Just recently, the IEEE officially approved and ratified the long awaited 802.11n Wi-Fi standard as the latest official amendment to the 802.11 family. The approval came seven long years after the announcement of the specification back in 2002 after many wireless IC firms and manufacturers started deploying 802.11n Draft 2.0 gear back in Q2 2007.

In perspective, 802.11n standard improves upon the previous 802.11n standards by adding multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology as well as a theoretical 300Mbps throughput (compared to 54Mbps 802.11g). However, actual throughput speeds are more along the lines of 80Mbps and 100Mbps and should be able to handle the majority of HD video streaming apps and typically any task that a 100Mbps wired connection can handle.

According to Electronista, the extended delay in approving the standard mainly originated due to competing "pre-N" technology from Atheros and Broadcom and their resistances to finding a common ground for the standard. In 2006, the IEEE went out on a limb and decided to make plans for rolling out a draft spec in March 2007. At the same time, it promised that draft hardware would eventually be upgradable to the final standard.

In the meantime, several companies such as Proxim Wireless whose main focus is in scalable broadband wireless networking have already begun rolling out compatibility programs to ensure that Draft 2.0 hardware is completely compatible with final spec hardware that will we will see in the coming months.

Large scale deployment for the public masses and corporate networks have not been announced, but there are some interesting places set to receive 802.11n deployment. For instance, Morrisville State College in rural New York recently deployed the very first large scale 802.11n network well before the standard met final approval. As 2009 sails along smoothly into Q4, we are confident that many manufacturers will begin deploying some final spec 802.11n wireless ICs in time for some big product announcements at CES 2010.