At long last, it looks like the 802.11n standard might finally get approved. Bob Heile, who heads up the 802.15 group for Personal Area Networks, fired off an email confirming that the IEEE 802.11n draft standard had been sent to the Standards Review Committee, PCMag.com reports.

"On other fronts, 802.11 was granted unconditional approval to forward 11n to RevCom," Heile wrote. "After a bit of a rocky period on getting acceptable coexistence language included in the draft, I was pleased to support this approval. Congratulations to Bruce for his patience and perseverance in getting this done. This was an extremely complex project."

And a time consuming one. The 802.11n standards process first began almost five years ago in 2004. Internal turmoil and political maneuvering put the clamps down on the process, even after a draft version of 802.11n was approved in January 2006. But come September 11, 2009, the draft may finally become a standard.

"We sought and were granted conditional approval to forward 802.15.3c latest draft to Revcom for its consideration at its Sept. 2009 meeting," Heile added. "A third and, we hope final, recirculation is in the process."

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