IEEE 802.11n Draft 1.0 fails letter ballot

Piscataway (NJ) - Today’s vote by members of the IEEE 802.11 working group on Draft 1.0 of the proposed 802.11n standard showed that the standard is not yet ready for prime time.

The vote not only failed to reach the 75% "super majority" level required for acceptance, but also failed to garner even a simple majority, with only 46.6% voting in favor of moving the draft to the next step in the IEEE process.

The failed vote basically means that a 2.0 version of the draft is guaranteed. But MIMO chip maker Airgo is taking the opportunity to issue what amounts to an "I told you so." Airgo has repeatedly said that it it too early for "draft 11n" chipsets to be released, let alone consumer products using them.

A statement from Airgo CEO Greg Raleigh today stated, "The most significant changes required [in the 802.11n draft] are changes to improve interoperability with legacy devices ; Draft 1.0 is clearly deficient in protecting the operation of installed networks." Raleigh also referred to recent reports of interoperability and performance problems with some draft 11n products.

For the time being at least, members of the IEEE 11n working group appear to agree with Airgo.