Although many hardware manufacturers are offering 108Mbps
products, these in practise rarely operate above 50Mbps (TomsNetworking
tests). High speeds are currently
offered using MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) or similar technologies,
this basically means that the devices use multiple channels to send/receive data,
this is pretty controversial as it means more traffic in busy areas and is
pretty much seen as marketing spin to keep people upgrading while real benefits
are questionable, especially as various manufacturers standards wiffer and are incompatible
with each other.
802.11n is now on its way, this will offer true standards
for high speed WiFi with Broadcom announcing its Intensi-fi chips are now
available in samplingThese have a maximum throughput of 300Mbps! Marvell, another manufacturer of WiFi chips
has announced that it also has 802.11n chips ready for testing, these have a
potential for working at up to 600Mbps!
Speeds like this will truly open up WiFi as a realistic
alternative to wired networks for high bandwidth applications, Voice Over IP
and even Video Conferencing.
