Just when you thought things had stabilised in the wireless market, another standard comes along aiming to open up the expanses of the multi-gigahertz spectrum.
The spectrum around 2.4GHz is packed with wireless traffic, and operators are looking to the 5GHz band to add new, higher-bit-rate services. But such are the projections for spiralling demand for wireless data that the standards bodies have put the 60GHz band on the agenda.
Marvell recently proposed making use of the data capacity of local Wi-Fi networks to relieve 3G network congestion, which has escalated in recent months with the growing level of data traffic from smartphones such as the iPhone.
The mobile chip maker proposes creating virtual private networks in residential and business areas to be used by mobile operators.
Public access
Wi-Fi access points using authentication could be used by mobile operators to divert traffic for access to the public internet or mobile core networks.
Now the Wi-Fi Alliance and the Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig Alliance) are working together on a standard for multi-gigabit wireless networking at 60GHz.
The importance of this is that it links the 60GHz wireless LAN specification being proposed by the WiGig Alliance into the established IEEE 802.11ad wireless LAN standard.
For the first time, it puts 60GHz networks capable of carrying data at rates up to 7Gbit/s into the product plans of wireless LAN companies.
This is the first attempt to open up this part of the spectrum for commercial wireless data networking and it will bring significant technical challenges.
Even ultra wideband (UWB), a far-from-successful attempt to move wireless data to higher parts of the radio spectrum for capacity and data rate reasons, stopped at 10GHz.
Bob Friday, director of strategic initiatives at WiGig board member Cisco, believes the development of the 60GHz frequency band is important for the evolution of wireless LANs, both in company networks and the home.
As with most wireless standards, the big issue will be interoperability of systems from various suppliers.
Already the WiGig specification defines procedures to enable WiGig-compliant devices to hand over sessions to operate in the 2.4 or 5GHz band.
The aim is now to ensure compatibility with Wi-Fi standards systems to support a move to even higher frequency bands.
“The WiGig specification was designed to work on a wide variety of devices, making it a compelling input as we begin to define our certification programme for 60GHz wireless,” said Wi-Fi Alliance chief executive officer Edgar Figueroa.
Phil Solis, practice director for Wireless Connectivity at ABI Research, said: “By co-operating, the groups have set a course for interoperability and backward compatibility that will accelerate the adoption and usefulness of multi-gigabit wireless networking.”
Next generation
The WiGig Alliance, which shares many member companies with the Wi-Fi Alliance, was formed to unify the next generation of multi-gigabit wireless products by encouraging the adoption and widespread use of 60GHz wireless technology across the world.
WiGig is the industry organisation looking at and promoting the use of the 60GHz frequency band and its members include Intel, Microsoft, Broadcom, Dell and Nokia.
It has published a wireless specification which defines wireless data, display and audio applications for Wi-Fi devices operating at frequencies up to 60GHz.
The specification defines tri-band enabled devices, which operate in the 2.4, 5 and 60GHz bands, with data transfer rates up to 7Gbit/s. This is 10 times faster than the highest 802.11n rate.
The key element of the WiGig proposal is retaining hardware and software compatibility with existing Wi-Fi devices.
Dr Ali Sadri, WiGig Alliance president and chairman, said the intention was to provide product development licences under royalty-free terms.
“With our new partnership with the Wi-Fi Alliance, we are one step closer to fulfilling our vision of a unified 60GHz ecosystem,” he said. “We welcome all companies to join with us as we continue to drive the industry forward.”