WLAN solutions from Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) have become a key part of the Wi-Fi Alliance's 802.11g testing program now used to certify interoperability of Wi-Fi products meeting the recently approved IEEE 802.11g standard amendment. All products submitted for 802.11g Wi-Fi certification will be tested against TI's TNETW1130-based reference designs. Additionally, these reference designs have been chosen as the sole component in the certification program to test mechanisms used to ensure interoperability in 802.11b and 802.11g mixed-mode networks. In conjunction with being adopted in the Wi-Fi Alliance 802.11g test plan, TI's products are among the first to have been Wi-Fi certified for interoperability with other 802.11g products.
TI's TNETW1130 device implements the protection mechanisms specified in the 802.11g standard that allows for interoperability of new and faster 802.11g products together with legacy 802.11b products, sharing the same 2.4 GHz spectrum. Without such protection mechanisms, legacy 802.11b products would interfere with, and be interfered by 802.11g products, resulting in a lower overall network throughput. Due to these mechanisms, consumers with 802.11g Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ devices can be assured that they will be able to enjoy the higher data rates of 802.11g with as little penalty as possible for sharing the network with 802.11b devices.
"TI has focused on providing 802.11g products with superior interoperability and high performance mixed-mode operation to deliver on the promise of 802.11g to be completely backward compatible with legacy 802.11b devices. This focus on interoperability has resulted in TI's products being used by the Wi-Fi Alliance for overall 802.11g testing," said Marc Cetto, general manager of TI's Wireless Networking Business Unit.
The TNETW1130 fully complies with the IEEE 802.11g standard amendment and is already shipping to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and original design manufacturers (ODMs) worldwide, now that the standard has been approved. Additionally, all of TI's 802.11b products implement the 802.11g protection mechanisms and are fully interoperable with 802.11g products.