Performance not cost holding IEEE 802.11n from broad success

10/27/2008 6:32 PM EDT

Atheros has a new IEEE 802.11n chip set, the Atheros Alighn, that it believes will spell the end of life for prior-generation IEEE 802.11g products. The company bases its claims on the premise that "n" products are failing in the market because they cost more than "g" products. Rick Merritt covered the Atheros announcement in an EE Times story. Atheros is lowering costs by using a single antenna and spatial path for transmissions as opposed to leveraging the MIMO (multiple input multiple output) technology that is an option in the specification. MIMO boosts aggregate bandwidth via multiple spatial paths and presumably increases range as well. But I don't see cost holding back "n" products. The fact is that "n" products just haven't performed as well as "g" products.

Now the final chapter of the "n" story will not be written for some time. And building "n" products has surely been difficult given the long standards battle that was waged. But I know from personal experience and that of friends that poor performance has held the "n" products back and in fact resulted in many returned products including a couple on my part.

I do have a Linksys "n" product in my house right now but it is augmented with an older "g" product that ensures I can get coverage outside of the room the "n" product lives in. Frankly I don't know why I didn't return the Linksys "n" product. Moreover I recently bought a new router for my Mom's house. I didn't choose "g" based on cost. Rather I chose a "g" product that I knew would cover her entire house, porch, and deck areas.

Now Atheros may have solved the range problem that has plagued early "n" products. I guess we will find out when products based on the chip set enter the market. The company claims that customers have wanted to move designs to an "n" base but have balked at the MIMO cost adder. I can't tell you what those customers have said because I haven't been in meetings. But "n" products, at any cost, must deliver range to succeed in the market.