GENEVA-STMicroelectronics announced it has joined the Enhanced Wireless Consortium, which is developing a Wi-Fi standard proposal for the IEEE 802.11n Task Group. ST says it plans to share its expertise in low power system-on-chip technologies with the EWC to ensure that high throughput features are fully compatible with the requirements of handheld devices, which should improve users’ mobile experiences with longer battery life and whole-building coverage.
“Accelerating the delivery of an enhanced 802.11n public standard can only benefit the Wireless LAN market, and ST is pleased to join EWC to assist in this aim,” said Edoardo Merli, deputy general manager of the Wireless LAN business unit at ST. “Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output, MIMO technology delivers significant improvements in throughput, as well as greater range and more reliable links-all key requirements for the fast-growing converged Wi-Fi/cellular device market.”
ST says it’s concentrating heavily on 802.11n product development for the mobile market. The company mentioned that its previous involvement with an earlier consortium, the Worldwide Spectrum Efficiency, helped develop technical submissions to TGn, which have been largely absorbed into the EWC draft specification alongside those of other industry groups including TGn Sync.
The EWC maintains that by proposing an 802.11n specification with widespread industry support, it hopes to speed ratification of a standard.
The Wi-Fi Alliance, which certifies products for Wi-Fi interoperability, said it expects the IEEE Task Group to ratify an 802.11n Wi-Fi standard by the end of 2006. The Wi-Fi Alliance said it expects to conduct interoperability trials shortly thereafter, and said consumers should begin seeing 802.11n certified products by early 2007.