It seems ridiculous that while the 802.11n WiFi standard is yet to be decided on and ratified, manufacturers are not only shipping products using the ‘n’ chipsets but developing next-gen wireless networking that builds on the draft technology.  But, crazy as it might be, there’s some damned interesting work being done.  After a certain point, you have to stop worrying about speed and through-put and instead concern yourself with the reliability of the transmission; the 2.4GHz band, on which the bulk of consumer wireless networking operates, is shared by legacy ‘b’ and ‘g’ type networking and suffers interference from microwaves, cordless phones and even Bluetooth.  To tackle this, networking manufacturer Atheros has developed a dual-band AP/router chipset, the XSPAN AR5008AP-3NX2, which uses both the 2.4GHz and the more-reliable 5GHz bands to better preserve data integrity.

While applications such as internet traffic, streaming mp3s and wireless printing, all less sensitive to bandwidth limitations and interference, are handled by the 2.4GHz channels, high-bandwidth and latency sensitive functionality like VOIP, IPTV and online gaming are all transmitted via the 5GHz band, in a process called “dual-concurrent networking” that can provide up to 600Mbps rates.  This will be supported out-of-the-box by Microsoft’s Vista OS, and a certification programme will highlight networking products enabling the process.

Eventual products using the AR5008AP-3NX2 chipset will be able to take advantage of its dual gigabit wired ethernet ports, twin USB2.0 and additional video, audio and voice interfaces.

Atheros [via eHomeUpgrade]

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