Wireless for Home networking.

WiGig Alliance has announced the initial spec of the technology that would replace High-speed cable with Wireless for home networking.
WiGig would use 60GHz spectrum, to achieve data rates of up to 7Gbps, and retain backwards compatibility with current-generation WiFi devices. Literally, this would kill the current 108Mbps 802.11n spec for good.

Strong Backing, Technology

WiGig is working with the WiFi Alliance, and added networking giant Cisco to its board of directors, which all shows that technology is the future for our homes. Apart from that Intel, AMD and Dell, along with a handful of cellular companies, and some consumer electronics makers are all members of the board.

At this moment, the spec is not fully public, but as soon it does, we will find compatible devices operating of  three frequencies: the 2.4GHz chunk of the spectrum used by 802.11b/g devices, the 5GHz region used by 802.11n, and the new, 60GHz area of the spectrum that is currently not in use.

60Ghz is great for wideband wireless data communications because:

• A lot of unlicensed space in that region
• Almost zero interference (only few newer technologies operate in that region)

But at higher frequencies like that of 60GHz, signals don’t travel as far and are more prone to being absorbed by intervening devices and are very Line-of-sight centric. It would almost die on the edges and corners of rooms. But, WiGig plans on getting around by using beamforming. Beamforming is a technique in which we employ multiple transmitters. On a signal being transmitted to the recipient, its’ position is known, the signal is sent from each transmitter with slight delays in timing needed to ensure that it causes a constructive interference pattern at the destination. With constructive interference, the signal at the receiving end is amplified and hence works decently over 10-12 meters.

Replace the Cables, WiFi finally

We’ve been watching claims from industry’s leading wireless researchers, but none of them has provided a practical Wireless network to replace the current gigabit ethernet. This time things could play differently. A really high theoratical value: 7Gbps might come to 1gbps  (in the worse case). which is, still, very usable and attractive.

Today’s home Network is more demanding than ever with various file-serving and consuming devices, like NAS boxes, HDTVs, DVRs, and multiple wireless smartphones, notebooks, PCs.

There are a large number of MultiGigabit standards for the Wireless HD, but WiGig is more promising because of underlying technology that makes it: long range, low-power, and hence good for low-powered devices like smartphones.