Products announced are a wireless gateway/access point, wireless router, PCI adaptor and Notebook adaptor. They follow agreement on a draft 802.11n standard in January.

All the products rely on MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) technology: they use multiple radios to simultaneously transmit two streams of data over multiple pathways. This enable each standard 20MHz channel to carry much more data than in 802.11g mode.The standard also allows Linksys Wireless-N products to transmit over two available channels at the same time, effectively creating a 40MHz channel that doubles the capacity for applications such as high definition video, audio streaming, online gaming and Voice over IP. However industry experts have warned that this mode of operation has the potential to 'hog' the unlicenced spectrum used for all 802.11 systems.
This technique has been used in proprietary variants of 802.11g to boost speed in so called turbo modes, but according to a report in Personal Computer World, "controversy over this led some vendors to switch off turbo mode by default or to have it switch off when it detects other WiFi networks."

The channel bonding however is standard in 802.11n. Vendors have made claims for data rates of up to 600Mbps, but it is likely that only 150-170Mbps will be achievable without channel bonding. The Personal Computer World report quoted Paul Senior, vice-president of Airspan Networks, saying that it would not be possible to assess real world performance until certified 802.11n products had been put through interoperability tests.

Malachy Moynihan, vice president and general manager, Home Networking for Linksys, said: "A substantial number of products for both homes and businesses will soon depend on compatibility with Wireless-N to reach their full potential. Because of the importance of the technology, we have taken the unique step of conducting extensive testing with multiple vendors to ensure that the greatest possible number of them will perform at peak levels when interacting with our 802.11n products."

Two additional key pieces of the 802.11n draft specification are the requirements that products provide both mixed mode operation and backward compatibility with 802.11g and 802.11b. Mixed mode operation designates that, unlike previous proprietary networking technologies, 802.11n networks must maintain optimum speeds when operating with legacy products. Backward compatibility ensures that existing standards-based wireless products are able to work at their respective highest performance levels for that environment.

The Linksys 802.11n products are: Wireless-N Gateway (WAG300N), Wireless-N Broadband Router (WRT300N), Wireless-N PCI Adapter (WMP300N) and Wireless-N Notebook Adapter (WPC300N). All will be available in Australia in late May or June at recommended retail prices of $379.95, $279.95, $229.95 and $229.95 respectively. Linksys says that additional products for both the home networking and small business will be launched in the second half of 2006.

(NB - this story has been updated. It previously gave these prices as $US prices and said Australian launch dates had not been confirmed) 

Linksys was pipped at the post in the race to come out with 802.11n products by Netgear which announced early in April what it claimed were the first draft 802.11n-compliant wireless networking products. Products released included the RangeMax Next wireless router Gigabit Edition with 10/100/1000 Switch (WNR854T) ($US249) and RangeMax Next Wireless Notebook Adapter Gigabit Edition (WN511T) ($US129); the RangeMax NEXT Wireless Router with 10/100 Switch (WNR834) ($US179); RangeMax NEXT Wireless DSL 2+ Modem Router with 10/100 Switch (DG834N) ($US249); RangeMax NextWireless Notebook Adapter (WN511 ($US129); RangeMax NEXT Wireless PCI Adapter (WN311 ($US129); and RangeMax NEXT Wireless Access Point (WN802T) ($US249). Australian release dates and prices for Netgear's products are  yet to be announced.