WI-Fi Alliance Certifies First Round Of 802.11g Products

Products that have received interoperability certification for 802.11g functionality include Atheros AR5001X Universal 802.11a/b/g Wireless Network Adapter; Broadcom 54g AP Reference Design - BCM94306-FAP; Intersil PRISM Duette Access Point Developer's Kit Model ISL 30300A; Melco AirStation 54Mbps Wireless Notebook Adapter-g Model WLI-CB-G54(A); Proxim ORiNOCO AP-600b/g; TI TNET1130 WLAN Cardbus Reference Design; and T1 TNETWA622-g10-DP Access Point Reference Design, according to the Wi-Fi Alliance.

The IEEE gave final blessing to its 802.11g standard in mid-June. The alliance then started testing these eight products, four access points and four PC cards based on chipsets from four silicon vendors. The Wi-Fi Alliance, Mountain View, Calif., is a non-profit organization formed in 1999 to independently certify interoperability of 802.11 products.

The certification is designed to ensure that people who visit locations using Wi-Fi certified equipment will be able to connect whether they are using 802.11b, 802.11g or dual-band 802.11a/g products. To date, more than 795 products from 110 companies have received Wi-Fi certification, which is designated with a Wi-Fi Certified logo.

802.11g's promise is the extension of throughput to a maximum 54 Mbps from the 11 Mbps offered under 802.11b, along with backward compatibility with 802.11b. While estimates place actual throughput connection speeds much lower, the new standard is still considered an improvement from 802.11b and a more affordable alternative to 802.11a.