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802.11g will be approximately 4 to 5 times higher than 802.11b
Date:
Topic R&D, Standards and Certifications
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From maccentral
By Jim Dalrymple jdalrymple@maccentral.com
802.11g transfer rate controversy meaningless, says Apple
Recent published reports that the final standard for 802.11g will be throttled down to 20Mbit/sec aren't an indication of any actual change to the spec, according to Apple's Vice President of Software, Mike Bell.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE), the group responsible for setting standards in the networking industry, approved a new and final draft standard for 802.11g wireless LANs. The standard was approved by the IEEE on May 15, but will not be made publicly available until members of the IEEE 802.11 working group ratify it next month.
Recent published reports that the final standard for 802.11g will be throttled down to 20Mbit/sec aren't an indication of any actual change to the spec, according to Apple's Vice President of Software, Mike Bell.
Bell said the spec has not been throttled back at all, and explains using the familiar 802.11b specification.
"802.11g is still a 54Mbit/sec standard," Bell told MacCentral. "802.11b is 11Mbit/sec, but your actual throughput is somewhere between 4 and 5-1/2Mbit/sec. The number that's quoted is the data rate that's used between the radios (raw data rate, which includes the protocols etc.)"
Although internal tests have shown slightly higher data rates, the actual data rate for 802.11g will be approximately 20Mbit/sec, which is 4 to 5 times higher than 802.11b. Bell said the data rate has always been around 20Mbit/sec and hasn't changed in the final draft standard.
Apple chose 802.11g because of its backward compatibility with 802.11b devices. Many of Apple's own customers in business, education and in the home use the original AirPort for their wireless Internet access, as well as the many wireless HotSpots throughout the United States that use 802.11b.
If you own an 802.11g Base Station and plan to allow 802.11b devices on your network, the changes in the final specification will actually be better for you, according to Apple.
"The only change of any substance is that options were put in place so that if you want to allow legacy 'b' clients on your network, they will co-exist better with 'g' clients," said Bell. "In fact, your throughput is probably better and smoother now than what it was before. There is absolutely no difference in the data rate -- it is still 54Mbit/sec."
Apple has maintained since its release that AirPort Extreme products would follow the final specifications agreed on by the IEEE and Apple's Vice President of Hardware Product Marketing, Greg Joswiak, said on Friday that commitment has not changed.
"We applaud the changes they have made in the final specification," said Joswiak. "As we always said, there is nothing of significance technically that we can't put out in a software update. We expect to have an update available in the future for the final specification."
Apple was one of the first companies to ship a wireless product based on the new 802.11g standard when they announced AirPort Extreme at Macworld Expo in San Francisco in January. Joswiak said Apple picked 802.11g because it was the best choice for Apple's customers.
"We could have chosen any standard we wanted; we had no obligations that would make us select 'g' over 'a' except it was a better solution for our customers," said Joswiak. "We feel really good about out decision, but unfortunately there are some folks out there that are making a last ditch effort to try to cause confusion in the market and that's really unfortunate."
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