4. Stupid Prediction Tricks

I'll probably end up wrong, but at least from the pre-show buzz, I can't detect any big theme or story similar to last year's coming out party for Wi-Fi Protected Access or initial salvos in 802.11g throughput enhancements.

I expect to see a demo of Broadcom's SecureEZSetup and maybe a quick look at its new power-amp module - both of which were announced last week - when I visit their off-floor demo room. But I don't think I'll be seeing any 802.11n / MIMO demos, even though recent reports say that products using this speedy technology will be hitting shelves by the end of this year.

Something else I don't expect to see are UltraWideBand (UWB) demos. Although UWB press releases have been flying fast and furious over the past week or so, it looks like initial UWB applications are more consumer video focused vs. anything useful for enterprise networking.

I will be on the lookout for WiMax products and info, but I think the pickin's will be slim. WiMax's hype has gotten way ahead of reality and it seems that cooler heads are pegging this long-range wireless technology as a 2005 or 2006 event.

On my walk through the LVCC I happened to notice an Atheros stand out in the hall that appears to be part of some sort of demo for its eXtended Range (XR) technology. I'll be sure to check this out, since Atheros has been hyping XR since its introduction last fall, but it's yet to appear in any products as far as I know.

The technology is supposedly baked into all of Atheros' current chipsets and therefore into NETGEAR and D-Link products that tout 108Mbps (Super-G) capabilities. But something is keeping that little ol' enable bit set to zero, and I hope to find out what.