Last week I questioned whether it was premature of vendors to be encouraging business to adopt the coming 802.11n WiFi standard as soon as possible, but this week I discovered some are even pushing the new standard for wireless networks in the home.
Still reeling from the idea that a WiFi that is not even out yet and theoretically promises data transmission rates of up to 600Mpbs, it was somewhat of a surprise to hear Intel representatives endorse 802.11n as the best wireless network option for the home at this week`s Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.
Are these people totally nuts?
"No," they said, defending their position by saying the new standard specifies a minimum throughput of only 100Mbps, of which 30% would be lost to overhead of the protocol itself to reduce actual throughput to 70Mbps. In the light of this fact, I considered that the Intel guys may not be totally nuts, just a little crazy.
Digital era demands
Why on earth would anyone need a home network capable of such speed when most of us dream of accessing the Internet at a 70th of that speed?
Why on earth would anyone need a home network capable of such speed when most of us dream of accessing the Internet at a 70th of that speed?
Warwick Ashford, portals managing editor
Video was the simple answer. It would seem anyone wanting to stream video to several locations in a home would need a minimum of 70Mbps, but according to Intel, homes will most likely require transmission speeds of 1Gbps as digital content evolves and home networks expand to include around 10 different devices.
Clearly, I needed to get real and update my concept of a home network.
Home networking appears to be about far more than sharing central computing resources. According to Intel, at least, it`s about being able to push any kind of digital content to any room in the house. It recommends a combination of Ethernet or WiFi with data over powerline technology to ensure comprehensive coverage, meaning that even the smallest room in the house will not be excluded.
If the Intel vision is accurate, I wonder if anyone will ever bother to read anything in future? Will digital content make printed matter of any kind obsolete?
Home standard
Getting back to the 802.11n, it seems domestic demand may even be greater than business demand because of the envisioned needs of the "digital home" of the future. 802.11n builds upon previous standards by adding multiple-input multiple-output technology that uses multiple transmitter and receiver antennas to allow for increased data throughput.
According to Intel, it is the inefficiency of earlier 802.11 standards that prompted the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers to form a task group to develop the 802.11n standard with the specific target of being a wireless local area network for use in home networks.
Although the new standard appears to be heading for completion in the second half of this year under the guidance of the Enhanced Wireless Consortium, Intel says the final specification and certified products are expected only towards the end of 2007.
Building for the future
Assuming relatively few people will build their own homes between now and the end of next year, 802.11n would seem to be the best option because Intel believes it will become an important and pervasive wireless technology.
If, however, you are going to build your own home in the coming months, you will have to face the decision of whether to follow Intel`s recommendation to install Ethernet cable throughout. At least you can`t say you weren`t warned.
Fortunately, this is not a decision I will be facing any time soon. But if you decide to go for the Ethernet, I suggest you include the smallest room in the house for safety sake because you really don`t want to risk being forced into adding an 802.11n network at a later stage, do you?
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