Confusion about 108MBPS G?

Question

Does anyone know what's up with this standard and where we're headed? I know there are a lot of names out there for what seems like the same thing, I've heard it called Super G by some companies, Speed booster by others, etc. Is this a situation like in the early days of 56K modems, when we had US robotics out with x2, other companies out with 56K flex, and eventually settled on the industry standard of V.90?

Right now, I have a Linksys WRT54GS. I want to invest in a G wireless bridge, and a couple of wireless G adaptors for my PCs. If I buy

108MBPS peripherals, do I need to insure that they support so called "speed booster", like my Linksys or is 108MBPS the same standard no matter what it's name is? Thanks,

--Al

Airhead · Accepted Answer

headed?  Imodems,wireless108mbs is not part of the 802.11g standard. It is proprietory methodsby diffferent manufacturers. ALthough it should be 802.11gcompliant meaning that it should work at the speeds specified by802.11g and compatible with 802.11b speeds. I dont thinkthe WI-FI alliance does any interoperability testing at 108mbs becauseit is not a standard, so your best bet is to go with the same brandgear.

Lance · Answer

This is the way I understand it. There are officially recognized standards called 802.11a/b/g plus a couple others:

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Two big consumer wireless chipmakers (Atheros and Broadcom) have extended the 802.11g standards with their own proprietary wireless protocols to achieve faster data transfer rates. Atheros calls their extension "Super G", Broadcom calls their extension "125 High Speed Mode." However, both extensions maintain compatibility with 802.11g:

Atheros -

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Atheros and Broadcom sell their chips to networking companies like Netgear, Linksys, DLink, etc. Netgear sticks with Atheros chipsets, Linksys sticks with Broadcom chipsets. These companies are free to rename the extensions, so we have "108Mbps" (Netgear), "Speedbooster" (Linksys) and others.

So if you want to try to achieve these higher speeds (which is quite difficult in real life), it's necessary to stick with one chipset manufacturer. In a practical sense, this means sticking with one consumer-level company like Netgear or Linksys or Dlink or...

Lance

*****

Al Puzzuoli thought carefully and wrote on 12/26/2004 10:51 PM:

Daniel Bennett · Answer

As far as I know there is Super G, and there is Pre-N(mimo). N I think is the new standard that cannot be used yet until its ratified. Pre N is looking better than Super G. However it depends how urgently you want it. If you can wait however many months it is until the N protocol is ratified and N products appear then fine, if you can't and want 108mbps now, MIMO imho (pre-n) looks better than Super G, certainly in my experience. Better signal quality, and longer range. Though whether their quoted ranges are accurate or not I don't know. As for your speed booster link sys I'm afraid I don't know much about it. I would guess you need to stick to the same technology all round whether that be pre-n, super g or speed booster to get the full

108mbps as the implementations of 108mbps will be different.

Daniel

doug Jamal · Answer

108mbps, although doesn't appear to be a standard, you can obtain such

speeds with at least two different brands. The Netgear WG511T notebook

card attains such speeds in conjunction with the Netgear WGR624 as well

as D-Link's DI-624 and DWL-2100AP. I've tried various notebook cards,

but the Netgear WG511T stands out.

Euan Kerr · Answer

Lance  wrote innews:     Supporting Lance's view:The various vendors are breaking ranks to introduce go-faster features that differentiate their products and lock users into their brand. My advice is to not be taken in, stick with the WiFi ratified standards.

Confusion about 108MBPS G?

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