J. Gerry Purdy, VP and chief analyst at Frost & Sullivan, recently wrote a short article about Strata8 Networks. The basic concept of Strata8's system is that it's a microcellular operator within a wireless carrier's larger network. The other important component is its PBX integration, delivered by Tango Networks.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Bluesocket regarding its forthcoming 802.11n Draft 2.0 access point. Although announced back in December 2007, the actual release date of its BSAP-1800 will be sometime in April 2008 and will be submitted to the Wi-Fi Alliance for 802.11n Draft 2.0 certification. This is actually the second access point Bluesocket has produced that incorporates MIMO technology, as its previous generation BSAP-1700 used MIMO technology to deliver increased performance to 802.11a/b/g clients.

To understand it as Cisco tells the story, you might presume that its "Enhanced Power over Ethernet" was designed on the drawing boards many moons ago. For those not familiar with "Enhanced PoE," it's Cisco's nomenclature for the ability of some of its switches to provide power beyond the IEEE 803.3af standard of 15.4 W.

At first blush it would seem as though the enterprise Wi-Fi vendor community has become a trend-follower and gone green, focused on saving power at every turn. But the potential power demands of dual-radio 802.11n Draft 2.0 access points have sent engineers back to the drawing board. The current PoE (Power over Ethernet) standard, IEEE 803.af, only delivers 12.95 W at the end of a 100-meter Cat5E cable, but without optimization, power consumption can easily be in the upper teens.

Powering the new enterprise-grade 802.11n access points continues to be one of the necessary talking points for vendors and an item of concern for enterprises. That's interesting because, before 802.11n, powering APs hasn't really been a significant discussion item. Some dual-radio APs (i.e., Cisco's 1200 series) have pushed the limits of some PoE (power over Ethernet) switches, but the AP always was well within IEEE 802.3af specifications.

Although mobile WiMax is as new a technology as any other wireless standard, there are at least two different vendors that have WiMax-capable USB dongles available on the market (Wavesat being one of them). Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case with 5-GHz 802.11n, even though SOHO manufacturers have been pumping out 802.11n-like product for over a year.

I couldn't help but take notice of the choice of words another publication used to describe the status of Morrisville State College's implementation of 802.11n Meru access points: "shakedown phase".

When Aruba announced its 802.11n product just over a month ago, it shared with reporters and analysts a shipping date of the end of November.

When Cisco made its 802.11n 1250-series AP announcement a few months ago, one of the more interesting aspects was its claim that the PoE capabilities in some existing desktop switches and blades for its chassis-based solutions would be able to power all the radio chains in its dual-radio 802.11n access points and that it would only need a software upgrade to access them. Cisco was intentionally vague in its communications and presentations. It wanted to present to the public the greatest degree of backward compatibility and support even while it was verifying the hardware capabilities and coding the software.

I've only read this in a mailing list and not confirmed this with HP's public relations folks, but it appears that HP will not release an 802.11n compatible access point until after the standard is ratified, which most anticipate will not be until the end of 2008, early 2009. If this is true, that means Nortel, who plans to have 802.11n gear available the second half of 2008, very late by their competitor's standards, would be in the game ahead of HP.

Organizations apprehensive about 802.11n have pointed to the lack of IEEE ratification and interoperability with legacy devices as two significant concerns. While the first concern won't likely be satisfactorily addressed for another year, thankfully the IEEE has made interoperability a key component of the IEEE 802.11n draft. But it's one thing for engineers to agree to something on paper; the rubber doesn't really hit the road until the devices are installed into production systems and put into everyday use.

Possibly because Cisco stated in its Nov. 7 earnings call that "Wireless and Networked home growth were both relatively flat," its wireless business unit made a point of highlighting the numbers from two analyst firms suggesting a much more positive picture, at least in terms of market share.

In my last blog I reviewed the rising use of 802.11a, despite pessimistic predictions and less than complete market acceptance of the standard. Organizations deploying Wi-Fi gear several years ago may have compared 802.11g to 802.11a and decided not to purchase dual-radio, 5-GHz capable APs, based on the fact that even though both offer the same data rates, 802.11a support added cost, had slightly less coverage, and there were many less client cards that supported the standard. And 802.11a was not picked up by all enterprise and SOHO vendors and there was much fumbling around. But 802.11n appears to be considerably different: it’s seriously regarded as the next major phase in the enterprise WLAN market offering significantly better performance, extended coverage, greater reliability, and vendor support on all fronts.

In discussions with vendors and users regarding possibly migration strategies to 802.11n, the question has come up more than once how to deal with 802.11a. For organizations that never deployed dual-band access points this won’t be a problem, but surveys and anecdotal reports suggest that perhaps up to 50% of enterprises have a dual-mode deployment (802.11b/g at 2.4 GHz and 802.11a at 5 GHz).

For those who closely follow 802.11n this is probably obvious, but each of the 802.11n vendors who has product in the field has chosen a school as their first public customer win.

The Wi-Fi Alliance issued a press release today touting the certification of over 4000 devices, of which 140 received 802.11n draft 2.0 certification. While this bodes well for the consumer shopping at their local big box electronics store, those in the enterprise space have a little less to get excited about.

A quick glance at the current list of 802.11n draft 2.0 products show that only two enterprise WLAN vendors are represented: Cisco and Meru. Colubris and Trapeze, both which announced products months ago, are missing. Colubris announced product in May. Trapeze, in a press release around the same time stated that their 802.11n AP is “Wi-Fi certifiable when the Wi-Fi Alliance launches its 802.11n certification program in June”, but that was almost half a year ago.

Two vendors can be given a little reprieve: Aruba and Xirrus. Aruba demonstrated some restraint by announcing their 802.11n products just last week and general availability at the end of November. Even though it hasn't yet been submitted, they are anticipating certification by the end of the year. Xirrus very recently shared some news regarding ongoing beta trials of their 802.11n product, having previously only shared an outline of their upgrade program. Xirrus’ PR representative shared that they are aiming for certification in the first quarter of 2008.

There’s no doubt that the vendors mentioned above, plus 3Com, Extricom, Motorola, and Siemens, will eventually get their product certified, but the Wi-Fi Alliance’s announcement this week is another data point that despite the years of anticipation through the IEEE committee and the months of vendor announcements, 802.11n is still in the very earliest of stages. Its one thing to go ahead with 802.11n product before the IEEE ratifies the standard, but to skip the Wi-Fi Alliance’s certification would appear unnecessarily risky. Even if you don't put much stock in the Alliance's certification process, it provides, at a minimum, a small indication of the vendor’s own confidence that their product market ready.

It's not often that vendors alert me of feature gaps from supporting products in their ecosystem. Many times vendors partner with them to build out a feature or functionality that will more effectively leverage their own products.

Networking vendor 3Com has not often been a technology leader and innovator, but more often considered a fast follower. In the enterprise wireless space the hot topic is 802.11n, and 3Com is in pursuit.

Aruba Networks made its first 802.11n product announcement this week by adding new wireless controllers and 802.11n access points, as well as incrementing its controller software.

Although rumored about weeks ago, there wasn't doubt in any customer or competitors' minds that Aruba had 802.11n product under development. Unlike many product announcements from technology companies, where there is a measurable element of innovation and ingenuity, the 802.11n product announcements to date, including this one, are in many ways merely the tangible culmination of several years of IEEE task group work. With standards the ultimate equalizer, vendors have emphasized their architecture, performance, and implementation flexibility as key differentiators. Aruba follows much of the same formula.

Besides regular vendor briefings and the occasional trade show, as time allows I also make an effort to sit on the consumer side of the sales process and attend vendor webinars in my beat area. I recently attended a webinar on 802.11n (by a vendor that shall remain unnamed) that provided a good technical overview of the principle technical features of this upcoming IEEE standard. The director of product marketing manager who led the webinar surprised me with his first multiple-choice survey question: "What is the main reason you are interested in 802.11n". Of the five choice he listed, there appeared to be at least one obvious one missing. Apparently the rest of the webinar participants felt the same, as their responses appeared to take the leader of the webinar off-guard.

It's amazed me how many people have asked me about 802.11n support in Vo-Fi handsets. While I'm a strong advocate of Vo-Fi, both for its increased productivity and potential costs savings, Wi-Fi support in this form factor has always lagged behind the laptop modules, PC card, and USB products in terms of security and radio support.

If you review the quote and marketing material from different WLAN vendors over the last few months it's pretty clear that there are divergent views on *what* 802.11n is good for. And it's much more than those vendors just trying to be unique for the sake of value differentiation, it's that they really do have a stake in seeing the market go their way.

Morrisville, N.Y., is a small college town about 30 miles southeast of Syracuse, N.Y., my hometown. It's a picturesque college town in rural upstate New York. Many people who equate New York with New York City can't imagine that such a place could exist. Not too long ago, I was looking at some old home movies my father shot back in the early 1960s, including one of my cousin Tom's graduation from Morrisville College. When I was growing up, we knew it as Morrisville Ag/Tech, a two-year school that catered to a lot of students who weren't sure they wanted to spend four years in college. Tom went on to enjoy a successful career as co-owner of J&T Automotive.

Besides going through the busy work of arranging for briefings at next week's Interop in Las Vegas, I've had the pleasure over the last few weeks of receiving some roadmap and pre-announcement briefings regarding IEEE 802.11n. For those keeping score, Xirrus, Meru and Colubris have all announced their plans, while Aruba, Cisco, Extricom, Motorola, Siemens and Trapeze have still to do so. I predict that by the end of third quarter 2007 most, if not all, of the vendors will have a story to tell.

Remember the battle between thin and thick access points? It's now been almost five years since Symbol Technologies, once the leading enterprise WLAN innovator, launched its Mobius "wireless switch," a diabolically deceptive name if there ever was one. Startup vendors Airesapce, Aruba Networks, and Trapeze Networks quickly followed suit, with similar product offerings packing enhanced functionality. The battle for best WLAN architecture continues to this day, and with new technologies like 802.11n and dual-mode telephony on the long-term strategy agenda of most enterprise network planners, the war continues. It's largely a battle for customer lock-in, because when it comes to enterprise WLANs, switching packets is a whole lot easier than switching vendors.