Re: Wireless N anyone

Silver Iris <Silver.Iris.2t6lp1@no-mx.wirelessforums.org> hath wroth:

>Do current antennas support the new wireless N standard?

What standards? 802.11n is not predicted to be approved until about
Sept 2008.
<http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/11/Reports/802.11_Timelines.htm>
What we have this week is Pre-N Version 2 Draft Specification.

As for whether a current antenna can "support" the specification when
passed, I don't know. The printed version of the draft specification
weighs about 5kg and is growing every day. By 2008, the spec just
might weigh enough to collapse the antenna. However, I wouldn't worry
about it as heavy duty antennas will surely be available.

>Can the full
>throughput of N be achieved through say a parabolic grid dish?

A better question would be whether the full thruput can ever be
achieved or demonstrated. Tests of Pre-N hardware on SmallNetBuilder
have been fairly disappointing. Also see:
<http://groups.google.com/group/alt.internet.wireless/msg/fec0d37cfcb1f5b7>

If it's long range MIMO, you're going to have a big problem. With the
beam forming flavor of MIMO, you can't screw with the antenna because
the antenna is an integral part of the beam forming system. In other
words, you can't substitute antennas, period.

With the Airgo flavor, the system relies on having multipath. The
different antennas all must have slightly different end to end path
lengths. You would need 3ea dish antennas, not one. They would also
need to be slightly staggered and be very carefully positioned. I'm
not sure about the timing, but as Pre-N v2 is NOT designed for long
range, you might slam into some kind of timing limitation. Note that
most MIMO infested products do NOT have removeable antennas.

Now that I've had my fun....
1. What are you trying to accomplish?
2. What do you have to work with?

--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558