August 23, 1999 Web posted at: 10:07 a.m. EDT (1407 GMT) by John Cox

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(IDG) -- A new industry group, of wireless LAN vendors, is taking a novel approach to the market. It's admitting there's a problem that blocks corporate acceptance of wireless nets.

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The problem is that wireless Ethernet products rarely work with each other. The problem is expected to get even worse as vendors race to bring out new products based on the soon to be finalized IEEE 802.11 High Rate Direct Sequence standard. This new standard uses the 2.4GHz radio band and runs at 11 Megabits per second, which is five to ten times faster than existing proprietary wireless nets.

The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA), which officially makes its debut next week, wants to change all that. The group will craft a set of interoperability tests and hire an independent test lab to administer them. Products that pass the tests, proving they work with other 802.11 products, will be branded with an Alliance mark.

Wireless nets have been widely deployed in certain industries. Overnight shippers, car rental agencies, warehousing operations and discount shopping chains all rely on handheld devices and barcode scanners linked via a radio connection to servers on LANs.

"But outside vertical markets, wireless was not ready for the general enterprise market," says David Cohen, product manager for 3Com's wireless LAN group.

"The key is [the new IEEE standard that creates] wireless LANs operating at speeds equal to or even greater than wired Ethernet," says Phil Belanger, WECA's chairman. "There's been a much more positive response from enterprise net managers to these higher bandwidths."

Wireless nets consist of a radio interface card that runs in the client device and an "access point" or receiver-transmitter that attaches to the backbone. WECA's interoperability testing will ensure that a corporate customer could buy a mix of these products from different vendors and be certain they'll work together.

The WECA tests will also address another issue: ensuring that a user moving through a warehouse, for example, and having to switch from one access point to another, will be able to do so smoothly, even if the different brands are used. This is a connection that the IEEE standard defines sketchily.

"We feel, based on preliminary discussions with our technical committee, that we will be able to do a successful transition between different vendors' access points," Belanger says.

At the Networld+Interop '99 Atlanta show next month, WECA will disclose at least some of the technical details of the tests, name the testing lab, unveil a more complete Web site, and announce additional members. According to Belanger, the IEEE is expected to give final approval to the 802.11 standard in November.