The next draft of the 802.11n wireless standard has been ratified and issues that slowed adoption are behind us according to Srini Pajjuri, an analyst at Merrill Lynch. Mr. Pajjuri believes that the standard will now accelerate rapidly in its adoption according to a story at the International Business Times on Monday.

The movement to 802.11n has been slowed by the drawn out ratification process and high chipset prices. However, Mr. Pajjuri stated that "We expect 802.11n chipset orders to rebound in the next 1 � 2 quarters and believe that a combination of maturing technology, declining prices, and other catalysts could drive chipset demand to about 30-35 [million] units in 2007." He expects Apple* and Intel will be responsible for much of the growth in 2007.

Recapping the standards, the 802.11g protocol has a peak theoretical speed of 54 Mbps. In practice, however, users typically see about 1/3 of that peak capability. In contrast, the peak data rate for 802.11n has been set at up to 600 Mbps.

The new draft standard, dubbed version 2.0, should go to the full IEEE 802.11n committee before February, and maintains backwards compatibility with the draft version used in current devices like Apple's new AirPort Extreme Base Station, according to InfoWorld. Bill McFarland, a member of the 802.11n working group, commented "It will only require a minor firmware upgrade for complete compatibility."

A final standard is expected to be ratified by October, 2008.

In terms of utilization of the protocol to broadcast HDTV in the household, as with the Apple TV, Mr. Pajjuri observed that "Cable and satellite set top box vendors have been somewhat lukewarm to wireless networking but competition from Apple is likely to put more pressure on them to offer WiFi enabled set top boxes sooner than later."

[This article has been updated with additional information about the 802.11n wireless networking protocol.]