The IEEE 802.11n Working Group this week approved draft 2.0 of the standard , paving the way for 100+Mbps wireless LAN products as betimes as this summertime .

Just over 83 percentage of working chemical group members cast their vote to O.K. the draft , well over the minimal 75 percentage needed . The vote indicates that after more than a year of often acrimonious debate , the mathematical group has at last coalesced behind the core technology .

One practical effect is that vendors of WLAN arranger and access code points can now introduce production that should require no substantive changes when the net standard is authorize , probably in the declination of 2008 .

The Wi - Fi Alliance last twelvemonth said it was preparing an interoperability testing program for draft 2 equipment . confederation officials say then that if as anticipate draught 2 was sanction in this month , testing could begin in June 2007 or earlier . The Alliance will certify and brand WLAN products as draft 2 compliant , reversing a long - held policy to only trial product that comply with a final IEEE monetary standard .

The heart of the new standard is a technique calledMIMO , for multiple input multiple yield . MIMO takes a stream of data , separates it via some digital sign processing magic into several current and transmits it over two or more antennas . The streams are received by two or more antennas and re - assembled into the original . But because of how this is done , and the way MIMO aerial overwork radio set reflection call multipath , much more data point can be packed into these transmissions .

The IEEE standard in the first place called for a minimum of 100+Mbps throughput . But so - call “ muster 1 ” or “ pre-11n ” mathematical product already on the market are deliver 140 - 160Mbps . With more antennas , more power and other tweaks , many vendor say they expect to attain over 200Mbps , sometimes much more .

Two Apple product boast keep for 802.11n — the already - released AirPort Extreme Base station and the extroverted Apple TV