802.11N Post CES-2008 - why we're still waiting
Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 09:51AM I've not deployed 802.11N yet - much to the constrenation of my customers. They want the latest and greatest, 802.11N has seemingly been out for years - and we won't support it....I was hoping we'd see new products at CES 2008 that would let us make the leap but it still looks unlikely.
Here are the basics:
802.11B and 802.11G only operate on 2.4Ghz
802.11A operates on 5 Ghz
802.11N can operate on either.
When 802.11N operates on 2.4Ghz, it uses 40mhz - basically the whole spectrum. The two protocols basically fight.
The solution is to push 802.11N only the 5Ghz and leave 802.11B/G on 2.4Ghz. To do this requires an access point that not only can do both frequencies but both at the same time. These still don't exist.
I've talked to Linksys - none of their routers can be configured for dual frequency. The new Netgear units don't even appear to have 5Ghz radios.
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