversity.

Read more about the 802.11a standard which works on 5 GHz and the 802.11i standard which specifies the new generation of wireless security.

New! Comments