Analyst: Slow adoption of 802.11r affects VoIP

The 802.11r wireless network standard will likely be a useful innovation, despite slow adoption by enterprise users, according to Rob Bamforth, principal analyst at researcher Quocerca. The recently ratified standard, which enables WiFi devices to maintain seamless communication while switching between access points on WLANs, is a remedy for the original standard's failure to account for roaming access.

The standard will help VoIP adoption, because presently, VoIP devices have QoS and security issues because it takes 100 milliseconds to switch from one access point to another, according to an IT Pro report. The amended protocol will improve QoS and reduce the hand-off time to less than 50 milliseconds, a common industry benchmark for maximum delay.

Bamforth predicted that enterprise users would need time to integrate the new standard, however, and present investment in VoIP would be a major indicator to adoption speed. 

For more:
- IT Pro's full report on the 802.11r uptake 

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