IEEE 802.11y

From ArticleWorld

The IEEE 802.11y amendment is a part of the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, referring to the Contention Based Protocol standard.

The use and adaptation of the 3.65 to 3.7 GHz band was opened by the FCC for the public in the month of July in 2005. This band was formerly reserved for fixed satellite service networks. This amendment provides a standardized mechanism for avoidance of interference as an improvement over the previous versions of the 802.11 standard. The new version also serves to make the adoption of new frequencies in the coming future easier than before.

According to an official document released by the IEEE in March 2006, the 802.11y amendment of the 802.11 standards should support the long range 802.11 infrastructure and the long range mesh networking of mesh enabled Access Points (AP). The higher power which would be transmitted in this band would serve to ensure the actual long range meshing of access points truly practical. The standard aims to emphasize that it would be a missed opportunity if the higher transmitted power in this frequency band was not put to use.

Long range AP mesh networking application can benefit hugely thanks to the better rates which are enabled by the use of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. A multipath propagation system using several transmitters and receivers ensures improved throughput as a result. This standard, which happens to be an improvement over the previous 802.11n standard (which first used MIMO), allows for silicon reuse. Hence, deployment time and costs of development can be improved dramatically.

The 802.11y amendment also provides for preventing harmful interference to the FSS and Radiolocation Services, which form the primary users in the 3650 MHz band.