Things may be smoothing out for the much-embattled 802.11n wireless standard. IEEE committee members unanimously approved draft standard version 1.10 and laid the groundwork for draft 2.0 at a meeting in London last week, paving the way for WiFi Alliance compatibility specifications, and a wave of product announcements.

The first 802.11n draft, in May of last year, was voted down, leading to some confusion in the market, and several vendors marketing “pre-draft” 802.11n products.

According to a report on eWEEK.com, the newly approved draft clears the way for the WiFi Alliance to publish specifications. The Alliance's specifications in turn allow manufacturers to build products with full assurance of compatibility or, in many cases, upgrade the firmware of existing products for full compatibility.

With the first draft of the 802.11n spec squared away, and a second draft likely to follow quickly, eWEEK expects a raft of new product announcements, both from chip vendors Atheros and Intel, and access point vendors Asus, Belkin, Buffalo, D-Link, and NetGear.

Click below to read the full eWEEK story for more about the new draft, the challenges overcome in reaching it, and 802.11n products around the corner, such as Intel's “Connect with Centrino” blitz:

 
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