The overwhelming majority of WLAN products in the world are Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ and for good reason. In fact, it is becoming increasingly difficult to compete globally without Wi-Fi certification, said Wi-Fi Alliance Managing Director, Frank Hanzlik. Based on testing of more than 1,000 products over several IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11 standards, products that are prepared for Wi-Fi certification testing fail 25-30% of the time or more depending on the technology being tested. Products that do not go through the rigorous testing preparation process have an even higher failure rate. Without Wi-Fi certification, these product failures would have been experienced by the technology consumer.
Although we are very pleased with reaching the 1,000 Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ product mark, it is important to remember that Wi-Fi is a very sophisticated radio technology that is continuously being enhanced. New features and the growing number of additional chip sets make Wi-Fi certification more important than ever to consumers and enterprise IT managers who expect reliable wireless LAN products, Hanzlik added.
The Wi-Fi Alliance currently performs four independent interoperability certifications including IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g and Wi-Fi Protected Access in addition to a combination of all of these technologies. A searchable database of Wi-Fi Alliance certifications can be found at http://www.wi-fi.org/certified_products.
Products awarded the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ logo have undergone rigorous independent testing at one of four labs in Tokyo, Japan; San Jose, California; Winnersh, UK; or Taipei, Taiwan. The Wi-Fi interoperability certification program has become the international standard for providing high-quality interoperability testing for IEEE 802.11-based products.
Companies obtaining Wi-Fi product certification in the past quarter include:
NEC Infrontia Corporation
NEC MiniPCI Module# UGJZ1-3
NETGEAR, Inc.
Nomadix
AG-2000w
Philips
Philips 802.11a/g WLAN mPCI reference design SA5250/1 mPCI
Planex Communications Inc.
Planex PCMCIA Card Model# GWNS11X
Planex 802.11b PC Card Model# GW-NS54G
Wireless-G Access Point / WAP54G v2
Pronto Networks
Hotspot Controller Model# PN-CPP202LE
Proxim Corporation
Proxim ORINOCO AP-2000 Access Point
Ralink Technology Corp.
Ralink 802.11b Wireless LAN PC Card Model# RT2400CB
Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
Realtek RTL8180 11M WLAN NIC Adapter-2 / RTL8180-NIC2
Sharp Labs of America
Sharp 802.11g WLAN miniPCI module CE-WL09
Sharp Access Point Model# HG-02S
Sony Corporation
Sony LAN PC Card Model# PCWA-C300S
MiniPCI PCG Series Model# 17617846
MiniPCI PCG Series Model# 1761784
Sony PCWA-A820 Wireless LAN Access Point
Sony PCWA-DE80 Wireless LAN
Sony PCWA-C800S Wireless LAN PC Card
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, AB
GC79 MiniPCI Card Model# FAE-1021011-BV
Victor Company of Japan, Limited
Compact Flash Card Model# MP-PVKCJ
2Wire 3Com Accton Acer Incorporated Agere Systems Airespace, Inc. Apple Computer, Inc. AT&T Belkin Broadcom Corporation Buffalo, Inc. G54 Bridge Model# WLA-G54 Cisco-Linksys, LLC Cisco Systems Dell Delta Networks, Inc. D-Link Systems ELECOM CO., LTD Enfora Envara | Fujitsu Corporation GlobespanVirata Hewlett-Packard Intel Corporation Intermec Technologies Corporation I-O DATA Device, Inc. Microsoft MICRO-STAR INT'L CO., LTD. Motorola |
See Wi-Fi at CES
Wi-Fi based wireless LANs will be on display at CES (CES Meeting Place, South Hall 3/4, Room 21960), January 8-11, 2004, at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV.
About the Wi-Fi Alliance
The Wi-Fi Alliance (formerly WECA) is the global Wi-Fi organization that created the Wi-Fi brand. A nonprofit organization, the Alliance was formed in 1999 to certify interoperability of IEEE 802.11 products and to promote them as the global, wireless LAN standard across all market segments.
The Wi-Fi Alliance has instituted a test suite that defines how member products are tested to certify that they are interoperable with other Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ products. These tests are conducted at an independent laboratory.
Membership in the Wi-Fi Alliance is open to all companies that support the IEEE 802.11 family of standards. The Wi-Fi Alliance now comprises over 200 members from the worlds leading companies. These companies offer over 1,000 Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ products. For more information, please visit www.wi-fi.org, and for information on Wi-Fi ZONE public access locations go to www.wi-fizone.org.
Press and analyst contact:
C. Brian Grimm
Wave Communications
for Wi-Fi Alliance
910.686.0870
briang@wavecoms.com
