Contributed by Rafaeel Akbar Chaudhry

11 September 2009 -The IEEE today announced that its Standards Board has ratified the IEEE 802.11n™-2009 amendment, defining mechanisms that provide significantly improved data rates and ranges for wireless local area networks (WLANs). This new amendment to the IEEE 802.11 base standard is designed to help the data communications industry address the escalating demands placed on enterprise, home and public WLANs with the rise of higher-bandwidth file transfers and next-generation multimedia applications. WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 are widely deployed, with more than 1 million units shipping per day.

The IEEE 802.11 standard defines how to design interoperable WLAN equipment that provides a variety of capabilities including a wide range of data rates, quality of service, reliability, range optimization, device link options, network management and security.

The 560-page 802.11n amendment—**“…WLAN Enhancements for Higher Throughput ” —will enable rollout of significantly more scalable WLANs that deliver 10-fold-greater data rates than previously defined while ensuring co-existence with legacy systems and security implementations.

More than 400 individuals from equipment and silicon suppliers, service providers, systems integrators, consultant organizations and academic institutions from more than 20 countries participated in a seven-year effort leading to IEEE 802.11n’s ratification. Publication of the amendment is scheduled for mid-October.

“This was an extraordinarily wide-ranging technical challenge that required the sustained effort and concentration of a terrific variety of participants. When we started in 2002, many of the technologies addressed in 802.11n were university research topics and had not been implemented,” said Bruce Kraemer, Chair of the IEEE Wireless LAN Working Group. “The performance improvements achieved via IEEE 802.11n stand to transform the WLAN user experience, and ratification of the amendment sets the stage for a new wave of application innovation and creation of new market opportunities.”

Added Paul Nikolich, IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee Chairman:

“Everyone involved in the 802.11n process—and no one more than Bruce Kraemer, whose strong leadership has been instrumental from the start—deserves congratulations because this is a key data communications milestone and a good example of the consensus building environment 802 provides for its participants. The amendment will enable a dramatic leap forward in WLAN scalability with only a modest associated rise in costs for the industry and end users.”

For further information on IEEE 802.11n, visit http://standards.ieee.org/prod-serv/80211n.html.

About IEEE 802

The IEEE 802® LAN/MAN Standards Committee develops LAN and metropolitan area network (MAN) standards. The most widely used standards are for the Ethernet family, Token Ring, Wireless LAN, Wireless PAN, Wireless MAN, Bridging and Virtual Bridged LANs. An individual working group provides the focus for each area. Decisions by the IEEE 802 task groups and working groups will shape communications for years to come. For more information about the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee, see http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/.

About the IEEE Standards Association

The IEEE Standards Association, a globally recognized standards-setting body develops consensus standards through an open process that engages industry and brings together a broad stakeholder community. IEEE standards set specifications and best practices based on current scientific and technological knowledge. The IEEE-SA has a portfolio of over 900 active standards and more than 400 standards under development. For information on the IEEE-SA, see: http://standards.ieee.org.

About the IEEE

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.), the world’s largest technical professional society, is commemorating its 125th anniversary in 2009 by “Celebrating 125 Years of Engineering the Future” around the globe. Through its more than 375,000 members in 160 countries, IEEE is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Dedicated to the advancement of technology, IEEE publishes 30 percent of the world’s literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields, and has developed over 900 active industry standards. The organization annually sponsors more than 850 conferences worldwide. Additional information about IEEE can be found at http://www.ieee.org

About the Author:

Rafaeel Akbar Chaudhry is a telecom engineer by degree. He’s a serial entrepreneur, a social media analyst, a pastime blogger and an IT consultant. He’s also currently chairing the Lahore chapter of IEEE Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) and has won IEEE Region 10 Leadership Award during his student life.

Contributed by Rafaeel Akbar Chaudhry

Google Chrome has become one of the robust browsers out there in a short span of time. Google Chrome has been applauded for its clean user interface, speed, and features. Though it is claimed to be one of the fastest web browser available, but it is still in beta and lots of features are missing. Users who are not satisfied with the Google Chrome browser features have an advanced version of Google Chrome named ChromePlus to play with.

ChromePlus is a browser build on Chromium with all the features of Google Chrome and aims to provide the most easy-to-use browser based on Chrome. ChromePlus is produced by Maple Studio. Along with all the features that Google Chrome browser sports, ChromePlus comes with some added features such as mouse gesture, super drag, IE tab, context menu download support, etc.

Key features of Google ChromePlus:

ü  Double click tab to close page

You don’t need to locate and click the small “X” button on the tab to close it. In ChromePlus, you just double click the tab area and the page will be closed for you easily.

ü  Super drag

Drag a link in the page with your left button and drop it somewhere else in the page. This can create a new page (tab) to open the link; Dragging and dropping a block of text in the page will create a page and search the text with your default search engine.

ü  Mouse gesture

Mouse gesture is the arrow trace on the page while you hold on the right button of your mouse. In ChromePlus, you can make efficient commands with easy mouse gestures. Practiced mouse gestures can save you quite a lot of time and make you feel more fun.

ü  IE tab

Some web pages uses IE controls and thus can only run in IE currently. IE tab is designed to visit these pages. Just pay attention to the icon in the right of location bar.

ü  Download Tools Support

Download Tools Support – if you have installed NetAnts, Orbit, IS, FlashGet3, FlashGetMini, NetX, WebThunder, or Xunlei, you can simply choose any of them to download a particular file. Right-click on the download link to see the supported tools.

Most of the ChromePlus features are available in some form or another within other browsers. The IE Tab functionality is also available in Firefox which renders an Internet Explorer window inside your browser to give you access to those IE optimized sites without leaving your preferred browser. It’s not all that much considering all the potential you get from full-on add-ons (which are already beginning to find their way to Chrome, but it’s a decent feature boost if you’ve been wanting any of those particular tools added to Chrome.

ChromePlus is freeware and currently works on Windows only. It can be downloaded from http://www.chromeplus.org . However, users of 64 bit machines have reported problems on installing it on their Windows 7.

About the Author:

Rafaeel Akbar Chaudhry is a telecom engineer by degree. He’s a serial entrepreneur, a social media analyst, a pastime blogger and an IT consultant. He’s also currently chairing the Lahore chapter of IEEE Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD) and has won IEEE Region 10 Leadership Award during his student life.