More Wi-Fi certification to get underway

Susan Rush
From the October 9th edition of CED Broadband Direct

The Wi-Fi Alliance is ready to kick off another round of Wi-Fi certification testing.

On Nov. 29, the organization will begin interoperability testing 5 GHz IEEE 802.11a-based products. The availability of multiple products based on the 802.11a chipset has sparked this round of testing, which will be conducted at the organization's interoperability testing laboratory in San Jose, Calif.

The laboratory will begin accepting products for the next round of testing Oct. 18. The Wi-Fi Alliance was formed in 1999 to certify interoperability of IEEE 802.11 products.

"This is an important step in the development of a broad range of future products, and provides the foundation for the dual band (IEEE 802.11a and 802.11b) product interoperability testing," said Sarosh Vesuna, Wi-Fi Alliance technical committee chairman.

Interoperability testing for 802.11b-based products began in March 2000. There are currently more than 450 Wi-Fi certified products on the market today, according to the Wi-Fi Alliance.