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WiGig Could Bring Massive Speed Boost to Wi-Fi

by Terrence O'Brien on May 10, 2010 at 03:15 PM

Wi-Fi Teams Up With WiGig
The latest and greatest Wi-Fi standard, 802.11n, promises to reach download speeds of up to 600 Megabits per second as the technology matures. It was only finalized in 2009, and before the seal on its certification has even had a chance to dry, the industry is talking up its successor -- developed in part by WiGig.

The Wi-Fi Alliance, the body in charge of wireless networking standards, has teamed up with WiGig, a collection of companies primarily concerned with streaming media, to work on a new standard capable of pushing data more than 100 times faster than 802.11n's theoretical peak. The technology developed by WiGig does have its limitations, though. It relies on the 60Ghz band of the spectrum, which is limited in the distance it can cover. (Current Wi-Fi uses the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.) Primarily, devices use the technology to replace HDMI cables and wirelessly stream HD video. Because of this, the Wi-Fi Alliance has said it doesn't envision the WiGig technology as a replacement for standard Wi-Fi technologies, but it would be encouraging hardware partners to support the standard.

While the Alliance has said that it won't be replacing 802.11n with WiGig, it's hard to imagine that consumers won't develop a case of bandwidth envy. The new tech can hurl data through the air at 7 Gigabits per second, providing more than enough room for HD video and more traditional networking tasks. The Alliance will have to overcome the range hurdle, but WiGig could eventually provide a viable wireless option for an increasingly streaming world. [From: Engadget and the Los Angeles Times]

Tags: computers, internet, streaming, top, web, wi-fi, Wi-Fi Alliance, Wi-fiAlliance, wigig, wireless

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