Wi-Fi Alliance Announces First Wi-Fi Certified 5 GHz IEEE 802.11a and Dual Band Products

Mountain View, CA, January 16, 2003 - The Wi-Fi Alliance today announced that the first round of 5GHz IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.11a-based products has passed the rigorous Wi-Fi interoperability certification testing. One of the products was a dual band product (802.11a and 802.11b). The testing was conducted at the organizations San Jose, California interoperability laboratory and began on November 29, 2002.

 

The following products are now Wi-Fi CERTIFIED:

Dual-band (802.11a and 802.11b) products:

Atheros AR5001X CardBus Reference Design Board / AR5BCB-00022A

802.11a products:

Atheros AR5001AP Reference Design Access Point Model AR5BAP-00021A

Cisco Aironet 1200 Series Access Point Model AIR-AP1220A

Cisco Aironet 5GHz WLAN Adapter Model AIR-CB20A

Intel PRO/Wireless 5000 LAN CardBus Adapter Model WCB 5000

Intermec MobileLAN Access Point Model 2106

Intersil Indigo Station Card Model ISL 37703C

Proxim ORiNOCO 5GHz Kit with the AP-2000 Access Point

 

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ has become the global symbol for interoperability between wireless LAN products from different vendors. Accomplishing this has required us to overcome several technical challenges, said Sarosh Vesuna, Wi-Fi Alliance Technical Committee Chairman. Any organization can make multiple products work together if they are based on a single silicon solution and a set of drivers. However, it is much more complex to certify for the interoperability of products based on several independently developed silicon solutions the way customers in the enterprise and home use Wi-Fi-based wireless LANs in the real world. Achieving interoperability between different vendors products requires a rigorous testing protocol. Only products that have passed this testing program are allowed to display the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ logo. This testing protocol is one of the reasons corporations and individual consumers have come to trust the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of interoperability, continued Vesuna.

Products that receive certification may display the following label (with appropriate checkmarks) on their packaging and promotional material:

 

About the Wi-Fi Alliance

The Wi-Fi Alliance (formerly WECA) is a nonprofit organization 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 802.11 family of standards. The Wi-Fi Alliance now comprises over 200 members from the worlds leading companies. These companies offer over 500 Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ products. For more information, please visit www.wi-fi.org.

 

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