alt.internet.wireless

"Jeff Liebermann" wrote in message
news:n58sq39aphr4cecbui7v6ts207q6fkp3c5@4ax.com...
| LR hath wroth:
| >The Wi-Fi Alliance, as usual, keep their interoperability test
| >procedures for Draft N under wrap.
|
| Well yes. The test procedures are their primary asset. If anyone can
| obtain the procedures and perform their tests, then someone might
| discount their rather high cost of certification (About $25K). Of
| course, that won't stop someone from trying:
|
|

| There are other vendors, but as usual, I can't find them in my
| bookmark mess.
|
| Meanwhile, I'm still dealing with WEP ASCII/BINARY conversion
| incompatibilities and regularly find wireless clients that can't seem
| to get a DHCP assigned IP from certified wireless routers. There are
| a few other big holes in Wi-Fi certification.
|
| So, when all the products are certified and largely indistinguishable,
| vendors are competing on the basis of buzzwords and unsubstantiated
| claims. That attract class action suits:
|
|
|
| Everybody lies, but that's ok because nobody listens.
|
| >As an aside I did find this web site which does have a pdf. of how they
| >did it for 11a,11b and 11g.
|
>
|
| Never mind interoperability. Just getting MIMO to work in the first
| place is somewhat of a challenge:
|

|
| Most of the vendors are assuming that MIMO will go the way of DOCSIS
| certification, where there is no interoperability testing between the
| DSLAM and the DOCSIS modem. Instead, there are certification tests,
| performed with a standardized (CableLabs) test suite, on each device.
| In theory, if they communicate reliably with the test equipment, they
| should talk reliability to each other. In general, that has worked
| well.


I have a native distrust of industry sponcered certification and
interoperability testing. My most recent experience was with the CTIA
certification of cell phone handsets. The process was quickly watered down
and the testing fees become a profit center for the parent organization.