Without any visible announcements or posts in wireless blogs, two very recent amendments to the IEEE 802.11 standard have gone unnoticed: I am referring to 802.11k and 802.11r.
802.11k – ratified on the 12th of June 2008
Amendment k is tied to Radio Radio Resource Management, RRM. RRM includes strategies and algorithms so that certain parameters can be controlled, such as transmission power, channel allocation, handover critera, modulation schemes, etc. An RRM system can use limited radio resouces in a more efficient way. An example of this in use would be seen during the roaming process: it would push the mobile device to associate with an underutilized AP instead of a closer one with higher signal but too many clients already associated to it, all in the name of better performance.
802.11r – ratified on the 15th of July 2008
Amendment r is tied to the roaming function, which is the passage from one AP to the next while keeping the connection alive. This feature has been handled in a proprietary and sometimes slow way up to now, and this is why mixing APs in a roaming environment can be risky. 802.11r is also called Fast BSS Transition (FT), and it allows continuous connectivity on wireless devices in motion, with quick and safe passage from one AP to the next in a seamless manner. This is a must for Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi) devices.
Now it’s up to wireless vendors to let the public know when their devices start supporting these amendments. Do you know any that support them already? Add a comment if you do.
