You have to love wireless networks. They’re so easy to setup and use, which is one of the primary reasons for their popularity versus other networking techniques, such as powerline and traditional wired Ethernet. But accompanying the convenience of wireless networking comes risks inherent to the technology, such as the ease of cracking modern wireless network security protocols and the potential access to the data contained in your wireless signal by anyone within that signal’s range.
Despite its shortcomings, which in time should improve as new security methods are implemented, the development of wireless networking technology continues. While draft 802.11n devices have been available for years, only recently did the specification recieve final ratifaction, officially bringing wireless networking data transmission speeds to within 1/3 of the 1Gbps wired gigabit network standard.
Now, a new consortium of more than 30 companies has formed the WiGig Alliance, whose goal includes developing technology for “extremely high performance consumer electronics, handheld devices and personal computers that work together seamlessly to connect people in the digital age. WiGig technology enables multi‐gigabit‐speed wireless communications among these devices and fuels industry convergence to a single radio using the readily available, unlicensed 60 GHz spectrum.” The alliance, which today announced completion of its high performance wireless specification, is promising data throughput rates of up to 7Gbps (that’s 7000Mbps) – approximately 10 times faster the best performing 802.11n hardware. Additionally, the specification includes backward compatibility with all previous 802.11 WiFi specifications, so consumers won’t have to upgrade all their equipment in order to reap the benefits of WiGig’s speed.
Although the WiGig specification appears promising, there’s no guarantee that WiGig will develop into the next WiFi standard. Other devices that use the 60GHz band, such as WirelessHD enabled products, could gain popularity and displace WiGig. But if WiGig does gain traction as the next WiFi standard, it could considerably change the way consumer networking is done – obsoleting other less common technologies. With speeds faster than wired Ethernet, consumers could transmit multiple HD video streams to multiple devices simultaneously while potentially future proofing themselves for the next generation of high bandwidth content delivery. It’s an exciting technology to follow.
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