Nov 19, 2001 An IEEE committee has ratified an 802.11g wireless LAN standard, paving the wave for the standard's finalization by the IEEE body next spring.
The standard's approval process was delayed following the Sept. 11 terrorist attack when an IEEE committee meeting that was slated to finalize the protocol that month was cancelled.
Intersil Corp., Irvine, Calif., which owns over 80% of the 802.11 IC market, Irvine, Calif., has backed the particular 802.11g flavor that was ratified by the committee.
"This is a huge win for the wireless industry for several reasons," Gregory Williams, president and chief executive of Intersil Corp. said in a statement. "First, it is backwards compatible with the large installed user base of over 11 million Wi-Fi products. Second, it meets our customers' demands for significant speed increases in the 2.4 GHz band, necessary for multi-channel DVD-quality video and CD-quality audio applications."
Intersil said it will develop and market a new chip set that meets the proposed 802.11g standard by the second quarter of 2002.
802.11g is a hybrid that accommodates the legacy 802.11b, which offers an 11Mbit/s data rate at 2.4GHz, and 802.11a, with a 54Mbit/s data rate at 5GHz. Proponents say that after 802.11g is ratified, it will help to further drive the already skyrocketing growth for 802.11 wireless LAN networks. Last year, wireless LAN infrastructure sales exceeded $1 billion, a total that analysts expect will triple by 2003.
