The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers’ 802.11 Wireless LAN Standards Committee has approved a proposal by Tel Aviv, Israel-based Lannair Ltd to incorporate dynamic data rate switching into its draft specification for wireless local networks. The addition would enable the standard – based on 2.4GHz Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum radio – to detect when the connection is strong enough to boost transmission from 1Mbps to the 2Mbps speed on which the specification is based. Specifically, the proposal uses algorithms to determine whether the wireless signal is uncorrupted, and whether the number of retransmissions is low enough to enable 2Mbps transmissions comfortably. It provides hooks in the Frequency Hopping Physical Layer, which makes up the main part of the dynamic data rate switching mechanism proposed for the Media Access Control layer. The layer itself is based on a proposal made by Lannair, as a result of co-operation between Lannair, what was NCR and is now AT&T Global Information Solutions, Photonics Corp of San Jose, and Digital Ocean Inc. The proposals were incorporated into the specification at the 802.11 Committee’s November meeting.
