Worst of the Week: Meyertime!

Hello!

And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCR Wireless News to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!

A quick heads-up to you Danomaniacs out there. The Boy Wonder is on “assignment” this week in Gotham City learning some new Web-related something or other, though we all know he is trying to track down the Caped Crusader. So in his stead I have been unceremoniously tapped to handle the WOTW duties. Trust me, I am as disappointed as you. So if you have any beef with this week’s column—mmmmm, beef—please send all comments to [email protected], cause I don’t want to hear ‘em.

And without further ado:

Throwing caution, and perhaps good sense to the wind, the Wi-Fi Alliance—not to be confused with the Rebel Alliance—has decided that it will begin certifying pre-standard IEEE 802.11n products beginning next year. In essence the Wi-Fi Alliance—again not to be confused with the Rebel Alliance—has taken it upon themselves to approve interoperability between .11n products that does not have a standardized specification. I’d think herding cats would be easier.

The Wi-Fi Alliance noted that the certification would include “baseline” features of the expected IEEE .11n standard, and that a second phase of the certification would “bring full alignment with the ratified standard.”

When I heard this all I could think was: Step 1: steal underpants. Step 2: ?. Step 3: profit.

Is the Wi-Fi industry so desperate for a new letter to attach to the end of “.11” that it cannot wait for the IEEE to adopt a standard that would ensure interoperability? Is .11b, .11a and .11g so insufficient to handle our wireless local area network needs that we need to introduce a non-standardized alternative?

The benefits of the .11n standard are supposed to include greater speeds and increased coverage compared with the .11g specification. But it seems to me that both of those excuses are moot. And I am not even sure what “moot” means.

Current WLANs are slowed down not by the maximum available throughput the transmitting technology can handle, but by the backhaul used to carry the traffic. If a consumer installs a WLAN in their home using a 640 kilobit per second DSL connection, why would he need a wireless technology capable of handling over 50 megabits per second? Even T-1 lines, which T-Mobile USA Inc. uses for its Hot Spot service, only provide speed up to 1.5 Mbps.

And as for the coverage issue, the horribly named Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output antenna technology that is key to increasing .11n coverage is already available by vendors producing .11g products.

Consumers are already being tempted with “pre-.11n” products sold alongside .11b, .11g and .11a. So of course it makes sense to now add a “Wi-Fi Alliance certified pre-.11n” option. Brilliant!!!!

In explaining its decision, the Wi-Fi Alliance’s Frank Hanzlik claimed that “We believe the maturity of the baseline features in the pre-standard certification diminishes the risk that products won’t comply with IEEE 802.11n when it is ratified.” I guess that is supposed to sound reassuring, but when I read it slowly, which I often need to do to fully understand PR hyperbole, I am not reassured. So if I buy one of these “Wi-Fi Alliance Certified pre-.11n” devices, it will work with fully IEEE certified .11n products? And if it doesn’t, will the company I bought the “Wi-Fi Certified pre-.11n” device from replace it with a fully IEEE .11n product, or better yet will the Wi-Fi Alliance, which “certified” my “Wi-Fi Alliance Certified pre-.11n” device, buy me a new one?

I have a better idea for vendors aching for someone to approve their equipment. Send me a test sample along with, oh let’s say $100, and I will use one of my colorful crayons to mark “Approved by Meyertime!” on the box with a cool picture of Mr. Sparkle. It will be so much cooler than having the Wi-Fi Alliance logo. And if you’ve got both the Wi-Fi Alliance logo and “Approved by Meyertime!” on your box with the picture of Mr. Sparkle, consumers would be so dazzled that they would likely forget that what’s inside may or may not be interoperable with future .11n equipment.

I say what’s the hurry Wi-Fi Alliance? Why not let the IEEE do its thing and approve a standard that everyone can than use to ensure interoperability between .11 technologies?

Also ruffling my feathers: