Apple AirPort 802.11n plans?

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
With some pre-N products already trickling into the market and the 802.11n spec to be finalized next year, what do you think Apple's plans are for the new spec?



(For those not in the know, 802.11n is the successor to 802.11g (AirPort Extreme) and 802.11b (AirPort), offering wicked dramatic improvements in both speed and coverage area over 802.11g...)



And more importantly, what are they going to call it?



AirPort Extreme Extreme? AirPort Extreme 2? SuperAirPort? Hmmmmm...



Either way, a new base station and new cards are without question in the works, so another question is, how backwards-compatible will the cards be?



I for one would hate to get a Belkin PCMCIA card to get N in my PowerBook, preferring an updated AirPort card by Apple for the bottom of the machine, but given the new antennas required for the MIMO technology N uses, that might not be possible...



What do people think/expect/hope for?



Let's speculate! 8)
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 33
    Hmmm ...



    Airport ... Airport Extreme ...





    Make way for ... Airport Absurd!
  • Reply 2 of 33
    everyone who has seen spaceballs knows the next step is... Ludicrous speed.



    Airport Ludicrous!



    Fasten all seat belts, close all entrances, secure all exits to the zoo!
  • Reply 3 of 33
    bergzbergz Posts: 1,045member
    SpacePort.



    --B
  • Reply 4 of 33
    dave k.dave k. Posts: 1,306member
    Airport Ultra
  • Reply 5 of 33
    outsideroutsider Posts: 6,008member
    Historically Apple hasn't made similar upgrades compatible. Notice the difference between Airport 1 and 2, however I would love for them to deviate from past ways and offer an Airport "n" variant in the Airport Extreme form factor.
  • Reply 6 of 33
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Outsider

    Historically Apple hasn't made similar upgrades compatible. Notice the difference between Airport 1 and 2, however I would love for them to deviate from past ways and offer an Airport "n" variant in the Airport Extreme form factor.



    I do as well -- except the problem is that the new antenna design necessitated by N makes that all but improbable.
  • Reply 7 of 33
    Airport Extreme 2.



    So what are the new super-specs then?
  • Reply 8 of 33
    Airport Extremer to the Nth *ist Squared Evolution.
  • Reply 9 of 33
    The 802.11b standard helped to bring the wireless networking industry together by giving it a common foundation to build on, and the 802.11a and 802.11g standards helped address the need for higher throughputs, said Nogee, but another standard will likely address a smaller market and just be "icing on the cake".





    IEEE has informally assigned a group to investigate what needs and markets the next standard, 802.11n, should address, according to Brian Matthews, IEEE's publicity chair for 802.11. Throughput of the next standard hasn't been determined but is expected to be at least 100Mbps and could reach 320Mbps.





    "What exists today meets the needs of 90 percent of the market," said Nogee. "The more standards that are set, the more complex the market will become...It's debatable if people will even notice going from 54Mbps to 100Mbps in most applications."
  • Reply 10 of 33
    Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, Broadcom, Airgo, Conexant have pieced together (much like Voltron) to form ?WWiSE?, a group aiming to revise the 802.11n wireless standard before it?s set in stone by the IEEE. Basically the next flavor of WiFi we?ll get to deal with, currently n is spec?ed to run at 135 megabits per second and be backwards compatible with b and g, but WWiSE wants to push that speed up to 540 megabits per second. And more surprising than the numbers, these companies are all offering to license the patents which would make their 802.11n possible royalty-free. Not a bad deal, IEEE, may we suggest you strongly consider it over Intel?s similar, yet assuredly royalty-ridden proposal?
  • Reply 11 of 33
    Interesting. So this is actually a substitute for ethernet at consumer speeds.
  • Reply 12 of 33
    m01etym01ety Posts: 278member
    Belkin' Pre-N products, already on the market, boast:



    # 800% greater coverage than standard 802.11g

    Belkin Pre-N provides the industry's best wireless coverage, extending your range with improved reliability and fewer drops.



    # 600% greater speeds than standard 802.11g



    Also, if older G and B clients join an N network, the average speed of the network will not drop.



    Cheesy graphic:



  • Reply 13 of 33
    frank777frank777 Posts: 5,839member
    Great. So now neighbours on the other side OF THE CITY can hack into your computer.
  • Reply 14 of 33
    smirclesmircle Posts: 1,035member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Frank777

    Great. So now neighbours on the other side OF THE CITY can hack into your computer.



    It may surprise you, but with the advent of the Internet, even the guys on the other side of the globe were able to hack into your computer...
  • Reply 15 of 33
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Frank777

    Great. So now neighbours on the other side OF THE CITY can hack into your computer.



    Actually, with greater range comes greater security... WEP is pretty useless as wireless security, but WPA is pretty decent. By the time 802.11n rolls around, 802.11i = WPA2 will be ratified and (hopefully) implemented in 802.11n devices, and we'll be safe until quantum computing rears its ugly head.
  • Reply 16 of 33
    rara Posts: 623member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by earthtoandy

    everyone who has seen spaceballs knows the next step is... Ludicrous speed.



    Airport Ludicrous!



    Fasten all seat belts, close all entrances, secure all exits to the zoo!




    Cancel the three-ring circus!
  • Reply 17 of 33
    They've gone to plaid!
  • Reply 18 of 33
    That would mean ~300 Mbit/s... Nice for a home network!
  • Reply 19 of 33
    wmfwmf Posts: 1,164member
    AirPort Extreme could not fit into an AirPort slot, because the PCMCIA slot just wasn't fast enough to handle it. But the AE slot is PCI, which is over 1,000Mbps -- plenty fast enough to handle 802.11n. So the other question is antennas; you could probably use MIMO with only 2 antennas, but you might only get insanely great speed instead of ludicrous speed.
  • Reply 20 of 33
    m01etym01ety Posts: 278member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by wmf

    AirPort Extreme could not fit into an AirPort slot, because the PCMCIA slot just wasn't fast enough to handle it.



    That's ludicrous -- what about the PCMCIA cards offered by Belkin and Netgear and others? They work very well with 802.11g.
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